Drunken Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:

2 lb (or so – I use one package which has two pieces in it) pork tenderloin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
1 bottle red wine of choice (Moscato, merlot, burgundy, zinfandel, or whatever wine you have on hand)
1 package brown gravy mix

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Remove the pork from the package and trim off any silver skin – this is a shiny fat type piece that may (or may not) be on part of the tenderloin. Honestly though if you don’t take it off now it is not a big deal, you can cut it off as you are eating it if you need to. Sprinkle the garlic powder, salt and pepper (to lightly cover) over all sides of each piece of pork. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the pork tenderloins. Let them sit without moving them for about 3 minutes. Before that it will seem like they are “stuck” to the pan, but after 3 minutes or so they should release. Rotate the pork so that you get each of the outside surfaces browned nicely. Remove meat from pan and place in a rectangular baking dish.

Now add the onions to the same pan and sauté them for about 5 minutes. Then carefully add about 1/4 bottle of the wine to deglaze the pan. It will steam up a lot and you need to take a wooden spoon and scrape the bottom of the pan right away to loosen up all of those nice browned bits – they are full of flavor! Once you have the bits scraped up, add the rest of the bottle of wine and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 3 minutes and then poor the onion and wine mixture over the pork tenderloins in the baking dish. Now place in the oven and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes. Use your meat thermometer to make sure the meat is at 145° in the thickest part. Remove from the oven and place meat on cutting board to rest. Now pour the liquid from the baking dish into your skillet on high heat and whisk in one package of brown gravy mix. Cook on medium for about 3 minutes to thicken and reduce. Slice your pork tenderloin, after it has rested for about 10 minutes, into about 1/4” thick slices and serve with the onions and top with the red wine gravy.

This recipe is wonderful with mashed potatoes (the way I normally serve it), but you could also serve it over rice, quinoa, noodles, orzo, or whatever you like. Make sure to have some fresh bread to sop up any extra sauce on your plate too. This is a very hearty and satisfying dish. Simple enough for everyday, but nice enough for company also.