Food Hussy Recipe: Stuffed Pork Loin #OhioPork

This post is sponsored by the Ohio Pork Council but all opinions are my own.

I miss the old-timey days of having a “butcher” that you could go to – I mean – I guess we still have them at the meat shops but often-times convenience wins. But even the Big Box stores have meat counter guys and I love chatting it up with them.

I love the Meijer team because they are friendly and helpful. On this particular day – I bought a nice thick pork loin and the guy asked me how I was going to make it – if I was making chops or a loin – I said a loin and he said he an idea for me. I was all ears!

He said that he liked to stuff it with cheese and bacon – oh ok – twist my arm and tell me the rest!!!

I sliced the thick pork loin in half horizontally and coated it all over with my always favorite Historic BBQ Red blend (seriously – I’m a bit obsessed with Historic BBQ). Then I cooked up bacon – should be soft still – mine got a little too cripsy – and put that in the middle with provolone cheese. I wasn’t one to ask questions – it’s just what he told me to do!

Then you fold it back over and bake at 375 for 20 minutes per pound (or so) and cook to 145 degrees. This is important – much to Grandma’s chagrin – you can AND should eat pork with a little pink in the middle! Thank goodness!! No more dried out oinkers for me!

Here’s a great video from OhioPork.org on cooking pork – just to back me up on the 145. 🙂

After baking for about 30 minutes or so – I felt like the top was drying out a little. I had some bacon left and thought – BINGO BANGO! So I cut the pieces and laid them over the top and back in the oven she went!

When it was at temperature – the top bacon wasn’t really cooked – so I just gave it to the pups – but it did it’s job moistening the top layer of loin and keeping it amazingly juicy!

And there I was ready to sit down to homemade mashed potatoes steamed broccoli and perfectly cooked stuffed pork loin. The touch of pink in the center means it was cooked to perfection!

I hope you’ll enjoy this recipe and share your ideas for how you would stuff the pork loin – I love trying new things – especially with something like this that is so easy and can really be modified to what’s in your refrigerator!

Stuffed Pork Loin

1-2 pound pork loin

3 slices bacon

2-3 slices provolone cheese

* Preheat oven to 375

* Soft cook 2 slices of bacon on the stovetop

* Slice pork loin horizontally 85% of the way thru – you want to still leave it connected so you can fold it back over (You can also cut a slit and stuff that way but it seemed a little difficult to do)

* Season your pork all over with your favorite seasoning mix (Historic BBQ Red is mine)

* Lay bacon & provolone in the middle of your loin

* Fold top over and lay left over bacon slices on top of the loin

* Bake for 20 minutes per pound until temperature in the thickest part of the loin is 145 degrees.

**** IMPORTANT **** DON’T GO SOLELY ON TIME YOU READ IN A RECIPE – GET A THERMOMETER AND USE IT!! IT WILL NOT LEAD YOU ASTRAY! 🙂