This recipe came to life at a tailgate. It was an experiment to see what kind of sauce I could make from mostly common tailgate items (the chipotles obviously were an exception). It was a big hit!
Ingredients
2 Pork Tenderloins (approx 3.5 lbs total)
Sauce
1/2 Sweet Onion (diced)
Oil (I tend to use canola, or olive)
2 cups Bourbon (I like Ancient Age for this)
10 oz Apple Juice
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 Chipotle Pepper in sauce
Salt
1/4 Cup Ketchup (Approx)
Sides
1/2 Sweet Onion (cut into large slices)
1 Green Bell Pepper (cut into large slices)
1 Yellow Bell Pepper (cut into large slices)
4oz Mushrooms (cut into large slices)
6 Golden Potatoes (cut into small chunks) (approx count)
Oil
Salt
Pepper
Prep
The night before, rub the tenderloins down with Basic BBQ Rub. Leave these refrigerated overnight in a pyrex pan or a large zip lock bag.
Roasting Taters
The potatoes are going to go on first. Start the grill (high, direct heat) and cut up the potatoes. Toss the potato chunks in a bowl with some oil, salt and pepper. Place them on a grilling tray and onto a hot grill. Close the lid and let them roast. Toss them a couple of times while roasting. You’ll pull them off when they have a nice roasted skin developed all around (approx 30 minutes).
Getting Saucy
Next comes the sauce. In a medium sauce pan, cook down the onion over med-high heat with plenty of oil until the onions are soft. Maybe 10 minutes.
Now, work on cutting up the veggies. Likewise, coat them with some oil, salt and pepper. Put these in a grill basket and toss on the grill. Pull them off after approx 20 minutes.
Back to the sauce. When the onion is soft, add the bourbon. Reduce this until down until the onions are nice and sticky. Add the apple juice, brown sugar and the chipotle and whisk it all together. Reduce this to about 1/2 the volume. Run the sauce through a strainer, and return the sauce to the pan. Add the ketchup and cook the sauce until it thickens (the end result will be a runny sauce, cook until it gets to how you like it).
Nice and Tender
In between working on the sauce, toss the tenderloins on the grill. I grill (lid closed) them for 5 minutes, then flip them over, timing it so that they develop a crust. Adding a piece of applewood to the fire is a nice touch. If some additional time is needed to cook all the way through, move them to an indirect heat portion of the grill. You’ll want to pull them off when they are still a little pink in the center. Put them under foil for 15 minutes to rest. Then slice into approx 1/2″ pieces.
Top everything with the delicious sauce and enjoy!
