Bacon Weave Wrapped, Cheese Stuffed, Pork Tenderloin

Bacon Weave Wrapped, Cheese Stuffed, Pork Tenderloin? That’s a mouthful. Why yes it is! In so many ways it’s a mouthful. A glorious, bacon, pork and cheese melange of a mouthful. Did I mention the fresh herbs and roasted garlic? I forgot those?

Sorry about that.

Bacon Weave Wrapped, Cheese Stuffed, Pork Tenderloin Ingredients:

• 1 premarinated pork tenderloin from Smithfield Pork (I used the peppercorn and garlic variety)
• 3 oz goat cheese
• 4 cloves roasted garlic (not pictured below)
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 1 tsp fresh chives, diced
• 10 slices of bacon
• 6-10 toothpicks

Save some time

There are a few things I did to save some time with this recipe. First, I roasted the garlic a few days prior to doing this. Roasted garlic keeps in the fridge for quite a while, so that saved me some time. If you’ve never roasted garlic, it’s easy. Simply slice off the top of an entire ear of garlic to reveal the cloves inside. Give it a dusting of fresh cracked black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Then put the ear of garlic into a foil pouch and into the oven at 350 for an hour.

The second thing I did to save some time was to use a pre-marinated pork tenderloin from Smithfield:

I get all the glorious peppercorn and garlic flavor from the marinade, along with fresh pork, without having to prep the marinade myself the night before. Save time? Check. Plenty of flavor? Check. Fresh pork? Check. Win, Win, Win!

Pork Tenderloin Prep

Time to pound the meat

Lay down a sheet of plastic wrap and put the pork tenderloin on top. Slice down the middle lengthwise, but not all the way through, butterflying it. Once it is flat, lay down another sheet of plastic and go to town with the smooth side of a meat mallet until the meat is about 1/3 of an inch thick:

Now, on the side with no seasoning, spread the goat cheese, roasted garlic and fresh herbs and smear it all around with the back of a spoon:

Then roll up the pork tenderloin into a spiral:

How do you weave bacon on a pork tenderloin?

Now, slide the cheese stuffed pork tenderloin off the cutting board, plastic wrap and all, and let’s get busy on a bacon weave. Making a lovely lattice of succulent bacon is not all that hard. In fact, I created a separate post for doing just that. You can find it here: How do I make a Bacon Weave?

You will notice in this picture of my finished bacon weave that I used 12 slices of bacon (6 across and 6 up and down). I really only needed to use 10 (5 and 5). So go by the ingredients list and not the picture here:

All finished counting bacon? Good. Let’s get back to work.

Set the cheese stuffed pork tenderloin in the middle of the bacon weave and lay one side over the top:

Repeat with the other side until the pork tenderloin is nestled snugly inside a bacon blanket:

This is why I only needed 10 slices. Too much overlap on top which increased cooking time.

This is also where I left out a minor step.

I forgot about the toothpicks until the bacon weave wrapped, cheese stuffed, pork tenderloin was on the grill 20 minutes.

Here’s the step I left out. Any exposed ends of the bacon are going to curl up just like in the frying pan for Sunday morning breakfast. So it’s a good idea to tack them down with toothpicks. It’s not a major deal as the flavor is just as good either way (and I mean really good!), but the presentation is a little off. So let’s head out to the grill and I will show the rest of the steps before we get to the bacon ends curling up.

How do you cook pre packaged pork tenderloin?

The kamado grill was set up for two zone, or indirect, grilling with a half moon plate setter on one side and a hot fire underneath:

I added a little cherry wood to the coals and set the grill grate down, placing the pork bonanza over the plate setter.

Target temperature inside the grill was 400F:

For some of you, 400F seems high. Well, I’m going for a quick meal that can be prepared in 30 minutes or so on a weeknight.

This took a bit longer because of the extra bacon and the pictures, but I was close.

20 minutes later I opened the grill and saw the bacon browning up nicely, but also the ends curling up:

And on the other side, where the bacon curled up, the bacon underneath was not browned:

So the toothpicks went in.

Taking the pictures on a blustery day and having to tack down the errant bacon slowed this cook down. It took about 45 minutes to get to an internal temperature of 145F, but I feel that it should only take about 30-35 minutes if the lid is left closed the entire time and dozens of pics aren’t snapped for a silly blog by some fools!

Here it is at 145F and ready to go:

Wait. 145F? Isn’t that a little low. Doesn’t pork have to be cooked to medium at least? Not any more. The USDA says that 145 is just fine for pork.

So remove the bacon weave wrapped, cheese stuffed, pork tenderloin from the grill and allow it to rest for a few minutes. This is where I normally talk about juices redistributing, blah blah blah, but the resting thing to keep the juices in just might be a myth. I know, I’m as shocked as you are. This has nothing to do with juices and everything to do with cheese which is running down the side of this beautiful bacon bomb because I poked a hole in it with my Thermapen:

Once the cheese cools a bit, slice into this delectable dish of deliciousness:

And one more shot, just because I know you dig this sort of thing:

Bacon Weave Wrapped, Cheese Stuffed, Pork Tenderloin Recap

Crunchy, a little salty (not overly so), tender, moist, gooey (from the cheese) and of course garlicky. This was a definite hit. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

Full Disclosure ~ Smithfield provided the GrillinFools product and compensation to do this post. But as you know, I wouldn’t put anything on this site that isn’t really good and this was outstanding inside and out. Save yourself some time and add a bunch of flavor to your next barbecue and give one of these a try.

Also, if you could leave us a great review with lots of stars that would be most appreciated!

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Print Recipe

Bacon Weave Wrapped, Cheese Stuffed, Pork Tenderloin

Bacon Weave Wrapped, Cheese Stuffed, Pork Tenderloin: tenderloin, covered with cheese, roasted garlic and fresh herbs, bacon wrapped then smoked to perfection

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time35 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Entree, Main Course

Cuisine: American, American Fare, Barbecue, BBQ, Grilling, Pork

Keyword: Bacon, Bacon Weave, Bacon Wrapped, Fresh Herbs, Goat Cheese, Herbs, Pork Tenderloin, Smoked Pork, Stuffed Pork Tenderloin, Tenderloin

Servings: 6 People

Equipment

• 6 to 10 toothpicks

Ingredients

• 1 premarinated pork tenderloin from Smithfield Pork (I used the peppercorn variety)
• 3 oz goat cheese
• 4 cloves roasted garlic not pictured below
• 1 tsp fresh thyme
• 1 tsp fresh chives diced
• 10 slices bacon

Instructions

• Slice the pork tenderloin down the middle lengthwise, but not all the way through
• Butterfly it and lay it flat
• Pound the tenderloin with the flat side of a meat mallet until about 1/3 of an inch thick
• Spread the goat cheese, roasted garlic and fresh herbs over the unseasoned side of the pork
• Roll up the flattened tenderloin into spiral and set aside
• Create a bacon weave and then place the cheese stuffed pork tenderloin in the middle and wrap the weave around it
• Tack down the exposed ends of any bacon strips that might curl up with toothpicks
• Prepare the grill for two zone grilling with a target temperature of 400
• Add some smoke wood, place the Bacon Weave Wrapped, Cheese Stuffed, Pork Tenderloin on the side with no heat and smoke wood on the fire (I used cherry wood)
• Close the lid for 30 minutes and check the temp with a probe thermometer
• Once the meat reaches and internal temperature of 145, remove it from the heat (approximately 30-35 minutes)
• Let the porkapalooza rest so the cheese doesn't run all over the place when slicing.
• Remove the toothpicks and slice into medallions
• Serve

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

See Full Bio

BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: November 24, 2015