Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin with Time and Temperature Guide

Sous vide pork tenderloin is lean, tender and juicy. The sous vide method prevents overcooking every single time and it's easier than you might think. I will walk you through this recipe to prove that it's the best way to cook pork tenderloin!

What Is Sous Vide

Sous vide sounds fancy but it's actually really simple. It's a method of cooking food in a temperature controlled hot water bath which sits at a steady temperature (your desired finished temperature) and thus prevents overcooking.

You seal your protein in this case pork tenderloin ( but can be other meat, fish or vegetables) in a plastic bag with the air removed. Some folks like to use a vacuum sealer but I simply use a resealable, reuseable food grade zip top bag (Ziploc). Pushing the bag into the water before sealing the bag will push the extra air out. Once it is submerged almost up to the zipper, zip it shut (water displacement method) and voila!

Lean cuts of beef, chicken and pork benefit the most from this gentle and easy cooking method. If you choose to finish your pork on the grill, baste with your favorite barbecue sauce.

Sous Vide - A Hot Water Bath In A Pot

A home sous vide machine is a simple wand style heater that clips onto the side of a large pot or other heat safe container full of water. You fill the pot with water, set the temperature to the exact temperature you'd like your finished food to be (aka rare, medium rare, well etc) and the small machine heats and holds the water at the exact temperature.

What To Serve With Pork Tenderloin

Try serving this pork tenderloin with Easy Pickled Blackberries or Blackberry Barbecue Sauce. For side dishes, I love Fresh Medjool Dates and Carrot Salad, Apple Walnut Salad or Apple Kale Slaw.

Mediterranean Cauliflower Salad or Warm Marinated Olives are great starters for this recipe and for a side dish, Honey Sriracha Brussels Sprouts or Hot Honey Carrots go really well with sous vide pork.

Benefits of sous vide cooking

There are two main benefits to this. First, your meat cooks to the desired temperature easily, without fail. Second, you can leave it sitting at the desired temperature for a long period of time once cooked. (Sous vide tenderloin pork works especially well because it is both lean and tender making it prone to drying out if cooked or left sitting too long.)

Say you're having a party and your guests are late, or you're enjoying happy hour a little longer than planned. You don't need to worry! Your meat is staying absolutely perfect for another hour, or two or three or even longer.

How do you pronounce sous vide (sous-vide)?

It's easier than it looks, just say, "Soo Veed".

How long does pork tenderloin take?

This recipe (and pork tenderloin in general) will take 1 hour but you can make it ahead and let it stay hot until you're ready to serve it.

Because sous vide cooks at a lower temperature, meat usually takes longer than it would in a frying pan or BBQ. On the flip side, this is completely hands off cooking time and it can stay hot and ready without overcooking.

Can I sous vide from frozen?

Yes! Just add an extra 30 minutes to this recipe if your pork tenderloin is frozen. Pork tenderloin is not a very thick cut compared to some meats. If you are cooking other meat from frozen in the sous vide method, multiply the recipe time by 1.5 to account for the thawing.

This is one more benefit to this cooking method, if you forget to take your meat out to thaw, it doesn't matter!

How to finish the dish

There are a few ways you can finish sous vide meat. It is delicious on it's own, simply slice and serve as is along side potatoes and veggies or on top of a salad (with feta and yogurt dressing, YUM!).

The other way is to brown it for an appealing looking finish and a little extra flavor. You can do this in a hot pan (quickly so you don't overcook it) or on a preheated grill or BBQ.

For this presentation, I gave it some appetizing grill marks on my grill preheated to it's hottest setting (approx 600'F). I then served it with some of my homemade blackberry BBQ sauce underneath. You can also brush the sauce right on while grilling and let it get sticky. For demonstration purposes, I didn't want to hide what it looked like so I served the sauce underneath and it was a hit.

Time and temperature chart

To make this recipe even easier and to help with other sous vide recipes, I've made this sous vide time and temperature guide/chart. Feel free to print this and use this as a guide with other sous vide recipes! (copyright Sabrina Currie 2021) Check back again soon as I am constantly working to update this chart with more items to sous vide. If you have an idea you'd like to see on here, shoot me a message. Once you start cooking sous vide, it's hard to stop!

Substitutions

Cheaters BBQ sauce - No time to make BBQ sauce from scratch? Take a cup of your favourite store-bought sauce and toss it in the blender with 1 cup of blackberries to kick things up a notch and impress your friends.

Expert Tips

After the pork has cooked for an hour, you can continue to let the pork hold at the same temperature for another hour or even 2-3 if you need, without compromise to the quality and doneness.

I served this with my Blackberry BBQ sauce underneath. You can make that or you can reduce the juices left in the cooking bag in a pan, add a little fresh chopped thyme and butter and drizzle that over too.

Or brush your bbq sauce on before grilling to let it caramelize. It works great and gives that a nice sticky sweet lacquered coating.

This sous vide pork tenderloin is infused with so much flavour that you can enjoy it as is too.

Related Recipes

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Cheers friends! Sabrina

Sabrina

Recipe

Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin

Sous vide is the very best and easiest way to cook pork tenderloin EVERY time! Keep your tenderloin juicy and tender, seasoned just right as is or serve it with blackberry bbq sauce!

5 from 55 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dinner, Main, Main Course

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 230kcal

Author: Sabrina Currie

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 lb Pork tenderloin
• ▢ 5-10 Thyme sprigs or ½ teaspoon dried thyme rosemary or savory are good substitutes
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Salt
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Pepper
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Olive oil for brushing
• ▢ ½ c Blackberry sauce (link to recipe and cheater version below)

Instructions

• Fill your heat safe pot or container so that it's at least 6 inches deep, attach your sous vide machine and set to your desired temperature to preheat.

  135' F is rare, 140' F is about medium rare and what these pictures show. If you like it more well done you can go up to 150'F. I do not recommend cooking it any hotter or your pork will suffer.
• Season your pork tenderloin generously with salt and pepper and top with thyme. Place meat into a sealable plastic bag and remove all air. To do this you can use a vacuum sealer or displace the air by submerging the bag in water slowly, until the bag is airless and sucked flat to the pork and itself, then seal.
• Clip bag to the side of your pot so it doesn't float into the sous vide machine. Set timer for 1 hour and walk away! This is a great time to take a rest or finish the other parts of your meal.
• When you're ready to finish your dish, preheat a pan or outdoor grill (BBQ) to high. Take the pork out of the hot water bath, remove the herb sprigs and pat dry with a little paper towel.

  Brush lightly all over with olive oil then place on pan or grill to sear. (Don't leave it too long on any one side, you simply want some browning or grill marks.) Turn until each side has some color then remove to plate and let rest a few minutes before slicing and serving.

Notes

After the pork has cooked for an hour, you can continue to let the pork hold at the same temperature for another hour or even 2 if you need, without compromise to the quality and doneness.

I served this with my Blackberry BBQ sauce underneath. You can make that or you can reduce the juices left in the cooking bag in a pan, add a little fresh chopped thyme and butter and drizzle that over too. Honestly, this is infused with so much flavour that you can enjoy it as is too.

Tip: Try brushing your bbq sauce on before grilling to let it caramelize. It works great and tastes even better!

Nutrition

Calories: 230kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 24g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 74mg | Sodium: 1008mg | Potassium: 540mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 143IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 25mg | Iron: 2mg

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