Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

This bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe is the best pork tenderloin I have ever eaten—bar none. The sweet glaze is a perfect addition to the pork. Even the leftovers were good!

I increased the cooking time to 30 minutes to get the internal temperature to 155°F. I also used toothpicks to hold the bacon in place. Perfecto!

Dear Lord. This bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe was amazing! As someone who perpetually shies away from meat-heavy recipes, I went out of my comfort zone with this one. And I’m so glad I did.

Lucky for me, the silvery membrane had already been removed from the tenderloin, so it was a relative cinch to assemble the meat. The rub had a wonderful smoky aroma. I put a lot of effort into making sure the bacon strips were snugly fastened around the tenderloin. This is very important because things could get very messy while browning the meat on the stovetop if the bacon strips unravel.

It took about 25 minutes for the meat to reach 155°F. I highly suggest using a meat thermometer and not just winging it when it comes to the internal meat temperature. The finished recipe was fabulous. I served it to my boyfriend as a late-night dinner along with a huge salad. The apricot-mustard glaze was divine, and we have lots left over. Though it’d be delicious with lots of dishes, I’m seriously considering just making another one of these tenderloins to finish off the glaze.

I love pork wrapped with more pork! This tenderloin was well seasoned and the wrapping held the seasoning and added the smoky, fatty richness that is the habit of good bacon. The glaze worked really well in providing a sweet counterpoint to the savory pork and bacon.

Another “must-do” in my opinion is to use toothpicks to hold the bacon on the pork. Mine had a habit of unwrapping in the skillet.

Why so much glaze? In my opinion, the easiest way to resolve this is to just increase the pork tenderloin to two 1-pound pork tenderloins! (Oh, and double the bacon slices.) Any sweet and hot mustard will work. I used equal parts Dijon and hot-sweet horseradish mustard that worked very well with this. Almost any preserves would do—I tried it with ginger jam and got excellent results.

What’s not to love about pork tenderloin, especially one that’s wrapped in bacon? I found this to be an incredibly moist, flavorful, and easy dish to make. Of course it’s quite easy on the pocketbook as well.

I trimmed the fat and pulled the membrane off using a paper towel (just like I pull off chicken skin) and rubbed the pork very generously with the spice mixture. Then I wrapped it in bacon and browned it in a saucepan, which then went into the oven.

At the 10-minute mark, I spooned about 3 tablespoons glaze over the pork and cooked it for 3 more minutes. I took the pork out of the oven and let it rest for 20 minutes, and it was moist and tender. I could taste the flavors of the rub. I served it with the remaining glaze on the side. The rub recipe makes a huge batch so you only need about half.

This bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe will definitely be a staple in my home.

Wrapping a tenderloin—whether pork or beef—in bacon is a great technique because it adds fat and flavor to a very lean cut of meat. The entire bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe works well as written. The sauce is a great accompaniment. Its sweetness and spiciness really ramped up the flavor of the tenderloin and complemented the bacon flavor very nicely.

I was a little surprised that the recipe suggested ripping off the silver skin, which is pretty impossible to do since it’s so firmly attached to the meat. The alternative instruction to use a sharp knife is the correct technique which can be used with grilled beef tenderloin or any other cut of meat. As the bacon was being seared, it began to shrink and fall off of the tenderloin in several places. I stuck a few toothpicks in those areas, but now that I know this will happen, I will tie the bacon to the tenderloin with butcher’s twine before I start searing it.

Overall, the pork was very flavorful due to all of the flavor-enhancing steps in the recipe – the spice rub, the bacon, and searing it on the stovetop before finishing it in the oven. I really don’t think the internal temperature needs to be as high as 155°F. With advances in food safety, pork can be cooked to a medium-rare temperature of 145°F with a few minutes of resting time. The pork will be slightly pink but it will be more tender and moister than pork traditionally cooked to higher internal temperatures.

Not only is this bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe photogenic, it passes the taste test with an A+.

Ripping off the membrane was another one of those fun things to do and makes the end result so much better, just like ripping it off ribs when you’re making slow cooker ribs. It’s not hard to do, and using that paper towel to grab hold of it and let ‘er rip is the real secret.

I would suggest using a temperature probe if your oven has one so that you can guarantee that your pork is done exactly the way you like it. The glaze is a tremendous flavor enhancer for the pork tenderloin and this is where I would improvise. For leftover night, I added A LOT of whole-grain mustard to the glaze and it was even better, but I grew up on Creole mustard so that’s what I’m looking for. I used the Inglehoffer’s sweet-hot for the original version. I had never even heard of Inglehoffer, and there it was—an entire shelf of variations! I learned something great just shopping for this recipe.

This bacon wrapped pork tenderloin is pork-wrapped, glazed-up goodness. And not just because there’s bacon involved. My past attempts at similar bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipes have often lacked flavor and the bacon “steams” to a cooked state, lacking any crisp bits. This recipe solves both problems with equal satisfaction: the rub provides an additional layer of flavor and the searing guarantees a crispness to the bacon. Top it off with the baked-on glaze, and it makes for a ridiculously easy and flavorful main dish. Even the reheated leftovers the next day were perfectly cooked and remained moist.

