- 31 minutes ago
Short on time but still want a comforting, satisfying dinner? In this video, Nicole shares five easy pork tenderloin dinners that are perfect for busy weeknights. These recipes keep prep simple and cook times manageable, while still delivering big, craveable flavors the whole table will love. Nicole kicks things off with Pork Spiedini, a crispy, golden dish that feels a little special but comes together quickly. Next is Havana Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin, a set-it-and-forget-it option with bold, Cuban-inspired flavors that’s ready when you are. For a fast, hands-off dinner, she makes Air Fryer Pork Tenderloin—juicy, tender, and perfect for weeknights when time is tight. Then it’s Sweet and Sour Pork, a takeout-style favorite made easy at home with a balanced sweet-tangy sauce. Nicole finishes with Fried Pork Cutlets, a classic comfort dish with a crispy coating that cooks up fast and pairs with just about anything.
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00:00Pork tenderloin is the star of the show today. It's versatile, it's inexpensive, and it's going to make for some flavorful dinners.
00:07This is a protein I think we don't buy enough of. They're always on sale, but even if they're not on sale, they're inexpensive.
00:13You're talking about 13 bucks to feed your family.
00:17I'm starting with pork spadini. This is a dish that I made with chicken.
00:22It went viral on social. Haven't made it in a while. I thought pork tenderloin would be the perfect vessel to create the same dish.
00:28This is a lemon garlic butter spadini. Spadini is a classic Italian dish that is meat that has been coated in delicious breadcrumbs and cheese and then threaded onto a skewer and then cooked.
00:41Usually it is done on a grill or in a skillet. Cooking these in the air fryer. Cooks quickly, perfectly. Still gets crispy on the outside.
00:50They usually come packed like this where there are two in a pack. I definitely don't prefer the pre-marinated ones.
00:59It just kind of like changes the texture of the meat. There's just a lot more to do with your pork tenderloin than just simply throw it on the grill or in the oven.
01:06First thing you want to do is just remove the silver skin. It's just a little bit of a tough area on the pork tenderloin.
01:12And you just want to take a knife, super thin, and kind of point it upwards and just go just under that skin.
01:18I'm going to slice these pork tenderloin into more like kind of bite-sized pieces.
01:22I remember when I made this for the first time, I'm like, I've been Italian my whole life and no one has ever told me about this.
01:28Like, why has my mom not made these before?
01:30I love this recipe because it's really just the something different you can do with something you cook all the time.
01:35As a matter of fact, all these recipes I'm giving you today are like, I didn't know pork tenderloin was so versatile.
01:40It is. So we're just making a light little quick marinade, extra virgin olive oil, a little white wine, the zest and juice of a lemon.
01:51And then we're going to highlight the lemon later by making the garlic butter to drizzle over.
01:55And it has the acid from the lemon and the wine, so this is not a long marinade.
01:59It's not something you want to do the night before. It's going to kind of start cooking that meat.
02:03So this is just about 30 minutes to an hour.
02:05It's the perfect thing to kind of get going while you prep everything else for dinner.
02:09Now for some flavorings, some garlic, crushed red pepper, a little oregano, and then salt and pepper.
02:16I'd like to think you have all these things on hand, so all you really have to buy is the pork.
02:20All right, then we're just going to toss the pork into there and let it go for about half an hour.
02:27It does not take long. This pork is cut small, super tender.
02:32It does not take long for it to absorb these good flavors.
02:35I just like to cover it and then keep it in the fridge while it merits.
02:38Now for the fun.
02:40Skewers.
02:41Spadini means something about being on a stick.
02:44I'm going to bread these in a combination of breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan cheese.
02:48I'm doing equal parts panko and Italian breadcrumbs because I like the crunch that the panko gives,
02:54but the flavor of the Italian.
02:55I'm also going to add in a little garlic powder just to kind of heighten that garlic experience.
02:59Yes, that's citrus.
03:01You can already see how it's kind of like started to cook the outside surface of the meat,
03:05and you're just going to coat it in this breadcrumb.
03:09This is also creating a coating to where that sauce at the end is really going to stick to it.
03:13Then take your skewers.
03:15You can kind of like fold it over to fit or even kind of roll it.
03:20You could do this part ahead of time as long as it's not sitting in that marinade for too long.
03:24You could prep this part and then leave them in the fridge until you're ready.
03:28Just going to give them a little spritz with some oil spray just so they get extra crispy.
