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Smoked Pork Tenderloin on a Stick

smoked pork tenderloin on a stick

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This smoked pork tenderloin on a stick can serve as dinner laid across a bed of rice with some summer vegetables or you can eat them by themselves as a game time appetizer or a party dish while your guests wait on the real food.

Extremely versatile and did I mention that these are quick and easy to make?

Smokes to a perfect 145°F in about 1 hour and if you want to give them a little smoke and then some sizzle on the grill, well, you can do that too.

Important Information
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Marinate Time: 8 hours (or overnight)
  • Cook Time: 1 hour
  • Smoker Temp: 230°F
  • Meat Finish Temp: 145°F
  • Recommended Wood: Hickory
What You'll Need
Cleaning up the Tenderloins

Lay the tenderloins on the cutting board and remove as much of the visible fat and silverskin that you can. Using a very sharp knife will do wonders for you here.

Pork tenderloins on cutting board Pork tenderloins -fat and silverskin removed

Cutting the Tenderloins into Strips

Press one of the tenderloins down flat with the flat edge of your knife or the palm of your hand.

Pork tenderloin pressed flat

Cut the tenderloin into strips that are about 1/4 inch wide. Don't stress over this as it does not have to be perfect.

pork tenderloin cut diagram Pork tenderloin cut into 1/4 inch strips

Marinating the Strips of Pork Tenderloin

Place the strips into a gallon sized Ziploc bag or plastic/glass bowl with:

  • Worcestershire (enough to cover)
  • 1/3 cup of Jeff's original rub
  • 2-3 TBS of red pepper flakes (optional and only if you like things a little spicier)

Place the bag or bowl into the fridge overnight (8-10 hours). If you can it is always a good idea to stir things around a little at the halfway point to make sure that everything is getting well marinated in there.

Putting the Meat onto the Sticks

My skewers were about 12 inches long and I wanted the meat to be in the middle so you could hold the stick on both sides.

Place about 2 strips on each stick by pushing the stick through the top of the strip and then through the bottom giving you the fan pattern. Push the meat toward the center of the stick so that it is fairly tight.

You should get about 4 skewers per 1.5 lb tenderloin.

Marinated pork tenderloin strips put onto sticks Pork tenderloin on a stick ready for the smoker

Smoking the Sticks of Pork Tenderloin

Set up your smoker for cooking at about 230°F and enough smoking wood for about an hour of smoke.

Once the smoker is ready and maintaining, place the sticks of pork tenderloin directly on the grate. If you have the Bradley racks like I do, this will be a very easy thing to do.

Pork Tenderoin on sticks in the Bradley rack

Finishing Up

The new finish temperature for pork is 145°F and this is a wonderful thing since this allows it to be juicy and tender as it should be. Some cuts of pork are fatty and tough and must be cooked way higher than this to tender it up but not so for cuts like pork tenderloin and pork loin.

Use a thermometer such as the Thermapen or a remote digital meat thermometer like the Thermoworks Smoke to monitor the temperature so you can remove it right when it is in it's most perfect state.

For thin meats like this, the thermapen will work much better if you have one.

Depending on how thick you ended up slicing the meat, it should take about 45 minutes to an hour to smoke cook these to 145°F.

About 30 minutes into the process, brush the honey barbecue sauce (recipe below) onto the meat. Brush on more about 15 minutes later.

Honey Barbecue Sauce

Mix together well. Works best if the honey is heated just a little.

Pork Tenderloin on a stick finished and ready to eat

Smoked Onions

This goes great with the pork tenderloin especially if you are using these as an entree.

Slice red onions about 1/2 inch thick and place a toothpick through it to hold the rings together.

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Lay the onion slices on a Bradley rack and coat with olive oil and a good sprinkling of my original rub .

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Put the  onions in the smoker at 230°F about 30 minutes before the tenderloins go on if you want them to be really soft (wimpy). 1.5 hours was perfect for me.

If you want them to have a little al-dente to them, then 1 hour is good.

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Brush on a little of the honey barbecue sauce about 30 minutes before they are done cooking.

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Enjoy!

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One Comment

  1. Just tried this recipe over the weekend and it turned out great.  I used the the small left over chucks and turned my meat probe on my maverick 732 into its own skewer.  Great way to keep an eye on temps!