Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin Recipe

Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin with Hoisin glaze

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Preparing sous vide pork tenderloin is relatively easy and has the advantage of giving you control over the cooking time and serving temperature.

With the help of a sous vide cooker, a meat thermometer, and the miracles of pasteurization, you can serve juicy pork tenderloin at an internal temperature well below 145°F.

You can season your pork tenderloin with a dry rub or marinade, then place it in a sous vide bag with all of its seasonings to cook while you go and do something else.

When you’re ready to eat you simply sear the outside of the tenderloin to give it a flavorful crust. You can also pour any marinade (if it’s not too acidic) from the bag into a pan to make a quick pan sauce to drizzle over the tenderloin.

Closeup image of rosy pink interior of a sous vide pork tenderloin

The sous vide cooking method allows you to serve pork tenderloin with a pink middle due to the time and temperature effects of pasteurization.

Slices of pink-hued pork tenderloin

Other Pork Tenderloin Recipes: Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: sous vide pork tenderloin

Prep Time: 1

Cook Time: 1 45

Total Time: 2 45

Servings: people

Calories: 362kcal

Cost: $8

Although this recipe calls for the pork tenderloin to be marinated in a variation of hoisin sauce, you can also use any marinade you prefer. The technique is to cook the tenderloin with its marinade in a bag using the sous vide cooking method. Once you've cooked your tenderloin to your desired temperature you can then sear it in a hot pan. While it rests you can then add your marinade to the empty pan to create a pan sauce to drizzle over the tenderloin.

Print Recipe

Equipment

Sous vide machine
Large Container for water bath
Gallon size ziplock freezer bag
Clips to hold ziplock bag
Kitchen Tongs
Heavy skillet

Ingredients

680 grams Pork Tenderloin

Hoisin Sauce Marinade

1/2 cup Soy Sauce Low sodium is preferred
3 tablespoons Honey
2 tablespoons Vegetable or Canola Oil olive oil works if that's what you have
2 tablespoons Rice Vinegar You can substitute white vinegar or cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons Peanut Butter or Tahini Optional
2 cloves garlic chopped you can substitute 1 tbsp Garlic powder
1 tablespoon Sriracha Optional
Kosher Salt and Pepper to taste

Searing in skillet step

1 tablespoon oil for searing tenderloin olive, vegetable, or canola

Instructions

Remove pork tenderloin from its package and trim off any unwanted fat.
Tie up one or both of the ends of the pork tenderloin so the tapered end cooks evenly.
Combine all of the ingredients for the hoisin sauce marinade with a blender or food processor. Pour the marinade in a gallon size ziplock bag. Add the pork tenderloin. Marinate at least an hour up to overnight.
Preheat a sous vide water bath to 137 degrees Fahrenheit. When the water bath is ready submerge the bag with the pork tenderloin and its marinade in the sous vide water bath. Clip the bag to the side of the container, making sure that the tenderloin is fully submerged. Cook tenderloin for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Remove pork tenderloin from the bag with tongs to a plate. Pat the tenderloin dry with multiple paper towels. Heat up a heavy skillet with a tablespoon of oil on the stovetop over medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until smoking. Sear the tenderloin for 1 to 2 minutes on all sides. Remove tenderloin to a plate to rest.
While the tenderloin is resting add the marinade in the bag to the same skillet used to sear the pork tenderloin. Cook the marinade over medium heat until it's reduced and syrupy. Whisk in butter if desired.
Slice the pork tenderloin and plate over rice or noodles. Spoon some of the hoisin pan sauce over the tenderloin and serve.

Nutrition

Pork tenderloin with roasted shallots and potatoes with pan gravy.

What Temperature Do You Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin?

What is the best temperature for sous vide pork tenderloin? The best sous vide temperature for pork tenderloin is between 130°F and 137 °F, depending on personal taste preferences.

You will notice that this is below the USDA’s recommended minimum safe temperature for pork at 145 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cooking a pork tenderloin in a sous vide water bath set at 132 degreess Fahrenheit.

Only sous vide pork tenderloin at 132 degrees Fahrenheit or lower if you’ve got plenty of time to spare. It will take the tenderloin a while to reach the final few degrees.

The destruction of harmful pathogens such as Trichinella, Salmonella, and E. coli is achieved by maintaining your food’s temperature above where those pathogens can no longer survive.

This pathogen destruction is not only a function of increasing temperature but also of increasing time above certain temperatures. This is also known as pasteurization and it is what makes sous vide cooking a truly amazing tool to serve food at its best temperature.

Here’s the USDA‘s time and temperature table illustrating how much time you need to maintain your pork above certain internal temperatures to achieve total pathogen destruction.

Pork Temperature Chart showing pathogen destruction at different temperature and time levels.

As you can see, harmful pathogens in your pork tenderloin are instantly destroyed at an internal temperature of 144°F.

However, if you are able to hold that same pork tenderloin above an internal temperature of 130°F for 30 minutes you will achieve the same destruction of pathogens.

Cooking your food in a sous vide water bath allows you to do this.

Ok, how long does it take for pork tenderloin to reach an internal temperature of 130°F?

I’m glad you asked.

Pork tenderloin on a plate with grilled red peppers and shallots

How Long Does It Take to Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin?

Cooking a 1.5-pound pork tenderloin in a sous vide water bath set between 135°F and 137°F will take 1 hour and 30 minutes to be safe for consumption.

I tracked the internal temperature of three- 1.5-pound pork tenderloins on three separate sous vide cooks with the incredibly accurate Fireboard 2 Drive WiFi Meat Thermometer.

Here’s the Fireboard app’s time and temperature graph of my first cook.

Time and temperature graph of a 1.5 pound pork tenderloin cooking in a 137 degree Fahrenheit sous vide water bath.

Here’s another sous vide cook, this time the water bath temperature is set to 135 degrees Fahrenheit.

Time and temperature graph of a sous vide pork tenderloin reaching an internal temperature of 132 degrees Fahrenheit in one hour and 13 minutes

And here’s another sous vide cook at 135°F. Notice that the tenderloin temperature stays above 132°F for almost 20 minutes, eradicating any harmful bacteria.

Time and temperature graph of pork tenderloin in a 137 degree sous vide water bath reaching an internal temperature of 132 degrees Fahrenheit after one hour and eight minutes

On average, it took the 1.5-pound pork tenderloins between 1 hour 5 minutes and 1 hour 13 minutes to reach 132 degrees Fahrenheit.

When you factor in the additional time to reach 1 hour and 30 minutes, not to mention the final searing in a hot skillet, the pork tenderloins will have spent a safe amount of time above temperatures that will destroy any harmful bacteria.