03:33You can go about 390 or 400, and you're going to go about 10 to 12 minutes.
03:38All right, for the sauce, we're doing lemon garlic butter.
03:41So I've got four tablespoons of butter melted.
03:43Going to go in with a little more garlic.
03:45I like using the garlic press because it really gets it finely minced,
03:48and you don't want like a big chunk of garlic in there.
03:51A little more lemon juice.
03:52A pinch of salt.
03:53Some parsley.
03:57All right, look at these.
04:00Beautiful.
04:01Something like something else, I'll tell you what.
04:03Smells so good.
04:04I mean, you just took a simple, humble pork tenderloin and turned it into something real fancy.
04:09All right, you take these delicious skewers and then drizzle them with that garlic butter.
04:14Yo.
04:15To turn this into a complete dinner, I like to serve it with something to absorb that delicious garlic butter.
04:22Get a salad and your skewer and your garlic butter.
04:27You've never had pork tenderloin like this before.
04:29I'm going straight in without even a fork.
04:33I'm going to try it with pork tenderloin.
04:34I'm going to try it with pork tenderloin.
04:38Mmm, so tender, so flavorful, quite possibly the best bite of pork tenderloin I've ever had.
04:45We started off with one so good, it's going to be hard to beat, but I'm going to try it.
04:48Breaking out the crock pot for this next one, Havana slow cooker pork tenderloin.
04:53Pork tenderloin actually does very well in the slow cooker.
04:56Now, just like chicken, you can overcook it to where it's like beef jerky.
05:02But we're not going to do that.
05:03It's going to be tender, it's going to kind of shred, fall apart, that's what we're looking for.
05:07With this pork tenderloin, we are going to make Cuban style bowls.
05:11So rice, black beans, a lot of flavor going on.
05:15My mouth's already watering.
05:16I'm just going to stick these right on in.
05:19You know, when you're thinking about Cuban style anything, it always has that fresh citrus in there.
05:24My favorite part.
05:26So I've got some fresh orange juice, going to do about half a cup, fresh as best here goes.
05:32Also the juice of a lemon, a little bit of red wine vinegar, some cumin, adds that kind of smoky earthiness.
05:39It's supposed to be cause for some steak seasoning, why not?
05:43A little bit of heat, this is cayenne, salt and pepper, and then lots of garlic.
05:48Toss this all together, add in some bay leaves, and then it says to put in some lemon peel,
05:55a little onion sliced up, thrown on top.
05:58That's going to be my favorite part.
05:59That's it.
06:00Now it just goes low and slow until it's very tender.
06:03Oh, don't hear.
06:04Y'all get mad when I lock that lid.
06:06Look at that juicy deliciousness.
06:08I wish you could smell it.
06:11I'm just going to give a little taste.
06:13Oh yeah, it falls apart.
06:15That's incredible.
06:24I'm going to do some cilantro lime rice.
06:26Remember, we have that bright citrus in there, the lemon and the orange, and that's just going
06:31to go perfectly. And of course, some good like Cuban style black beans, good and creamy.
06:38Gosh, this is going to be dinner tonight.
06:40I'm just going to put this here and then kind of shred it up.
06:43Look at that.
06:44So tender and it's so juicy.
06:47See, it's like people just think you should just slice up pork tenderloin and serve it that way.
06:52Shreds beautifully when slow cooked.
06:54Get some of these good juices.
06:56This right here is like some liquid gold in here.
06:59I'm also taking some of the cooked onions because I like that.
07:03You can top it however you want.
07:04I'm going to go some cilantro and some avocado.
07:07I like to get a bunch of textures in there, so I like to add this little creaminess.
07:11You've got the richness from the pork and the creaminess from the black beans.
07:15Throw on some pickled red onion.
07:16It's going to be the perfect complement.
07:18I mean, that looks like a beautiful restaurant quality meal.
07:22I am real excited about this one.
07:28It's just that something different.
07:30It's like we do burrito bowls and tacos with similar ingredients but different flavors.
07:36Just switching out the main flavors makes such a big difference.
07:40It's like a whole different experience.
07:43And treating a pork tenderloin in a new and different way like this where you just
07:47set it and then shred it.
07:49Genius.
07:50This next one is in the Greatest Hits collection and this is the air fryer pork tenderloin.
07:56If you have not marinated and air fried your pork tenderloin, what are you doing?
08:01This is how you get the flavor of a pork tenderloin that has come off the grill
08:06but in way less time and almost even a little better.
