Stuffed pork loin
Stuffed pork loin is one of my simple “looks like I tried” meals. You know one of those that looks really good and pretty. But it didn't actually take much effort to make.
In our March pork subscriptions we included a ⅓ of a pork loin. These are one of my favorite ways to get a loin but because it gives me so many options in just one piece of meat. I can stuff it, chop it, or just cook it whole.
There's a lot of variations on how to stuff a loin. I like to use things I already have on hand. I like including an apple because pork and apple go so well together but it also adds a lot of moisture to the loin that is known as a more dry cut of meat. The stuffing, you can use a box of stuffing mix or just toast a couple pieces of bread and chop.
First you take the loin and lay it long ways up and down in front of you. Take a sharp knife and ⅓ of the way down cut towards the left, then fold that part open and cut towards the left. This will fan out the loin into three equal pieces. Use your hand tenderizer and beat until about ½ inch thick all over.
In a bowl mix up one apple chopped into small pieces, bread crumbs, sage, salt, pepper and any other seasonings you prefer. Just sprinkle in the seasonings, I never measure, maybe about a teaspoon of each. Spread out across the whole loin.
Roll the loin just like a cinnamon roll. Use bacon strips to wrap around the loin to hold the loin in place. This also adds in more moisture and flavor as it cooks.
You can bake this in the oven or put on the smoker. At 350 degrees it takes about an hour to cook. I put it on the smoker at 300 for about 3 hours. That covered all the loss of heat from the kids checking on it too.
In my photos I accidentally thawed out a roast and not a loin roast so yours will look a little different. I don’t recommend doing this meal with any other roast because it wasn’t as tender. But it was still good.
A tip I have learned about any cut of pork and beef is that it is more tender when it is thawed out slowly overnight in the fridge.
