Agave and Serrano-Brined Pork Loin

We interrupt this blog-cast for a special report - we've got our first YTK original recipe! Well, original enough, we suppose. Certainly someone's done this before, but we're pretty proud of it.

Over the weekend, we watched a few Cooking Channel specials and one of them made a reference to brining. Now we love a good brine, but we usually reserve that method for turkeys, and we didn't happen to want a turkey right now. Then our minds turned to the pork loin hanging out in our freezer. Jackpot!

And so it was decided that we would brine a pork loin - but with what? We had two serrano peppers from a forgotten recipe getting a little um, aged, in our fridge, but we feared they might yield too much heat. To balance them out, we originally considered adding some honey, but when we opened our pantry, the answer was staring in our faces: agave nectar.

So without further ado, here's our recipe for Agave and Serrano-Brined Pork Loin!

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Brining Time: 8+ hours

Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

4 cups low sodium chicken broth

2 serrano peppers, thinly sliced

2 tbsp agave nectar

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 lb pork tenderloin

1. Combine first 5 ingredients (through garlic) in a large bowl or plastic-ware container, stirring well with a whisk.

2. Submerge the pork tenderloin in the broth mixture. Cover the bowl or container and place in the refrigerator overnight.

3. Place the pork tenderloin in a baking dish. (For extra kick and presentation, place sliced serranos along the top of the tenderloin.) Discard brine.

4. Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until an oven thermometer registers the tenderloin at 170 degrees. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

And there you have it, folks! This no-fuss pork tenderloin had a wonderfully subtle heat that won't upstage a showy side (more on that in another post). We loved it, and we hope you will, too!