08:09We're going to marinate it, which is the first key because then we're going to develop the flavors
08:13and put a little sugar situation in there so that when you put it in the air fryer it caramelizes.
08:18So get a plastic bag, which I think is the best way to marinate.
08:23Add your pork tenderloins directly inside.
08:26I just go to the refrigerator door and clean out the condiment section.
08:30And that is how I make a marinade, but it's all got the essential elements.
08:34This is one, this is kind of my go-to for this recipe.
08:37I like to get like an Italian dressing or a balsamic vinaigrette.
08:40This just has already a lot of ingredients to add some flavor.
08:43And we're also going with some soy sauce, a little bit of Worcestershire.
08:46So we've got our salt and our tanginess going on from all this.
08:51I'm going to add in a little garlic powder and onion powder.
08:53You could do whatever kind of multi-purpose seasoning you like also here.
08:57You got to add in a little sugar of some sort.
09:00Honey is my favorite for a marinade just because it can blend in really easily.
09:04Some olive oil to balance out all of this tanginess.
09:10And a little Dijon mustard and some pepper.
09:13And then I like to add salt just kind of like right before I add it in,
09:16because we have a good bit of saltiness already going on.
09:19Try to get out as much air as possible and then zhuzh it all around until it is well mixed.
09:26I do like to do this the night before.
09:28I mean, you can even do this a couple days before it even gets better.
09:31Get this in the fridge.
09:33Remember when they used to say,
09:35and by the magic of television,
09:36I did one yesterday.
09:40This you're going to preheat your air fryer to 400 degrees and then you pop it in
09:44about 20 minutes.
09:45You want it to be really caramelized on the outside and it'll be perfectly juicy on the inside.
09:49I changed my mind.
09:50I want a bigger air fryer.
09:53Five perk tenderloins, take eight.
09:57Okay, that's better.
09:59Now this is going to be a little messy because
10:00the sugar in here does kind of stick to your air fryer.
10:04If you have a liner, you can use that.
10:06I find that they clean really easily.
10:08So I just let it go, but you can spray it to help.
10:12Let the excess drip off 20 minutes till you see magic.
10:16Are y'all ready?
10:17You'll think it came off the grill.
10:21You see that caramelization?
10:23You know, I love it.
10:25Now just like any meat, when we cook it, especially big pieces, you want to let it rest.
10:30Truthfully, I love it just like this, but for this meal in particular,
10:34I'm going to give it a little barbecue spin.
10:36So I'm going to brush it with a little barbecue sauce.
10:39I'm telling you it's going to taste just like barbecue pork.
10:41And then you can pop it back in just for like one more minute,
10:44just to kind of caramelize that sauce a little bit.
10:46And then for dinner, we're having barbecue sliders.
10:49Cuts like butter.
10:51Look at that.
10:52I told you.
10:52It's perfect every single time.
10:55Juicy, tender, hot and steamy.
10:58No need to mess with big ol' pork shoulders or something when you're craving a little barbecue
11:05that you don't have all day.
11:06This is the perfect recipe for that.
11:09Full proof.
11:10You really cannot mess this one up if you do what I tell you.
11:13Now let's make dinner.
11:15Okay, I'm in with a little barbecue sauce on the buns.
11:17Doesn't have to be the 4th of July for you to have a dinner like this.
11:20Delicious pork tenderloin.
11:22A little coleslaw on your sandwich.
11:24Trust me.
11:25Pickles.
11:26Sweet potato fries.
11:27Sounded like the perfect compliment.
11:29Keep this a cheap and easy dinner.
11:30Pick up a bag from the freezer section.
11:33Done and done.
11:34Port tenderloin.
11:39It is so tender.
11:41So much flavor.
11:42So easy.
11:43And this is the perfect dinner you should serve tonight.
11:45Now we are turning our pork tenderloin into sweet and sour pork.
11:50Whenever I do some sort of a stir fry, it's really just an opportunity to clean out that
11:54produce drawer.
11:55Half a green bell pepper.
11:57I've got a red bell pepper.
11:58I'm going to throw in a jalapeno for a little kick.
12:01So when I'm doing something sweet, I like to have a little spicy to balance it out.
12:05So I do find this a cheap and easy meal because most of these things you already have on hand.
12:10Onion because onion goes in everything.
12:13For the marinade, it's just some green onion, a little soy sauce, some sugar,
12:18just enough to kind of coat the exterior and give it some quick flavor.
