Grilled Mustard-Glazed Pork Loin

By RobinPD

Two surefire ways to dress up a pork roast are to give it a flavorful, deeply caramelized crust on the grill and serve it with a savory-sweet mustard glaze. Our Grilled Mustard-Glazed Pork Loin recipe has the best of both worlds. Leaving our boneless pork loin roast untrimmed added moisture and flavor—and scoring the fat kept it from tasting too fatty. For the mustard glaze, apple jelly was a perfect complement to the spicy crunch of grainy mustard, and both married well with the other glaze ingredients—brown sugar, garlic, and fresh thyme. To fully infuse our Grilled Mustard-Glazed Pork Loin with mustard flavor, we applied the glaze before, during, and after grilling.

Dijon and yellow mustards also work well in the glaze, but make certain to use apple jelly (which is translucent), not apple butter (which is opaque). Look for a pork roast with about 1/4 inch of fat on top and tie the roast at 1-inch intervals to ensure an even shape. Keep a squirt bottle of water on hand during browning to quell any flare-ups.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup grainy mustard
• 6 tablespoons apple jelly
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 boneless pork loin roast (2 1/2 to 3 pounds), fat on top scored lightly and tied (see note)

Preparation

Step 1

Open bottom vent on grill. Light large chimney starter filled with charcoal briquettes (about 100 coals) and burn until covered with fine gray ash. Pour coals evenly over one half of grill. Set cooking grate in place, cover, open lid vent completely, and let grill heat for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk mustard, jelly, sugar, oil, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper in medium bowl. Reserve one-third of mustard mixture for serving. Coat meat completely with half of remaining mustard mixture.

Scrape and oil cooking grate. Grill pork directly over coals until well browned all over, 12 to 15 minutes. Place pork fat-side up on cooler side of grill and brush with about one-third of remaining mustard mixture. Cover, open lid vents completely, and cook, brushing with mustard mixture every 10 minutes, until meat registers 140 degrees, 25 to 40 minutes.

Transfer pork to cutting board, tent with foil, and let rest 15 minutes (temperature should rise to 150 degrees). Pour accumulated juices into reserved mustard mixture and whisk to combine. Cut roast into 1/4-inch slices, transfer to platter, and spoon mustard mixture over top. Serve.