Smoked Pork Tenderloin on a Stick
Smoking-Meat.com is supported by its readers. We may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you if you buy through a link on this page.
Read this article without ads
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.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Marinate Time: 8 hours (or overnight)
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Smoker Temp: 230°F (110°C)
- Meat Finish Temp: 145°F (63°C)
- Recommended Wood: Hickory
- 2 pork tenderloins (Average about 1 lb each and usually come 2 per pack)
- Worcestershire sauce
- Jeff's original rub
- Jeff's barbecue sauce
- Red pepper flakes
- Wooden skewers
- Honey
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.
Press one of the tenderloins down flat with the flat edge of your knife or the palm of your hand.
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.
Place the strips into a gallon sized zip-top 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.
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.
Set up your smoker for cooking at about 230°F (110°C) 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.
You can also use a pan with a rack.
Since about 2011, 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 (63°C).
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
- 1/4 cup of Jeff's barbecue sauce
- 1/4 cup of Honey
Mix together well. Works best if the honey is heated just a little.
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.
Lay the onion slices on a pan with a rack and coat with olive oil and a good sprinkling of my original rub .
Put the onions in the smoker at 230°F (110°C) 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.
Brush on a little of the honey barbecue sauce about 30 minutes before they are done cooking.
Enjoy!
Smoked Pork Tenderloin on a Stick
Ingredients
- 2 pork tenderloins (Averages about 1 lb each and usually come 2 per pack)
- 8 Wooden skewers
Marinade
- 1 bottle Worcestershire sauce
- ⅓ cup Jeff's original rub
- 2 TBS red pepper flakes
Honey Barbecue Glaze
- ¼ cup Jeff's barbecue sauce
- ¼ cup honey
Instructions
- Lay tenderloins on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, remove as much of the visible fat and silver skin as possible.
- Press the tenderloin flat with your hand then cut it into strips that are about ¼ inch wide.
- Place the strips into a gallon-sized zip top bag. Make the marinade then pour the marinade into the bag with the meat. Massage the bag to coat then place the bag of meat into the fridge overnight.
- After the marinade, there is no need to rinse. Place two strips of the marinated pork onto each skewer in a fan pattern.
- Set up your smoker for cooking at 230°F (110°C) or as close to that as possible using indirect heat. If your smoker has a water pan, fill it up.
- Once the smoker is ready to cook, place the skewers of meat onto the grate and close the lid.
- While the meat is cooking, make the honey barbecue glaze. Brush the glaze onto the skewers two or three times during the cooking process. Let the meat smoke cook for 45-60 minutes or until the meat reaches 145°F (63°C) as measured by a digital meat thermometer.
- When the finish temperature has been reached, the meat is done and can be brought into the house and served immediately.
Nice and easy but tasty. Served as a snack for a party.
Please show how to do the tenderloin on a stick using a grill pan and either on stove top or oven ;if you do not have a smoker. thanks
why don’t you have a button to print the recipe without all the pictures? I use to like to try your recipes but it’s getting to be too much of a hassle.
Roswell, I apologize for the hassle. Creating the printable recipe card is a manual task that is done separately from the rest of the instructions. I should have this one done shortly and you’ll be able to print it out a little easier.
Have always smoked pork to 145-150. Way before it was advisable to do so.
Hi,
Great idea. May want to consider a 2 hour standard brine to really keep those moist and tender.
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!