Bacon & Apple Stuffed Pork Loin Roll

Hi everyone and welcome back to my kitchen! Today, I have a very special dinner recipe for you guys, and I want to show you how to make my Bacon and Apple Stuffed Pork Loin! This incredible dinner is perfect for the holiday season and for any special occasion! I'm going to get things started with a savory filling! It's made with bacon, shallots, garlic, spinach, a little bit of apple, and some dried cranberries, and I love to add some fresh herbs in there as well! I'm also going to show you how to prepare the pork loin, stuff it, roll it, roast it, and at the very end, I'm also going to show you how to make a simple gravy to go along with the stuffed pork. It just takes this recipe to another level! You guys are going to love it! For the full list of ingredients and instructions, along with some ideas for some side dishes to go with the pork, make sure to head on down the video description box and follow that link over to my website. Meanwhile, let's get started on that savory filling! And I'm going to start things by preheating my pan over medium heat, and today I'm going to be using the same pan for making the filling for browning the loin and for roasting it. And I'm using this kind of longish, oval-shaped pan because the loin is a little bit on the longer side, and you want it to fit comfortably inside the pan. I have also diced about five slices of bacon, and this is going to add so much incredible smoky flavor to the recipe! So once this pan is hot, I'm going to add it in and we'll start to render it down. Let's drop the bacon into the pan. And after rendering my bacon for just a few minutes, but before it gets super crispy, I'm going to add in one large diced shallot. Mix that all together. We'll let that cook for another three to four minutes, until that bacon is a little bit more crispy. And once I have crispy bacon bits and shallots, I'm going to add in my spinach. I like to add about four to five cups of greens, and these will wilt down really quickly too. And I'll toss the spinach with the bacon bits and the shallot. I also forgot to mention, I'm preheating my oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. You want that warmed and ready to go! And after about a minute, I'm ready to add my next ingredients. I have about six minced garlic cloves. These are going to add tons of great flavor! I'm also going to pour in two tablespoons of cognac. You can also use brandy or whiskey. This ingredient is optional, but I think it adds a really great flavor element! You can skip it if you don't want to use any alcohol, but of course, the alcohol is going to burn off and reduce! All right, just gonna let this cook down for a couple more minutes with the garlic. And once most of the liquids have reduced in this pan with my bacon and spinach mixture, I'm going to transfer it into a large mixing bowl. And then we can set aside this pan for later. Oh, this smells so good! I love the aroma of that smoky bacon, the shallots, the garlic! Just gonna add so much flavor to this stuffed pork loin! Now, we're ready to add the rest of our filling ingredients! I have about half a cup of dried cranberries. I chopped these roughly into smaller bits. I'm going to add that into my bacon and spinach mixture. We have one small, peeled, finely diced apple. You want to make sure the apple is in small bits. We'll need one to one and a half tablespoons of Dijon mustard. I'll be using one and a half tablespoons of sea salt, one tablespoon of fresh chopped rosemary, one tablespoon of fresh thyme, and one teaspoon of smoked paprika. I'll need about a teaspoon of ground black pepper. And finally, two tablespoons of pure maple syrup. And then I'll use my spatula, toss this all together until I have a uniform mixture. You want to make sure all the spices and the fresh herbs are well distributed. This is going to be so incredible inside the pork loin! I've set aside my incredibly aromatic filling for now, and we're going to switch gears and prepare the pork loin next. I'm going to be using a four pound, center cut pork loin today. It's a boneless piece of meat, and I like to get a piece that has a little bit of fat on the top. This is just going to help keep the meat really nice and moist as it roasts in the oven. And what we need to do next is flatten it out using a really sharp knife so that we can have a nice, flat piece of meat that we could stuff and roll. So, you want to grab a really sharp knife. I've already sharpened this one ahead of time. We're going to start by breaking down the meat. I'm going to place this fat side down onto the cutting board because that's going to be my top. And we're going to just kind of very thinly start slicing the meat. We want the meat to be about a third, even to a quarter inch thin. Start at one end, and as you get closer to the end, you don't want to cut all the way through the pork loin because we're creating a sheet of meat. So, we're going to tilt this pork loin just a little bit, kind of angle our knife, so that we start slicing in the opposite direction. And once I have my pork in a nice, large sheet, I'm going to grab a meat mallet and tenderize both sides of the pork. It'll keep it nice and flat and also help tenderize it further. And once I've tenderized my meat, I'm going to turn it over to the side that's going to be on the outside. I'm going to season it just lightly with a little bit of salt. Give it some more flavor. Rub in the salt really well. Flip this back over and I am ready to add my filling! Going to grab my filling. We're going to spread it evenly across the entire surface. I make sure you get some closer to the edge as well, even though a little bit is going to fall out, the little pieces that are closer to the edge. But you want to make sure you get a nice, even distribution of flavor. I leave just a little edge here at the very end. And now I'm ready to roll up my pork loin! You want to do this kind of like you would a Swiss roll cake. Roll everything together. You want to roll it kind of tightly, so keeping all that filling on the inside. Perfect! Look at that! And then we have that nice piece of fat right on top! And to keep the pork together while it roasts in the oven, I'm going to tie it up with some kitchen twine. I'm going to start with quite a large piece here. And you also want to do this to ensure that the pork loin cooks evenly. So keeping it all together, tying it up, is super crucial for this recipe! We're going to start with the kitchen twine at one end. Just slide it underneath the pork loin and we're just going to tie it up here on the front end. Next, I'm going to loop this kitchen twine around. Slide it underneath the pork loin. Again, you want to pull it firmly, but not too tight. And we'll just repeat this process until we