Blackberry Pork Tenderloin

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Blackberry Pork Tenderloin is one of my favorite dinners to prepare. It’s easy to prepare for a small crowd or to scale up for a large crowd. The recipe takes a little preparation at the beginning to get it set up to roast but then after you put it in the oven you can walk away for a few hours. It’s delicious year round but somehow this dish just screams Welcome Spring to me!

This recipe was inspired by a trip with my husband to Charleston, South Carolina. We had a version of this pork at one of the fancy restaurants in the downtown area. I knew once I got home I would have to attempt to re-create the magic.

I ended up testing out several recipes I found online and ultimately ended up taking bits and pieces from lots of recipes and creating my own recipe and method for the YUMMIEST version of Blackberry Pork Tenderloin you will ever eat!

Also, it should be said that I’m generally NOT a fan of any kind of meat dish that tastes like fruit. Lemon chicken? Orange Beef? YUCK. But this tangy blackberry sauce is sweet and savory at the same time and it’s the sauce that just pushes this dish right over the edge into amazing deliciousness.

I’ll be serving this for Easter dinner at my house this year for sure. It’s our tradition for Easter in our little family. However, no need to wait for a major holiday. This recipe is pretty darn easy and would also work for an average Tuesday night too. If you aren’t a big pork fan it’s also delicious with chicken. And it makes delicous leftovers!

• 2 pounds pork tenderloin (probably 2 small loins)
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed (or 2 TBSP of pre-chopped garlic in a jar)
• 1 Pint fresh or frozen blackberries
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups beef stock
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
• 1 TBSP PLUS 1 tsp salt
• 1 TBSP PLUS 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 TBSP cornstartch (gluten free variety)

(I’ve included links with each item below, in case you need a reference for what I used for this recipe.)

• 3 quart saucepan, like this one.
• medium sized fine mesh strainer, like this one.
• 3-4 quart braising pan with lid, like this one.
• Aluminum foil

To begin this receipe, there are two components to work on at the same time: the sauce and the pork. You can work on both at the same time to multitask and get the dish in the oven faster.

First, I like to start the sauce cooking because it needs to simmer for about thirty minutes so that the flavors all meld together.

PS – This is my favorite picture from making this entire recipe. It looks so gorgeous with all the ingredients just thrown in the pot!

Put all the sauce ingredients in a 3 quart pot and bring to a boil. Sauce ingredients are the garlic, blackberries, vinegar, brown sugar, beef stock, thyme, rosemary and salt (only 1 teaspoon!) and pepper (only 1 teaspoon!).

*NOTE – As seen in the picture above, no need to chop anything into small pieces, just throw it in whole. We will strain this sauce before you serve it over the pork.

Turn down the heat to simmer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, the sauce will still be very liquidy and that’s how you want it to be.

Preheat your oven to 325°. It takes a little bit for our oven to warm up.

In the meantime, in a heavy pan that can go from stove to the oven that has a lid (I use a shallow dutch oven), drizzle the oil in the pan and turn it on to high heat.

Generously salt and pepper your pork tenderloin on all sides with the remaining tablespoon of salt and pepper. Wait for the oil to be rippling/wafting hot and then place your pork tenderloin down on one side to sear. When the meat releases easily from the pan, flip it to the other side. Continue flipping the pork until all sides are browned and seared. This locks in the moisture and makes for great flavor for your pork.

Once the pork is browned/seared on all sides, remove the pork from the pan and remove the pan from the heat for a few moments.

By now, your blackberry sauce should be done simmering. Remove it from the heat and pour the sauce through a fine mesh strainer into a heat-safe bowl or another pot. Discard the contents of the strainer. This leaves you with a nice, smooth blackberry sauce.

Step 6 – Combine the Sauce and Pork

Put your braising pan back on the heat and pour the blackberry sauce into the braising pan. Stir the sauce around in the pan and scrape up any pieces of pork and brown bits that are stuck to the pan (this is flavor!). Put the pork back into the pan with the sauce.Pour all of the blackberry sauce into the pan with the pork tenderloin.

Step 7 – Roast the Pork with Sauce

Put the lid onto the braising pan and put the pan into your 325° oven and let cook for about 2.5 hours. (I had 2 small tenderloins that weighed a total of 2.0 pounds, and I ended up cooking mine on 325° for about 2.5 hours, turning the pork over about halfway through. I like to cook mine low and slow so that the meat is just falling apart and so delicious.)

After an hour and fifteen minutes, flip the pork tenderloin over so the other side cooks in the sauce.

When the pork is done, I remove it from the oven and turn the oven off. I gently pull the pork out of the pan, put it on a plate and cover it with aluminum foil to let it rest for a few minutes. The foil will keep the pork warm.

Leave the blackberry sauce in the pan, and put it back on the stove. The sauce has cooked for a good long while already, but I like to thicken it up so it’s gooey and thick on top of the sliced pork.

To thicken it up, bring it to a boil, add in a cornstartch slurry (1 TBSP of cornstarch stirred together with 1 TBSP of water until smooth). Once the sauce begins to thicken, I turn the heat down and stir another minute and then remove from heat.

While the sauce rests and thickens for a moment, go ahead and slice up your pork and put it onto plates. Then drizzle as much or as little sauce over your pork as you would like. It’s totally heaven, so I recommend a lot.

I like to serve this dish with simple roasted carrots and garlic mashed potatoes. I could get expelled from living in the South for saying this, but I use an instant mashed potato pack that has the roasted garlic flavor. They are delcious and I’m not even a little sorry!

In conclusion, this meal takes a little work, but it’s totally worth the effort. It makes an amazing dish with a real “wow” factor. But really, it’s a pretty simple fake out. It’s really not complicated at all! I hope you will make this dish for your family soon and that you all enjoy it as much as we do!