12:22It's not like a super wet marinade because we're going to take it straight from the marinade
12:25and then start to stir fry it.
12:27A little bit of soy sauce, a little bit of sugar, a little bit of salt, and an egg white.
12:34This is just going to kind of create a flavorful coating for the pork.
12:37And we've got our pork tenderloin and I'm going to cut this up into cubes.
12:41That way it resembles what you get in the takeout.
12:44Sort of how we did the spadini.
12:46These are recipes that are generally more popular with chicken.
12:49So you can find a lot of chicken recipes and just sub pork for things like that.
12:53When it just calls for boneless, skinless chicken breast, you can do the pork.
12:57Also, I mean, this was one of the smaller packs of pork tenderloin around $10 and it's going to make a lot.
13:03You probably don't even need the whole pack.
13:07So when you cut things into smaller pieces, they just stretch further into the marinade.
13:12This is something you could prep this part probably up to the night before.
13:16But you want to let this marinate for about an hour.
13:18All right, I'm just going to cover this up, stick it in the fridge, and then we'll get ready to stir fry.
13:23All right, we've got to make the sweet and sour sauce before we start cooking.
13:26The sour is the apple cider vinegar.
13:29Sweet to the sour is the sugar.
13:31A little bit of ketchup gives it both sweet and sour.
13:34It has that tang.
13:35It's also going to add some color, some water, a little soy sauce, and a little salt.
13:41You just want to have all that prepped because everything else is going to come together on the stove.
13:46All right, what we're going to do is we're going to create a crispy coating
13:49on our pork before we add it to our sweet and sour sauce.
13:52So we're going to deep fry it first.
13:54I'm not using a big old fryer or Dutch oven for this.
13:56It's just a small amount, so you just need a small saucepan.
14:00I know you're not used to deep frying for a weeknight meal, but sometimes
14:05it's just not that hard, and it's still going to be faster than takeout.
14:08So I'm going to take some cornstarch and add it to our marinated pork.
14:15Good day to wear black.
14:16Why do you do this, Dick?
14:19So I don't know.
14:20Black's my signature color.
14:22It'll kind of dissolve when it hits that marinade a little bit,
14:24but it's creating that crispy coating that we want.
14:27All right, and we're just going to place it in in batches.
14:30This doesn't have to be fully cooked through.
14:32A, because this is not chicken, so you don't have to cook it to 165.
14:36Also, the main thing we're trying to do is just achieve that crispiness on the outside.
14:41It doesn't take but a minute or two.
14:43Just a little bit of cornstarch.
14:44It looks like it's not even still on there, but it makes so much crispies on the outside.
14:50Now we bring it all together, and look, if that frying step was too much,
14:53you can skip it and just add your pork raw right into the skillet.
14:57It will be just fine.
14:58Now in with our veggies.
15:00The stir fry begins.
15:01When you're stir frying, you want to make sure your heat stays high.
15:05We're trying to just cook these crisp, tender, maybe get a little color on them,
15:09start building the flavor.
15:10I'm going to have a slurry ready to thicken our sauce in a little bit,
15:14and that's just cold water with a little more cornstarch.
15:17This will be the last thing we add, and it'll tighten everything up.
15:21When I'm doing a stir fry, I still like a little crispness in my vegetables,
15:24so I'm going to go ahead to the next step.
15:27Pineapple for more sweet to our sweet and sour, and then our sweet and sour sauce.
15:33I'm going to let this come to a simmer, and then I'll throw that pork in.
15:36Down goes that crispy pork.
15:37I'm going to add in that cornstarch slurry we made,
15:40and watch this sauce thicken and become really glossy,
15:44and that's going to give it that iconic look.
15:46See how thick and shiny it's getting?
15:48We did not need to buy any sauce in a jar.
15:52You got to admit that looks better than takeout, but how does it taste?
15:59It's on the money. Let's dish it up.
16:02We're going to serve it up classically, which is over rice.
16:06I do. You always think about sweet and sour chicken,
16:08but sweet and sour pork is where it's at.
16:11You know, like a green veggie to round out the meal.
16:14And I'm going to finish with a few more green onions.
16:17That is a beautiful dinner, and it all started with a simple port tenderloin.
16:21You got to admit that's the best looking sweet and sour anything you've seen in a long time at least.
16:25Mmm. Perfection.
16:32The flavors are perfect. It's the perfect sweet and sour combination.
16:37Not too sweet, not too sour.
16:39That pork though, literally just about melted in my mouth.
