Cuban Pork Tenderloin
29 Jul
Have you ever tasted this super special, amazingly yummy sandwich called The Cuban? It’s a toasted sandwich with honey mustard, pickles, ham, pork loin and swiss. We have been to Miami and tried to source the best Cuban sandwich we could find…and we have also frequented Publix supermarket for its Cuban sub as a meal in a hurry–when we thought whole wheat bread and juice were healthy. Well….here is our version, sans bread and tons of sugar. We wanted to call this “Pork Three Way” since we’ve got a pork tenderloin stuffed with ham and seared in bacon fat…but we’ll just stick with Cuban to be P.C. We served this with sweet potatoes we had previously roasted, scooped out the insides and put in the freezer. Just add some cinnamon and orange zest and nuke in the microwave to re-heat.
Cuban Pork Tenderloin
Ingredients
- 1 pork tenderloin, about 1 1/2 lbs.
- 1/2 lb. thinly sliced deli ham
- 1/4 lb. swiss cheese, optional
- 1/2 c. dill pickles, sliced into long strips
- 4 T yellow mustard
- 2 T honey
- S&P
Method
Get your oven to 450ºF. To prepare your pork, watch this video:
Please notice right around the 1:40 mark of the video he shows the front side of the pork. Here you can see, on the left side of the pork, what is called the “silver skin” …it should be removed with your knife. Don’t worry about all the fat, that will cook away, but DO DO DO remove the silver skin. Salt and pepper both sides of the pork.
Mix together the honey and mustard in a small bowl.
This is the easy part, in whatever fashion you’d like, layer the ham, cheese and honey mustard into the pork loin. When you’ve gotten about half way through, add the pickle slices (going long ways). Make sure to put the pickles long ways so when you slice the meat, you get a little bit in every bite. I suggest putting the pickles in half way through the stuffing process because otherwise it’s likely to cause the pork loin to be over stuffed and not roll up properly. Once you’re finished, roll the pork up. Using about 4 pieces of butcher’s twine, tie the pork together–don’t worry about the ends.
Sear the pork loin over medium high heat (in an oven safe pan) in a bit of fat, until you see a nice brown crust on both sides. Stick the pan in the oven and cook until the center of the pork loin measures 140ºF– about 25 minutes. Let it rest for around 10 minutes, then slice and serve. You may want to make another batch of honey mustard to serve as a dipping sauce.
Mmmmmm. Pork 3-way.
This thing is freakin’ good. I was having a hard time not eating what I was slicing off for supper. I still kinda like the pork 3-way name tho.
Made it for lunch today, it was great!! My co-workers loved it too, so I directed them to the website for this and more yummy ideas.
Unleashing it on the kids next….
please tell me you didn’t do this in your office! that would be out-of-control!
I did. We have a fully functioning kitchen and when I have time I like to mess around a bit in there.
BTW – the kids loved it too!!!
Thanks for all you guys are doing.
this not only looks delicious, but you also did a wonderful job with the lay out or your post. We’ll have to give this dish a definite try. Thanks!
So the three of us bachelors tried (well, I tried, they watched) to filet this tenderloin properly with no avail; it came out kind of messy. Anywho, followed the rest of the directions except for the part where you need butcher’s twine, missed that bit :/ So it became this cubano mess as I plopped it on the baking sheet (oh yeah, didn’t sear it either:/) but boy oh boy did we enjoy it! Plus we live in Miami (Hialeah to be exact) so we know our Cuban food and this was DELISH! Thank you, Keatleys!!!
haha–i would have liked to see this! brandon’s grandmother lives down there and we’re always looking for good places. we went to OLA in january. pretty good. got any recommendations?