I found the sauce to be heavy on the apricot preserves. The next time I make this dish—and I will do so—I would up the portion of mustard to preserves. I think this is a great dish—economical, easy, and versatile. I think it has real crowd appeal and is equally well-suited as dinner for a family of 4 or for a dinner party.

I have to admit, before tasting the finished bacon wrapped pork tenderloin I was a bit skeptical that there may be too many layers of flavor in this dish. You start with a dry rub of spices and seasonings, then wrap the pork loin in bacon, and finish with a glaze made of apricot preserves and mustard, all topped off with chopped rosemary. I’m usually a pork purist–meaning, I would probably simply season the loin with salt and pepper and flavor it with rosemary. Or I would just make the glaze to flavor the pork. I never would think to use so many layers of flavor!

All this said, however, after one bite of this finished product, my mind was completely changed. I thought the pork was perfectly flavored and, I loved dipping the pork in the sauce as well. The dry rub was very flavorful, and I was excited to have leftovers of the rub; I think it will be a nice addition to hamburger patties or a grilled steak.

In terms of preparing the pork, my tenderloin was already trimmed and not too fatty, so I didn’t need to follow the instructions very closely because it was already prepped for me. I couldn’t find the specific brand of mustard the recipe called for, so I just used coarsely ground Dijon mustard, which worked very well with the sweetness of the apricot preserves. My only changes to the recipe itself would be maybe a couple of toothpicks to hold the bacon on during searing or even wrapping the loin in kitchen twine? I baked the pork for 25 minutes to reach the temperature that we preferred for pork.

Overall, I loved the perfectly seasoned nature of the pork loin with the crisp bacon and the sweet-tart glaze—this recipe was utterly delicious. (Yeah for leftovers!)

Let me start by saying I doubled this bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe, as tenderloin is a favorite at our place, and one is never enough.

I dried off the tenderloins and, using a sharp paring knife, slid the blade under the end of the silver skin near the middle of the loin. Angling the blade about 45° upwards, I carefully freed the one end of the membrane. Using a piece of paper towel, I grabbed the free end of the silver skin and pulled up. Where the skin wasn’t coming free, I used the paring knife to make small cuts to the meat just under the silver skin so little meat was lost and it would come free. When the meat was all cleaned, I mixed the rub and applied it to the meat, having enough to apply to both tenderloins generously. I wrapped the bacon around them and preheated the oven.

While the oven heated, I seared the pork tenderloins and prepared them for the oven. Since none of my skillets are ovenproof, I transferred the tenderloins to a small roasting pan. I mixed the glaze and spooned a few spoonfuls over only one of them before returning them to the oven to finish. Everyone loved the rub and bacon. The pork had marvelous flavor and the bacon kept the meat very moist. One taster loved the glaze on the tenderloins, while three found it took away from the finished dish a little. I would say that in the future I will prepare the glaze as something to spoon over the meat on the side if someone wants it, but for myself, I’ll continue to use the rub and bacon on tenderloins, as I thought that was the best part.

This bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe was a quick, tasty dish. The silvery membrane on the pork tenderloin was easily removed using a boning knife. I slipped the blade between the meat and the silver skin and simply sliced it off. The length of the bacon and the width of the pork tenderloin did not lend themselves to simply tucking the bacon ends underneath the tenderloin. I overlapped the bacon slices and fastened the ends into the tenderloin with tiny metal skewers. Toothpicks would have also worked. I seared the pork for 2 minutes on the top, bottom, and each side, for a total of 8 minutes.

I cut the pork into medallions. Oddly, each medallion was pinker on one side of the center than on the other, even though I had cooked each side the same amount of time, over the same heat. Next time I will turn the tenderloin halfway through baking to see if that will alleviate the problem. Although the glaze that was spooned over the meat toward the end was tasty, we preferred not using the glaze spooned over the meat on our plates. The taste of the pork and bacon was wonderful on its own. We felt no need to gild that lily.

This bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe has wonderful seasonings, is finished with bacon, and put it together with a sweet-and-sour mustard sauce that makes dinner a savory meal with a little sweet kick.

The seasoning mix made plenty. I rubbed it on the meat and let it sit for a while for depth of flavor. Removing the membrane is fairly easy, the best knife to use is one with a more pointed end. It can be frustrating to hold the membrane while trying to delicately slice it off—patience is needed, otherwise some chunks of pork might come with it, but those can be covered up with bacon. The hardest part was wrapping the pork tenderloin with the bacon. I found it to be a little frustrating and would suggest securing it with toothpicks and doing it in the pan so you won’t have to move it after it is done. Cutting the bacon slices in half and wrapping them over the top and tucking them underneath the pork tenderloin would also work.

Mustard and apricot together for the sauce was such a treat and is now our favorite for pork dishes.

