Cajun Honey Butter Pork Tenderloin

close up shot of sliced cajun pork tenderloin on mashed potatoes with green beans

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5 from 1 vote

Tender and juicy Cajun pork tenderloins drenched in a gorgeous honey butter sauce!

Prep Time5

Cook Time25

Total Time30

Course: Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine: Cajun

Servings:

Author: Chris Collins

Cost: £2.50 / $3

Equipment

Large Heavy-Based Oven-Safe Pan & Tongs
Wooden Spoon
Large Plate (for storing cooked pork tenderloin)
Sharp Knife & Chopping Board (for slicing pork tenderloin)
Kitchen Paper (to dry pork)

Ingredients

2x 500g/1lb Pork Tenderloins, brought close to room temp (see notes)
2 - 2.5 tbsp Cajun Seasoning
5 tbsp / 75g / 2.6oz Unsalted Butter, diced into small cubes
120ml / 1/2 cup Chicken Stock
80g / 1/4 cup Honey
1/2 Lime, juice only
Olive Oil, as needed (1-2 tbsp)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200C/390F.
Pat the tenderloins dry then season all over with Cajun seasoning. Rub it into the pork and fully coat it as best you can.
Heat a drizzle of oil in a large oven-safe pan over high heat. Sear the pork tenderloins all over until lightly charred (around 5mins total).
Transfer the pan to the oven and roast the pork for 12-14mins, or until the thickest part reaches 145F/63C. This will leave the pork with a blush of pink. Remove the tenderloins and place them on a large plate to one side to rest. Place the pan back over medium-high heat.
Pour in the chicken stock and simmer for 1 minute, using your wooden spoon to scrape off all the flavour from the pan. Add the lime juice, honey and butter and swiftly stir until the butter melts and emulsifies with the sauce. Continue simmering for another 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens to a thin-honey consistency. It will thicken, just keep simmering and stirring away. Pour in the resting juices from the pork, then simmer for another minute until the sauce re-thickens.
Coat the tenderloins in the sauce then slice (I like around 3/4" portions). Drizzle over more sauce and enjoy!

Video

Notes

a) Pork Tenderloins Preparation - Important to take the pork out of the fridge at least 15mins before needed. This will not only help the meat cook more evenly, but it'll also relax the meat and prevent it from seizing up in the pan. I typically don't trim the fat unless they're very large pieces.

b) Cooking Pork Tenderloins - Safe internal temp of pork is now 145F/63C, which will look a touch pink. If you want it completely without pink, I recommend adding another couple of mins to the cooking time, to reach around 67-68C/152-154F. It's difficult to give exact timings as pork tenderloins always differ quite a lot in thickness and ovens will run slightly differently, so I recommend using a thermometer. In all cases, I'd stay on the side of caution and pull it out early to check, as you can always carry on cooking, but it's hard to revive overcooked pork!

c) Serving - Here I've served with Green Beans and Mashed Potatoes, but any sort of carb & veg combo will do the trick.

d) Calories - Assuming 1.5 tbsp olive oil used, no sides and shared between 4.

Nutrition