Grill N’ Chill: Pork Tenderloin

I shan’t front.  My BBQ skills are mad basic.  (Insert obligatory meat handling joke here.)

 

Summer ’14 might be swimming to a finish but I’m not setting aside my BBQ grill just yet.  I need to learn how to grill sumptin’ grate great.

So I decided to enlist the help of the homies by initiating Grill N Chill, a series of posts where friends roll thru Big Brown Dad HQ to grill their signature slab of protein while cold, cole, col’, chilling.

The first fire starter is Justin Gutierrez, my homie since our college days of passing out the 4 Spiritual Laws in Old Town Pasadena!  I’ve been to his house enough times to know that this dude don’t play on the grill.  I was gonna learn something.

The first pointer, create a pile of charcoal on one side for cooking over direct heat and leave the other side empty for cooking over indirect heat.

JG came thru with two 3 lb slabs of Pork Tenderloin.  The first was marinaded overnight with Trader Joe’s 21 Season Salute and the second with apricot jam, garlic pepper and salt.

Justin seared the tenderloin by cooking all 4 sides over direct heat for 2 minutes before moving it to indirect heat for 8 minutes on 2 sides.  He was serious about keeping to time, too.  He used a stopwatch… and pistol.  Bang!

Justin’s wife, Connie, came thru with the cauliflower mash and pastrami salad.  It was my first time trying both and they were out of this world.  If that wasn’t enough, she also brought some delectables from her business, Brown Box Bakery, a diabetic friendly, gluten-free sweet spot based in Highland Park.

We chased our eats with equal parts wine, beer, tequilla and Dr Pepper.  We laughed at our in-laws, recounted poor bedside manner and laughed at our in-laws again.

The inaugural Grill N Chill was a blast and set the bar high.  Now, you’re up!