Tender is the Loin

Holy cow...I got to grill two nights in a row.  I wanted something light, and not chicken or fish.  I recently learned from Alton Brown on Good Eats that pork tenderloin is now leaner than boneless skinless chicken breast.  Still in the mood for something spicy from last night, I went with the Disappearing Tenderloin with Pico de Gallo on page 180. 

After some discussion back and forth between The Bride, The Cousin-in-law, and myself, I put together the marinade and pico de gallo.  The pico de gallo called for one to two teaspoons of serrano chile pepper.  I think I had three for good measure.  I was to be rewarded for such a move later.  Once The Bride arrived at home from work, I set to getting The Forge ready.  I pulled the tenderloins, applied the rub, and waited on the coals.

Here I was forced to make a decision.  I love learning about cooking from Alton Brown.  I watch Good Eats whenever I can, and have learned many a fine trick in the kitchen.  I've made grilled pork tenderloin following his recipes before, and his technique is drastically different from The Guide.  His method is high and fast, and the tenderloin is done in about twelve minutes.  The Guide suggests medium heat for twenty-five to thirty minutes.  When I was done waivering, I decided to stick to the plan of following Weber's recipes, and went with five pounds of charcoal for medium heat.  At the half-way point when it was time to flip, I realized that I might have choosen poorly.  I like a little char on my tenderloin, but this concerned me.

More on this later. I did, however, sneak one of Alton Brown's secrets in...I boiled the marinade for a few minutes to rid myself of nasty microbes that would spoil my evening, and prepared foil pouches.

When the tenderloins were done, I placed them in the pouches and poured the marinade back in.  Not only does this allow the juices to redistribute, but it gives the outer regions another shot at soaking up some flavor.

This yielded some impressive results.  When I reopened the packs a few minutes later, the marinade had spread out from the residual heat of the tenderloin, and the juices they were a'flowin'!  I sliced them up, The Bride made some quick veggies, we found some leftover New Potato Salad in the fridge, pulled out the pico de gallo, and plated it all. 

This was nice...the tenderloin was still quite juicy, but I would definitely flip this more than once.  The rub charred a little too much for my liking, and so next time I will try flipping the meat every one-fourth of the cooking time.  If this still chars too much, I will just go back to Alton Brown's method.  I liked the marinade and rub (so far I have been VERY impressed with The Guide's rubs) and the meat was perfectly done in the middle.  The pico de gallo was phenominal.  The extra kick from going heavy on the serranos was a reward.  I don't often enjoy mixing food, but having the tenderloin and pico de gallo in the same bite produces a vast array of flavors and heat.  As a side note, the New Potato Salad held up well.