have the entire pork loin tied nicely. And once I come around to the end, I'm going to cut myself a fairly large piece of the kitchen twine. And we're going to bring this kitchen twine around to the other side. Pull underneath, make a little knot here. Just pull it through twice, that's what I usually do. And then when I get to the end here, I'm going to pull the twine back around and we're back at the starting point. You want to leave a little bit of a tail when you start off so you can tie the kitchen twine at the very end. Give a nice little knot at the end. Trim this up and our pork loin is all done! My pork loin is stuffed, rolled, and tied! And before it goes into the oven, I'm actually going to brown it in my pan first. I'm preheating this pan over a medium-high heat. I'm going to add a little bit of avocado oil and I'm going to start with this fatty side first. Place this into the pan. We're just going to rotate this pork loin every couple of minutes until it's nicely browned all over. This pork loin is looking so good! I have it nicely browned all over. Next, I'm going to add in about three to four tablespoons of butter. I'm also going to add in about 10 garlic cloves. These are just going to add so much great flavor as the pork cooks! Chop in some fresh thyme, some fresh rosemary. I'm also going to pour in a cup of chicken broth. You can also use vegetable broth, so add some extra moisture into the pan. And once this broth comes up to a simmer, my pork is ready for the oven! It's going to roast at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour, hour 15 minutes, until the internal temperature reads 160 degrees Fahrenheit on a meat thermometer. I am going to keep the pan closed with a lid for the first half, and then remove the lid from the second half. You can also just cover the pan with a little bit of foil. And I also like to baste the pork loin with some of that broth and butter mixture from the bottom of the pan. Now, this is a really great recipe that you can also prepare ahead of time! You could stuff, roll, and tie up the pork loin the day before. Just keep it covered and stored in the refrigerator. And then the next day, when you're ready to prepare dinner, you want to brown it and then roast in the oven. However, keep in mind, if you are taking it straight out of the refrigerator, it is going to take some extra time to roast! I calculate about an hour and a half if you take it straight out of the fridge! I just took my pork out of the oven and it smells so good! And check out that color! It looks amazing! I'm going to just use a spoon and baste the pork for a couple of minutes with this broth from the bottom of the pan. This will keep it nice and moist. And after a few minutes of basting, I'm going to transfer my stuffed pork onto a cutting board, so it can rest here. And I like to let it rest for at least a good 15 minutes. And while my pork is resting, I'm going to strain through the remaining broth from the pan. And there should be quite a bit of it still left over. I just want to strain out all the fresh herbs. And also, I want to pick up all that garlic from the pan. I like to crush it and add it into the gravy. And while my pork is resting, I am going to make the most delicious gravy to go along with the meat! So, I'm going to medium-sized saucepan. I'm heating it over medium heat. I'm going to start by preparing a roux, which is equal parts butter and flour. I have one and a half tablespoons of butter. I'll add in one and a half tablespoons of flour. And I'm going to cook this for a few minutes to allow the flour to cook. And while my roux is cooking, I'm going to separate the pan drippings. So, I'm going to be using a turkey baster. And just suck up all those incredible juices from the bottom of the measuring cup and pour them into a separate one. And this way, the oil is going to stay on the top and we don't get like a super greasy and heavy gravy. I'm slowly adding in the pan drippings into the roux mixture. Pour that all in. You want to keep stirring it after each addition. And then to balance out the gravy, so it's not super salty, I'm going to add in a cup of chicken broth. And you can also use vegetable broth. And then just let this come up to simmer and thicken. And if it's too thick for your taste, you can add a little bit more chicken broth. I use a spatula to crush that garlic that I saved from the pan. I'm also going to drop that into the gravy. It's going to add so much incredible garlic flavor! It's almost like roasted garlic! I have my gravy all done. My pork loin has rested. And before I start slicing into it to serve it, I'm actually going to grab my kitchen shears and snip away this twine that we used to tie everything together. Let's grab a sharp knife. And I like to start by slicing off the end pieces. Especially if you have company over, you can save these end pieces for yourself as leftovers for the next day. And then I like to slice them into about three quarter inch thick slices. You don't want them to be too thick or too thin. This pork is so juicy! It looks incredible! And letting it rest is crucial for those juices to just keep redistributing. And today, I'm serving my pork loin with some oven roasted sweet potatoes. I'll have that recipe up on my website. I'm going to add a little bit of this gravy. Actually, it turned out a little on the thin side today for me. I like to have it just a little bit thicker, but it still tastes incredible! Pour that over the top and this is ready to be enjoyed! And that's it for my bacon and apple stuffed pork loin! This just smells so incredible! I can't wait to dig in and enjoy! This is going to be so perfect for a special occasion or for the holidays! For the written recipe and for the list of ingredients, make sure to head on down in the video description box and follow that link over to my website. Meanwhile, let's dig in to enjoy! I'm gonna grab a little bit of these sweet potatoes. I love having sweet potatoes on the side, especially with this dish! I'm gonna get some of that filling. This pork is so juicy, too! This filling is so incredibly delicious! I am loving the combination of flavors and textures here! You get tons of that smoky bacon flavor, a little bit of that sweetness from the apples, tartness from the cranberries! Love all that garlic flavor! Get a little bit of that mustard and maple syrup flavor coming through as well! It's just incredible! I'm gonna dip it into a little bit of that gravy. I mean, this is just perfection! Mmm! Next time you have a special dinner to host, make sure to give this recipe a try! The flavors here are just phenomenal, and it's such an impressive dish! It's just going to be a huge hit with everybody! Thank you guys so much for watching, and I'll see you next time with a new recipe!