How to Butterfly a Pork Tenderloin.

Sounds fancy, but really isn’t. Find out how to butterfly a Pork Tenderloin like a pro.

The first time we had to butterfly a pork tenderloin, it was super intimidating. Butterflying meat isn’t exactly something taught in school, but it’s surprisingly straight forward. We had someone to show us the ropes, now we’re passing that butterflying knowledge off to you. Goooo us! Remember: just because it’s not common, doesn’t mean it’s complicated.

You can use this method to butterfly any cut of meat; chicken breast, beef, turkey, the list goes on. We tend to do it mostly with Pork Tenderloin. It’s inexpensive, tender, and the perfect canvas to hold a multitude of delicious flavors.

Let’s do this.

First off, get out everything you need: the tenderloin, a sturdy cutting board, sharp knife, plastic wrap, a mallet, scissors, salt, and pepper. Open up your tenderloin package. Now, our supermarket packages their tenderloins in a way that you really never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes it will be one big tenderloin, or in this case, we drew from the double mini tenderloin lottery. We just want to show you that either way you can make it work!

Make the cut.

Take one of the tenderloins (in our case) and stand it on its side. You want the widest side standing up and down. This makes less work for you pounding them out.

Pound it out.

Now grab a piece of plastic wrap and cover the tenderloin. Grab your mallet and get to pounding out the meat. This is going to be super easy, as tenderloin is well, like the name suggests: tender. Pound it out until the meat is about the thickness of a pencil. Remove the plastic wrap and set the mallet aside.

Season well.

Now for seasoning. This is important people: season your meat! Seriously though, whichever way you plan on cooking your tenderloin, most of the salt and pepper is going to come off in the cooking process, so be aggressive. I use about half a teaspoon of kosher salt, and half a teaspoon of pepper on EACH side. Don’t be stingy or your food is going to be bland.

Stuff, roll & tie.

Next up on the to-do list: stuffing. You can stuff a tenderloin with whatever your heart desires. In the above photo, we’re using our sweet and savory apricot and sage butter. Before you get started, lay your butchers twine underneath the butterflied tenderloin, then spread the stuffing over the meat, it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Roll it up, and tie it off. We like to use butcher twine in odd numbers, can’t explain exactly why, but it just holds everything together better. You can prep a tenderloin up to 2 days in advance. Be sure to cover it well and store in the fridge. Did you draw from the double mini-tenderloin lottery too? You can either prep up to this point and freeze one, or, before you roll your tenderloin, have the second tenderloin edge overlap about 2 inches, spread on your stuffing and roll up. Add an extra 10-15 minutes for cooking time.

And that’s it! If you still need a little bit of a walk-through, the butcher at your supermarket can butterfly the meat for you too, just ask.

enjoy!

xx

the turnips + tantrums team