Pecan Crusted Honey-Orange Pork Tenderloin
Ingredients
2 lb pork tenderloin
½ cup honey
1 orange
2 cups chopped pecans
2 tbsp crushed black pepper
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 325° F
- Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice of half the orange into a small bowl or glass. Add in the honey and mix until the honey is fully diluted.
- Place the tenderloin on a foil lined pan (makes for easier clean up) and crush fresh black pepper liberally across the tenderloin. Drizzle the honey-orange mix over the top of the tenderloin and place into the oven.
- Chop the pecans into fairly small pieces. You want them large enough to keep a slight crunch, but not too large.
- Slice off small sections of the outer rind of the orange – do not get so deep as to get the white pulp. You want only the coloured rind. Slice the sections of rind into very thin strips and then turn. Cut the strips down to very, very small bits and mix in with the pecans.
- Remove the tenderloin from the oven and turn over. Drizzle the honey-orange mixture over the tenderloin and then liberally cover with the pecan-zest mix. About 1 cup.
- Place the tenderloin back in the oven and let cook for another 5 minutes.
- Remove the tenderloin from the oven and turn over. Drizzle the honey-orange mixture over the tenderloin and then liberally cover with the remaining pecan-zest mix.
- Place back in the oven and about every 2 minutes, drizzle with the honey-orange mixture.
- Allow the pork loin to cook like this for another 10 to 20 minutes or until it is cooked through.
- If so desired, at the last 2 minutes or so, turn on the broiler and broil to brown/crunch the pecans on top.
This will comfortably serve 4 people. I served it with black-eyed peas and Yorkshire pudding. The juices in the baking pan thicken nicely with a cornstarch-water mixture to make an excellent gravy.
The pecans add a slight crunch and the orange fully infuses the pork to bring a unique sweet-tart-crunch to this meal.
We ate it too fast for me to get a photo. I’ll try to remember to snap one the next time I make this.