16:43We're about to cook up some pork cutlets.
16:45This is probably the second most popular way I cook my pork tenderloin.
16:48I learned this a long time ago, and I was shocked at how we don't do this more often.
16:53You can really stretch out the pork tenderloin also and make, you know, a small piece like
17:01this into something substantial. It's like magic.
17:05I also like don't even need two whole pork tenderloins to feed my family for this,
17:11because it does stretch out so far.
17:13I like to cut them in little medallions.
17:17And then I'll save these kind of end pieces and do like a stir fry.
17:21You know, I like to freeze things.
17:24Take one.
17:26This size.
17:27We're just going to kind of pound it to a thin layer.
17:32I mean, look.
17:34Just a little bitty piece like this can go to a substantial little serving like that.
17:39We're going to bread our pork.
17:42Listen, my grandmother and most Italians that I know, they don't do flour, egg, and breadcrumbs.
17:48They just do egg and breadcrumb, and it works.
17:51So that's what I do.
17:52So, eggs.
17:54Add in just a splash of milk and a little salt here.
17:58Okay, and in this bowl, Italian-style breadcrumbs.
18:01Could also mix a little panko here with some grated Parmesan cheese.
18:05I'm going to do just a little bit of salt, because you already got salt in the cheese and in the breadcrumbs.
18:10And then lots of pepper.
18:13All right, you know the drill.
18:15Egg.
18:16Breadcrumbs.
18:16These are so thin, like you don't need a big thick coating, because then you get more breading
18:22than meat, and that's not the goal.
18:24I like to have them all ready, because they don't take long to cook at all.
18:27Kind of like to press the breadcrumbs down.
18:29Like I said, you don't need a thick coating.
18:31Just this thin coating is going to get nice and crispy when we cook it up.
18:34It's no deep frying.
18:36It's just a quick little swim in this pan.
18:39And because these are so thin, they cook up in no time.
18:41This is a dinner you can definitely have on the table in 30 minutes or less.
18:46I'm also going to cook up some quick polenta.
18:48Any sort of quick kind of pre-made side is perfect for this also.
18:52I'm going to flavor the oil a little bit with some smashed garlic.
18:55And you'll also be able to tell when your oil is ready, when these start sizzling.
18:59Just want it to be fragrant.
19:01Then you can just take it out.
19:02They're so thin, they only take a couple minutes on each side.
19:05If you want to do these in batches ahead of time, you can just put them on a little wire rack in a
19:09pan and then just keep your oven on warm like 200.
19:12And then you can just leave them warm while you prepare everything else for dinner.
19:15When you see that it's cooked up about two-thirds or almost all the way up the sides,
19:21then that's time to flip.
19:22It usually cooks for an extra minute or so longer on the first side than it does on the second side.
19:28Because you really want to set that color and crispness.
19:31The cheese also gets good and crusty on there.
19:33Plus it adds the best flavor.
19:35See, contrary to what people think, it really doesn't take much will at all to cook these.
19:39If it's browned on that other side, you're good.
19:42All right, we've got our cutlets.
19:44I'm going to show you my favorite way to serve these for dinner.
19:48We're going polenta because you get a little bite of fried pork with this creamy polenta,
19:54and it's the perfect bite.
19:55I didn't do the test.
19:56Let me show you how good these are.
20:01We didn't need a big, huge thing of breading.
20:05That's perfect.
20:06And then a little bit of freshness to cut through.
20:09This is just a simple arugula salad, some lemon juice, olive oil,
20:14parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.
20:16I mean, that is restaurant-quality dinner right there on the table in half an hour.
20:21Cooked all the way through in, what, three minutes?
20:25Build the perfect bite.
20:31Listen, put down the pack of chicken.
20:33Pick up the pork tenderloin.
20:34I mean, the name says it all.
20:36It is so incredibly tender.
20:38You really don't need a knife.
20:39It's so good.
20:40It's so good.
20:42Mmm.
20:43Simple seasonings go all the way through because it is pounded so thin, crunchy outside of that
20:48parmesan cheese.
20:49Those Italians just do it right, you know?
20:51And this is either your quick weeknight dinner solution or the dinner you serve company when
20:57they come over.
20:58So many servings, and this isn't even all of it for, you know, 10, 12 bucks.
21:04There's a lot of magic in a pork tenderloin.
21:06And these five recipes are perfect examples.
21:08You've got to give one of them a try.
21:10No, you've got to give all of them a try.
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