Citrus and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin, Smoked on the Grate
Two tenderloins marinated at home in a bag, smoked over wood chips on a camp grill.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 43
- protein
- 45 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 50 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Grill grate
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Pork tenderloin | 2 pieces, about 1.5 lb each | trim the silverskin at home |
|---|---|---|
| Orange | 1 | zest it, then juice it; save four wide strips of peel |
| Lime | 1 | zest and juice |
| Orange juice | 1/2 cup | top up from a carton if the orange runs short |
| Olive oil | 1/4 cup | |
| Rosemary | 1 tbsp chopped, plus 2 whole sprigs | |
| Garlic | 6 cloves, minced | |
| Shallot | 1, minced | |
| Dijon mustard | 1 tbsp | |
| Crushed red pepper | 1/4 tsp | optional |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Hardwood chips | 2 cups | apple or oak |
Method
- At home, put the zests, juices, oil, chopped rosemary, garlic, shallot, mustard, red pepper, salt, and pepper in a heavy zip bag. Add both tenderloins, press the air out, seal.
- Keep the bag flat in the bottom of the cooler on ice. One hour is enough. Overnight is better, and overnight is what the drive gives you anyway.
- In camp, get a bed of coals or a gas grill going at medium-high. Put the wood chips in a small covered cast iron pan or a foil pouch punched with holes, and set it at the back of the grate.
- Wait for the chips to smoke. Add the orange peel strips and rosemary sprigs on top of them.
- Lay the tenderloins over direct heat and turn them every few minutes until browned on all sides, about ten minutes total.
- Slide them to the cooler side, cover the grill, and cook until the thick end reads 145F, roughly twenty more minutes.
- Rest the meat ten minutes on a board before slicing. Cutting early dumps the juice on the ground.
Pork tenderloin is the rare cut that suits a campsite. It is lean, it cooks in half an hour, and it takes an acidic marinade well because there is no fat layer to slow the citrus down. The zest matters more than the juice here. Juice mostly adds acid and tenderizes the surface; the zest carries the oils that survive the fire.
This one keeps its cooler. Raw pork does not go in a pack, so it is a first-night car-camping dinner and nothing else. The rest of the work moves home: mince the garlic and shallot in your kitchen, build the marinade in the bag it travels in, and arrive with nothing to do but manage the fire. Pull at 145F and rest it. Lean meat has no margin past that.
Packing
Marinate in a zip bag at home and carry it inside a second bag. That bag is your prep bowl, your marinade container, and your trash. Chips ride in a paper sack; peel and rosemary go in with the meat.
Variations
- No smoker pan: toss a handful of soaked chips straight on the coals and cover the grill.
- Swap in boneless pork chops and cut the covered time to about eight minutes.
- Cook it in a dutch oven with the lid on if wind is killing your fire.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/smoked-citrus-and-rosemary-pork-tenderloin