Who Wants Dried Overcooked Pork Tenderloin?
Pork tenderloin is succulent and scrumptious even when oven baked. If you’re not careful about how you cook pork tenderloin in the oven, it can dry out and taste tough and unpleasant.
So, I want to share with you how to cook pork tenderloin in oven with foil. It’s the best way to make your pork tenderloin juicy and tender when baked in the oven.
If you’ve never made pork tenderloin before, you may think that it would take a while to put together, but this dish takes less than an hour to prepare and cook and be ready on the table to eat.
I like to make a large portion of pork tenderloin at once, so I can have it ready throughout the week for lunches and meals. It makes for a great addition to meals of pasta, mashed potatoes, or veggies that can be whipped up in just a few minutes.
How to cook pork tenderloin in oven with foil so that it’s versatile enough for a variety of meals? My method is to not season it too much, keep seasoning light so it can be changed up as needed for whatever meal I’m making that day.
This allows me to try something different with it for each meal and to be creative and then to take the same dish and make it in different ways for different members of my family.
They all tend to have different tastes, and I imagine your family might too, which is why I suggest keeping the seasoning light to make it easy to variate your pork tenderloin later on in the week.
How to Cook Pork Tenderloin in the Oven with Foil
I’m going to show you my method for how to make a juicy tender pork tenderloin in the oven. There is a risk that it will dry out, but I’ll show you how to avoid that as well and to ensure that the pork tenderloin cooks in its own juices.
Start by pan searing your pork tenderloin. This simply means dry frying your pork tenderloin in a frying pan for a minute or two on each side.
You want the pork tenderloin to get brown. Pan searing pork tenderloin before baking it is very important, if you want the juices to seal inside the meat and make it juicy and tender.
You can then season your pork tenderloin before baking in the oven. I like to season mine with a butter herb sauce I make myself. You can buy your pork loin seasoning at the grocery already pre-made, if you like.
But it’s not that difficult to make it yourself with a few ingredients. I mix together butter parsley, rosemary, salt, pepper, garlic, and oregano. Simply mix all that together and drench the pork loin with it.
How to cook large pork tenderloin in oven with foil? Just take the seasoned pork tenderloin and wrap it in foil and place it on a baking sheet.
The oven needs to be preheated to 400 degrees. We are aiming for an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit on the meat.
You can check the meat when it is done with a kitchen thermometer to see if it reaches the desired temperature. If not, then it will have to go back in for longer.
How to cook pork tenderloin in oven with foil 400 degrees? You need to cook it based on how large the pork is. Obviously, the larger your pork tenderloin cut is, the longer it will have to cook for.
If I have a 2-pound pork tenderloin, I’m going to cook it using this method for about 25 minutes. Once again, though, I need to make sure it is cooked all the way through.
I always check the internal temperature of the pork or other meat with my handy kitchen thermometer. This helps me to avoid food poisoning, undercooked meat, and meat that isn’t hot all the way through.
If you have a bigger cut of meat like a four-pound pork tenderloin, then you definitely want to check the internal temperature. The risk with those bigger cuts of meat is that they may not cook all the way through in your standard cooking time.
As you can see, this is a pretty simple recipe to make. However, there is something you need to know about what to do with the pork tenderloin after it comes out of the oven. It is important that you let the pork tenderloin rest after baking.
If you don’t, and you try to cut it right away and serve it, all the juices will run out. Your pork tenderloin will lose its flavor, and you don’t want that.
You run into the same problem with a glaze. You need to give the pork tenderloin time to rest and cool.
How to cook pork tenderloin with a glaze in oven with foil? If you are wanting to preserve the juices and the flavor or the glaze of the tenderloin, you need to let your tenderloin rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting. Cut too soon and you lose a lot of flavor.
How to Slow Cook Pork Tenderloin in Oven with Foil
I also want to share with you a slow cooking method for pork tenderloin. This is something you can use with a large cut of meat. How to cook pork tenderloin in oven with foil per pound at 400 degrees Fahrenheit? You need to slow cook it, and that’s all there is to it. You want the meat to cook thoroughly, and slow cooking is the only guaranteed way to do that.
I want to share with you my method for how to cook 4 lb. pork tenderloin in oven with foil. You go through the same process for flavoring and wrapping the tenderloin and foil that I covered above.
However, you need to preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Then, cook the pork tenderloin in the oven for three hours. Your cooking time will vary based on how large the pork tenderloin is and how many pieces of tenderloin you have.
If you slice the pork tenderloin or keep it whole, that will affect the cooking time as well. Sliced and separated pork tenderloin cooks faster than a whole pork tenderloin.
With a whole tenderloin, you have a large piece of meat that takes longer for heat to penetrate fully. It makes sense that it will take longer for it to cook.
What to Serve with Pork Tenderloin
I definitely have my go-to foods that I serve with pork tenderloin. Mashed potatoes is my #1, seasoned with some salt, parsley, and black pepper. I also like roasted asparagus and grilled corn on the cob.
If I’m cooking pork tenderloin in the oven, I may just cook my vegetables in there as well.
I also like to serve pork tenderloin with fresh Italian bread, breadsticks, or cheese sticks. If I really want to impress people, I will whip up some herb crusted rolls.
Put a little butter in those and you have the perfect companion for your pork tenderloin.
Tenderloin also goes really well with some pasta. I prefer cheesy pasta or pasta with a white sauce for my pork tenderloin as opposed to a marinara sauce or some kind of acidic sauce.
For my side dishes with pork tenderloin, I always prefer something I can cook up and prepare in the same amount of time it takes me to make the pork tenderloin, or perhaps a little less time.
I always like to think of my meat as the main course and the dish that takes the most time. So, with this one, I’m looking for side dishes that complement not just in flavor and texture, but also in how long they take to prepare.
That has proven to be a good rule of thumb for me, and it may help you out as well.
