Thursday, November 6, 2008

Thyme Coated Pork Tenderloin

The true purpose of the mac n cheese from the other night was to supplement a roasted pork tenderloin I had intended to make. However, the tenderloin was not defrosted enough for me to cook, so we just had mac n cheese.

Last night my tenderloin was ready to go. I have one complaint about pork tenderloin. Its very sneaky. They package it in a way that it appears to be one tenderloin, when in fact it is two. You would think that I would have figured this out by now, b/c every damn time I make pork tenderloin I say "Oh look there is two in here!" So now I have 2 pork tenderloins defrosted that I have to use before they go bad, which means they are both getting cooked the same way. Boring? Yes, but whatever.

I found Thyme-Coated Pork Tenderloin on Myrecipes.com (CookingLight)

Ingredients
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon instant onion flakes
1 slice day-old hearty white bread (such as Pepperidge Farm), torn
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

Place thyme, onion, and bread in a food processor; pulse until fine breadcrumbs measure 1/3 cup. Place breadcrumb mixture in a shallow dish. Place egg whites in a shallow dish. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Dip pork in egg whites; dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Place pork on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes or until a thermometer registers 155°. Let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
.

I made a few variations. I used a Lipton Onion Soup packet in place of the salt, pepper & onion flakes. I also had breadcrumbs on hand, so I didn't need to make my own.

My question to fellow food bloggers. I always cook my pork with a meat thermometer. While the recipe said 155F, I cooked it to 165F. So why was it pink? Am I paranoid & pork can be pink and still not make you sick? I mean, sure, a tapeworm would be awesome if I was trying to lose weight, but not so much while I a pregnant. Of course I gave the Hubs the pinker pieces, and he survived the night. I was just curious what others do.

And as a side note. I must have thought I was wonder woman if I was going to make this & the mac n cheese in one night. The mac n cheese took almost an 75 minutes to make & bake and this was in the oven for at least 45mins.

2 comments:

Average Jane said...

Thanks for this recipe! I, too, have been fooled by the double pork tenderloin, which means I have at least two of them in the freezer at any given time. I'll definitely try this.

Jagged Diary said...

Seriously woman...is there nothing you can make? BTW, I tagged you . See my blog.