This bacon wrapped pork tenderloin is a great recipe! We love pork tenderloin, and this recipe has a great flavor range. It packs a punch–not your mama’s bland pork chops. Two thumbs up on this one.

The amount of chili powder was a bit much for my taste. In fact, I would adjust the pepper and paprika down a smidge. I love heat, but this was a tad overwhelming. You have the smokiness of the bacon and the sweet from the apricot preserves, but the heat sort of overtakes all that. I also thought the mustard amount could be a tad less as well–1/3 jar would have been enough. Again, just my personal taste.

All in all, it’s a great recipe.

I’ll start my review of this bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe with a warning to our gluten-free readers that the mustard specified in this recipe, Inglehoffer Sweet-Hot Mustard, is NOT gluten-free. It contains wheat flour. So you will have to do as I did and come up with a substitute. I substituted a mix of Dijon and coarse-grain mustard mixed with a bit of honey. The dish itself comes together very easily. The rub makes a bit more than you need. You could halve the recipe if you don’t want any left over. The cooking instructions and timing gave me a pork tenderloin with a crisp bacon crust and a pink center (about medium).

The pink center was offset just a bit towards the top. I believe the enameled cast iron pan I used to brown it continued to transfer heat to the meat in the oven, resulting in the bottom being a little more done than the top. You can avoid this by giving the meat another 180-degree turn right before putting it in the oven. The finished dish was quite good. The bacon crisped up nicely and, combined with the sweet, sticky glaze, made a nice wrapper for the pork. Using thin-sliced bacon is important if you want it to get crisp. The applewood smoked part is up to you—any thin bacon will work just fine. Served with the apricot-mustard sauce spooned on top and some roasted cabbage alongside, this made for a nice winter meal that was easy enough for a weeknight.

Do you have last-minute guests for dinner yet want to wow them with a gorgeous meal? This bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe is it! Everything about this recipe is fantastic. Easy, fast, and the final presentation is absolutely gorgeous.

To remove the tenderloin’s fat and silvery membrane was actually pretty easy and didn’t take long. I didn’t even bother with a knife. All I had to do is dry the piece of meat with paper towels not to be slippery, then carefully with my fingers it came right off.

The rub was also easy to put together. As I read the ingredients I knew it would be a tad spicy for my 5-year-old, so I decided to make 2 versions with 2 pork tenderloins—one just as written and the other with just half the chili powder and black pepper. That did the trick, as it still had a little kick but she was not only able to eat it, she devoured it. If your kids are not into spicy at all, I would suggest just adding half the amount of pepper and not bother with the cayenne pepper. Also, make sure to give them a nice amount of the glaze as the sweetness will mellow the intensity of the spicy.

Next time I make this, I will not use super-thin bacon strips because while I was wrapping the tenderloins the bacon was falling apart. I ended up using toothpicks to keep the bacon in place. Also, I would add 2 more slices bacon. Another thing is that due to the bacon fat, I think that 1 tablespoon olive oil will be more than enough. There was indeed a huge amount of glaze, but my daughter ate it by the spoonful. I warmed up some leftovers, and though the bacon was no longer as crispy, the loin kept its juices and moisture. Seriously love this recipe. Another thought for the glaze is to use it as a spread on bread with leftover pork or even cold cuts. That is, if you do not have a little one that has an obsession for anything with mustard.

We love pork at our house, and this bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe recipe was definitely a winner. With all that bacon wrapped around it, it’s tough to go wrong. I ended doubling the recipe since I had a whole tenderloin (just over 2 pounds total).

There was plenty of spice rub mixture for both tenderloins, with probably enough left over for a third. It was kind of tricky searing the meat with the bacon wrapped around it, but it helped to make sure that the ends were all tucked under the same side. Given that I was cooking more meat, my cooking time was much longer—close to 40 minutes. The sauce created from the preserves and mustard was SO good.

If you want to impress someone with a nice meal, this bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe definitely gets approval from me! It was very easy to put together, gives a great presentation, and has a lovely taste. The pork tenderloin was nice and tender, had a great smoky flavor from the bacon, and the sweet-oh-so-slight-bit-of-heat-with-hints-of-rosemary glaze is the perfect complement for the meat.

I prepped 2 tenderloins and froze one (uncooked) for another meal for last-minute guests. The extra glaze freezes great as well. I used a very sharp butcher knife to carefully remove the silver membrane. (I always slide the knife away from myself, never towards.) I used a fork to break up the brown sugar and mix the dry spices and I used 2 to 3 tablespoons spice rub for each whole pork tenderloin. Next time I will roast the pork tenderloins to 145°F as I thought 155°F made the meat a bit dry.

This bacon wrapped pork tenderloin recipe is a quick and easy weeknight dinner. Of course, those pork tenderloins come 2 to a package and there was enough spice mixture for both, so I cooked one and froze the other—trimmed, rubbed, and ready to go for enjoying in a week or so. The glaze added a lovely punch to the flavor of the meat.