Chinese Smoked Pork Tenderloin Recipe

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Chinese Smoked Pork Tenderloin Recipe

I'd describe this smoked pork tenderloin recipe as Chinese style because we're gonna heavily spice the rub with Chinese five spice and finish off with a soy sauce and chili glaze.

Smoked pork tenderloin being seared on the grill

The piccie above shows the smoked pork tenderloin after the smoking phase and now grilling nicely.

Sometimes referred to as pork fillet, the tenderloin is a really lean cut of meat that is cut adjacent to the spinal cord of the pig. It's effectively the pork equivalent to fillet steak (filet mignon) and should be beautifully tender (as it's name suggests).

Because there's little fat on tenderloin, the challenge is to keep it moist through the cookout so this one is for the water smoker. We're also going to use a rub for the first stage of the cooking and then we're going to finish it off by searing the meat in a sweet Chinese mop for added flavor.

Serves:- 4 people

Preparation Time:- 15 minutes
Marinade Time:- 1 hour
Cooking Time:- 1 hour 10 minutes

Total Time:- 2 hours 25 minutes

Ingredients:-

1 pork tenderloin
3 teaspoons Chinese five spice
3 teaspoons soft brown sugar
3 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

For the mop:-

1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoon white wine
1 teaspoons chili flakes

Method:-

Mix the Chinese five spice, chili powder, salt and pepper together and rub all over the pork tenderloin. Set the tenderloin to one side for an hour so that the rub can really penetrate the meat.

For one hour there's no need to refrigerate your meat, in fact, if the tenderloin came straight out of the refrigerator before the rub was applied then this hour will serve it well to get it up to room temperature before cooking.

When the rub has had time to work, place your tenderloin in the water smoker for 1 hour at 225°F or 110°C and cook indirectly.

Whilst your meat is smoking, take a saucepan, throw in the ingredients for the mop, bring it to the boil and stir to ensure that all the sugar has dissolved. Put to one side and allow to cool.

When your hour is up, remove the tenderloin from the smoker and crank up your grill to a high setting. Flash grill the tenderloin for 5 minutes on each side and baste with the mop.

To serve, I like to slice thickly and drizzle over any remains of the mop.