This stuffed pork loin feels like a fancy dinner that you can serve for family gatherings, but it's easy! The bacon and apple stuffing is delicious! My family ate this up at Christmas time!
Christmas Time
While I'm writing this, Christmas time is just around the corner. It's getting cold outside and we've got our tree up. We made Christmas cookies and both of my kids are getting anxious about gifts and a break from school. Christmas time warms my heart!
It was only 4 short years ago (at least at the time of my writing) that I was spending this season locked in a hospital room fighting for my life from Stage 4 Burkitt's Lymphoma. I wasn't able to see my kids or spend time with family. I wasn't even able to enjoy a quality meal at the time because of how sick the chemo made me. So, Christmas time is precious to me, and now I use this time to love on my family the best way I know how, by providing them excellent meals!
The versatile pork loin
That brings me to this Stuffed Pork Loin. Pork Loin is such a versatile meat. You can cut it into steaks, or you can leave it whole. It can be grilled, it can be cooked on a rotisserie, baked, or even slow cooked like a roast. Left overs are even great to be added to a fried rice! For me, though, stuffing the loin with different ingredients, depending on the season, really brings out some amazing flavor. That's what makes this great. You can add some citrus and light herbs in the summer time to really brighten the dish, or you can do what we have here and add some fall fruits and herbs to really make this feel like comfort food.
Unrolling the loin
The interesting thing is, we're not really "stuffing" the pork loin. There's stuff in the middle of the loin, and I'm calling it stuffed, but what we're actually making is called a "roulade." Roulade comes from the French term rouler which means "to roll," and that's EXACTLY what we're going to do here! So, the question becomes, "How do we roll up a piece of meat that is already round?" The answer is butterfly. Not the insect, not the dance from the early 90's, although if you cook this right it might make you want to butterfly dance from how good it tastes!
Do the butterfly!
To butterfly the roast, we're going to set it fat side up and cut into the bottom third of the roast about halfway through and open the roast like a book. Then, we'll make a second cut into the middle of the roast and open it again so it looks like a pamphlet. Cover that roast in plastic wrap and pound it out until the whole roast is a uniform size. Don't pound it to tenderize, just to make it all flat. Keep it covered with plastic wrap to let it get to room temp. Flattening it allows us to get all of the tasty stuffing inside, then we just roll it up and it creates what you see below! I can't wait for you to try this delicious pork roast! Everyone in this house kept coming back for more!
Pork Loin with an Apple Bacon Stuffing
Ingredients
- 3-3.5 lb. Pork Loin Roast
- 2 Honeycrisp or Granny Smith Apples – Peeled Cored, sliced and cut into chunks
- 4 strips of Applewood Smoked Bacon – Cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 medium Yellow Onion - minced
- 3 cloves of garlic – minced
- ¼ cup of Fresh Sage – cut into chiffonade or strips
- ¾ cup chicken stock – divided
- ¼ cup Panko bread crumbs
- 2 tbsp of olive oil – divided
- 1 tsp salt plus more to taste
- Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
- Butterfly the pork loin *(directions below) and sit to room temp
- In a cold heavy bottomed skillet start bacon pieces on medium heat and cook until fat is rendered, and bacon is crispy
- With a slotted spoon, remove bacon pieces to a paper towel lined plate to drain
- Drain excess bacon fat to separate container for later use, leaving a small amount in the pan
- Add onion and sweat until translucent
- Add in apple, sage, and ½ cup chicken stock to deglaze the pan, cook until stock is reduced, and apples are fork tender; add tsp of salt while cooking
- Add apple mixture, bacon, Panko, and remaining chicken stock to mixing bowl and combine until a slightly paste-like consistency
- Add 1 tbsp of olive oil to pork roast and spread to coat the meat
- Spread stuffing across the roast
- At the non-fat covered side of the roast (what was the bottom), begin rolling roast until completely rolled up; use kitchen twine to tie the roast together starting in the middle and working out to the edges to prevent bunching
- Score the top fat portion of the roast and add remaining olive oil and salt and pepper to taste
- Place roast on a roasting tray and roast in oven for 40 minutes or until internal temp reads 145 degrees
- Let the pork loin rest for 10 minutes before removing twine and slicing to serve
[…] chicken breast and make it flat. To get a better definition of butterflying, check out this recipe here. After butterflying, we’re going to pound it flat. That can be done with a heavy bottomed […]