In this video, Chef John takes pork tenderloin to new heights with a pistachio-stuffed recipe! Juicy, tender pork is filled with a mixture of crunchy pistachios, herbs, and seasonings, then roasted to perfection. This elegant yet surprisingly simple dish is perfect for holidays, dinner parties, or any special occasion.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Pistachio Stuffed Pork.
00:08That's right, I took something I usually use as a crust on top of meat and turned it into
00:13a stuffing to put inside meat.
00:15And the results were just as delicious as they were gorgeous.
00:19Plus you're also going to learn how to make another one of our famous three-ingredient
00:22pan sauces so you can finish this dish off in style.
00:26But first things first, and we'll start by trimming our pork, and what we have here is
00:31one pork tenderloin that has kind of a tough membrane near the top, which we call silver
00:36skin.
00:37And if we take a thin sharp knife and slide it underneath that, and cut to the end, and
00:42then slice back like this, we can remove that without losing too much meat.
00:46And that cut was fine for a home kitchen, okay in a restaurant we would have got yelled
00:50at, since if you're careful and take your time, you shouldn't have any meat attached
00:54to that membrane.
00:56But anyway, the point is we'll remove as much of that as we have the patience for.
01:00And by the way, we're only removing that obvious membrane.
01:03There is a thin layer of regular white fat in certain spots, which we do not need to
01:07trim off.
01:09And then once trimmed, we'll take our knife and slice right down the center.
01:14But and this is incredibly critical, we're only going about 75% of the way through.
01:18Okay, the only way to mess up this technique would be to cut all the way to the cutting
01:22board and have the two pieces of meat separate.
01:25Okay, if you do that, forget this recipe and just make some pork cutlets.
01:30But if we are able to cut about 75 to 80% of the way through, and we have as we call
01:34in the business, butterflied the tenderloin, we will transfer that onto a piece of plastic
01:39wrap.
01:40And then we'll place another piece over the top.
01:43Since the next step is to pound this out fairly thin, right something a little bit thicker
01:47than an eighth of an inch, which I believe might be like three sixteenths.
01:52And this is going to be pretty easy if you have one of these meat pounders, but really
01:55any heavy flat object will work.
01:58But no matter what you use, once it's done, it should look something like this.
02:02And if it does, what we'll do is wrap that back up and pop it in the fridge while we
02:06move on to make our stuffing, which starts by chopping up some whole roasted and salted
02:11pistachios.
02:12And exactly how fine you chop these is going to be up to you.
02:15All right, I like them fairly fine, but I do like a little bit of diversity when it
02:19comes to the size.
02:21So I'm actually going to stop right here, which is going to give me a nice mixture of
02:24tiny pieces and medium pieces, as well as an assortment of pieces that are basically
02:29halves.
02:30And once our pistachios are set, we'll take some Dijon mustard and we'll add a whole bunch
02:35of minced garlic, plus a little touch of maple syrup for a little bit of sweetness.
02:40Although if you prefer, you can use honey.
02:42I mean, you are after all the Justin Trudeau of your pork stuffed with pistachio.
02:47And that's it.
02:48We'll season this up with a little bit of freshly ground black pepper, a touch of salt,
02:53plus a few shakes of cayenne to play it safe, and then we'll take a spoon and give this
02:58a quick mix.
02:59Oh, and in case you're wondering, this mustard-pistachio combo is something I use as a crust on rack
03:04of lamb, and it works so well, I've always wanted to try it as a stuffing.
03:09Speaking of which, once that's mixed up, we can pull out our pork, since our next steps
03:15are to stuff roll and tie our meat up.
03:17But before we do, let me show you a very cool trick, where we trim a little bit off the
03:22pointy end, and we place it over the other end, where those two pieces of meat have separated
03:26a little bit.
03:27Although it's probably better if we turn the flat side out.
03:30But anyway, if we cover that part with meat, and then place our plastic on top, and give
03:35this another brief pounding, those two pieces of meat will adhere to each other.
03:39And once cooked, you will never know that even happened.
03:43And by doing that, we get a more uniform shape, which is going to make everything easier
03:47to roll up and roast.
03:49And then what we'll do once that's been accomplished, is take our mustard mixture, and spread it
03:53evenly over the meat, pretty much going all the way to the edges, except, I think we do
03:58want to leave a couple inches of unmustarded meat on the edge furthest from us, since that
04:03is the direction we're going to roll our pork, and we don't need a whole bunch of the filling
04:07squeezing out.
04:09And that's it.
04:10Once that's been applied, we'll sprinkle over a couple tablespoons of breadcrumbs.
04:14And I'm using panko, because that's what I had, but regular crumbs will work.
04:19And then we will follow that, by applying our chopped pistachios, covering the surface
04:23as evenly and thoughtfully as possible.
04:26And once those have been applied, we can give them a very light pressing down with our fingertips,
04:30before we proceed to very carefully roll this up.
04:35And we will definitely use the plastic to help this effort.
