Truly Juicy Pork Tenderloin

By KEM77

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup olive oil, plus additional for browning meat
• 1/2 cup red-wine vinegar
• 1 cup pitted prunes
• 1/2 cup pitted Spanish green olives
• 1/2 cup capers with a bit of juice
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 head of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• Small handful of fresh oregano and thyme, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 pork tenderloins, 1 to 1 1/2 pounds each
• 1 cup dry white wine, plus more for deglazing
• Low-sodium chicken stock
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from gq.com

Preparation

Step 1

Combine the olive oil, vinegar, prunes, olives, capers, bay leaves, garlic, oregano, thyme, and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add the pork and stir to coat. Cover the bowl (or transfer contents to a big Ziploc bag) and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the pork and wipe it off, reserving the marinade. In a medium roasting pan over medium heat, add a few tablespoons of olive oil and brown pork on all sides, for a few minutes total. Remove pork to a plate and add a couple of splashes of the white wine to the pan to deglaze the tasty bits. Turn off heat.

Place pork back in the pan. Pour marinade, olives and all, over meat and add 1 cup of wine and enough of the chicken stock so the liquid reaches halfway up the sides of the meat. Sprinkle pork with the brown sugar.

Roast, basting once with the pan juices, until an instant-read thermometer hits 140, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove to a cutting board. Let pork rest for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the roasting pan over one or two burners on medium-high and simmer to reduce the sauce a bit.

Slice pork into medallions. I like to serve them over a puddle of soft polenta. (Use instant polenta, but add twice the amount of liquid called for on the box: a mix of half milk, half water. After cooking, season with salt, and whisk in several tablespoons of butter and a handful or two of freshly grated Parmesan.)

Spoon a good amount of polenta onto each plate and place medallions on top. Sauce the pork and pass the remaining juice in a gravy boat.