04:39And by the way, it might seem like I'm going kind of slow, and being a little too careful,
04:43but I'm not, since we want to roll this up nice and tightly, but if we press and squeeze
04:47too hard as we roll, we're going to have stuff coming out the ends, and along the seam.
04:52So please take your time, and pay attention to how much pressure you're applying, and
04:58if we do have anything that falls out the ends, we'll push it back in.
05:02And once we finish, and get rid of the plastic, we'll make sure our seam's at the bottom,
05:07since that is the position we want it in when we tie it up.
05:10And then what we'll do is take seven or eight lengths of kitchen twine, and we'll slide
05:14the first one under about an inch or so from the end, and we'll twist that through about
05:18three or four times, and then we'll pull it nice and tight, but not so tight that it starts
05:24cutting into the meat.
05:26And that's it, we'll finish the knot, and then trim off the excess.
05:30And while there are cooler looking, more complicated ways to do that, for me this is the simplest
05:35and easiest way, and since we're going to trim it off before we serve it anyway, who
05:40cares about some fancy looking trussing.
05:43And that's it, once our tenderloin is tied, I like to apply a little bit of salt and pepper
05:47to the outside.
05:48All right, the inside was seasoned, but the outside was not, and yes, you can do these
05:53steps ahead of time a couple hours.
05:56So once we're done, we can transfer this into the fridge until we're ready to roast.
06:01But you know what?
06:02I'm ready to roast.
06:03And the first step for that, is to sear this on all sides, over medium high heat, and a
06:08little bit of vegetable oil.
06:11And you can if you want, just skip this step, and pop it in the oven to roast it.
06:15But as I've tried to teach you, browned meat is more flavorful meat, so to me this is definitely
06:20worth the extra four or five minutes.
06:22Plus above and beyond flavor, I think it also looks better.
06:26And that's it, once browned, we will turn off the heat, and we will transfer that into
06:30the center of a 425 degree oven, and we'll cook that about 16 to 20 minutes, or to an
06:37internal temp of 140, at which point it's probably going to look like this.
06:42And once we pull that out, of course we will leave the towel on the handle, so nobody gets
06:46burned.
06:47And we will quickly and safely transfer that meat onto a plate, and we will tent it loosely
06:51with foil, and we'll let it rest for at least 10 minutes, during which time I think we should
06:57make a very simple pan sauce, which is done by pouring in some seasoned rice vinegar,
07:03plus some chicken broth, and we will bring that up to a boil on high heat.
07:08And while this reduces, we will scrape off any goodness that's on the bottom of the pan,
07:12as well as on the sides of the pan.
07:14And I know, it looks burnt, and it kind of is, but that's fine.
07:19We can always strain this before we pour it over the meat.
07:21And not only are those charred bits going to give our sauce a beautiful color, they're
07:25going to add a little hint of bitterness, which as usual, is going to elevate all the
07:29other flavors.
07:31And once those liquids have reduced to about this point, and it seems like things are thickening
07:35up a little bit, which will be even more noticeable if you use a homemade stock, because of the
07:40gelatin in it.
07:42But anyway, when it gets to this point, we'll turn off the heat, and we'll toss in a chunk
07:46of cold butter, and we'll keep that butter moving, either by stirring, or by shaking
07:50the pan, or by both, until it disappears.
07:55And if everything goes according to plan, a few moments later, you'll be looking at
07:58a beautifully glossy, slightly thick, perfectly emulsified pan sauce.
08:04And that's it, besides maybe tossing in a pinch of salt.
08:07Our sauce is now ready to strain over our sliced meat, which, since it's rested for
08:11ten minutes, we're able to do.
08:14And as I was slicing this, it smelled so good, and it looked so amazing, I could not wait
08:19to eat.
08:21And I will plate this up properly in a moment, but for now, I'm going to have to settle for
08:25a couple scrap pieces, plus that first piece I sliced off the end, which is going to be
08:30the most dry, most overcooked part.
08:33But even that was moist and delicious, which is how I knew the rest was going to be amazing.
08:39So I went ahead and plated up three nice slices, alongside some roasted potatoes, and then
08:44I spooned plenty of that strained pan sauce over the top, before finishing up with a few
08:49freshly snipped chives.
08:52And that's it, what I'm calling pistachio stuffed pork, was ready to enjoy.
08:56And what I really love about these rolled stuffed pork tenderloins, is that they look
09:01so visually impressive, which makes people think it took a lot of skill and expertise
09:06to do.
09:07And the final product always looks way, way harder than it really is, which of course
09:11will be our secret.
09:13It is totally fine to let people think we're way better than we are.
09:16OK, I've built a whole career on that.
09:19And as far as the flavor and texture go, if you do cook this to an internal temp of 140,
09:24you're going to be enjoying something that's very moist and tender.
09:27And if you've never had the combination of pistachio with a Dijon mustard, I think it
09:32works incredibly well, and I predict it's a flavor combination you will use again.
09:38And as much as I enjoy it as a crust on a rack of lamb, I might even like it better
09:42as a stuffing for pork.
09:44Which is why, I really do hope you give this a try soon.
09:48So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe,
09:53and much more info as usual.
09:56And as always, enjoy!