Pineapple Cilantro Pork Tenderloin

A fresh new way to dress up your pork tenderloin. We LOVE this lean protein option in our house. It’s so quick to prepare, so great for feeding a crowd, and so easy to fit in my macros if I care. Ha. I did this one in the air fryer and it couldn’t have been simpler!

The only catch with the air fryer is SPACE. I have a pretty big one, and still, I can only fit one tenderloin at a time. So if you’re cooking two tenderloins like this recipe calls for, you’ll have to do one at a time. If it’s for meal prep, it’s worth it to me since it’s SO easy, and I don’t have to go fire up my grill! But if it’s for dinner and I want it all done at the same time, for sure we’d grill it like our favorite brown sugar spiced pork tenderloin recipe! 

How to Make Pineapple Cilantro Pork Tenderloin

You’ll Need: 

• 2 pork tenderloins (1200 g) (NOT pork loin, it’s not nearly as tender)
• ¼ cup fresh or canned pineapple chunks (70 g)
• ¼ a white onion or ⅓ cup diced (50 g)
• ½ cup cilantro (15 g)
• ½ -1 whole jalapeno depending on how spicy you like it (16 g)
• 6 cloves garlic, minced (or frozen dorot cubes)
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar or other vinegar (30 g)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil (15 g)
• 2 tsp kosher salt and
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes

Start by trimming any fat or silver skin off of your pork tenderloins. Then add them to a large ziploc bag and set aside to make your marinade. 

The remaining ingredients will become your marinade. Just place them all in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. If it’s too thick to come together, add a little more vinegar. It should, however, be kind of thick so you don’t have much leftover when you pull them out.

Pour the marinade over the pork tenderloins making sure to move the pork around in the bag so it’s evenly dispersed. Leave it on the counter to marinate for at least an hour before cooking or store in the fridge if you’ve got more time.  It’s great overnight for more flavor! If you refrigerate overnight, just pull it out of the fridge 30-60 minutes before you cook to bring it to room temperature.

The only thing left to do is sprinkle the tenderloins all over with a good fresh pinch of kosher salt and place in a preheated air fryer at 400 degrees. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, turning half-way through. Check the temperature at 15 minutes or so and pull when you’ve reached an internal temp of 145!*

This part is important! Let it rest for 10 minutes before you cut so you don’t lose all the juices! Then slice into thin slices against the grain. We love this drizzled with my jalapeno avocado dressing. YUM.

What to serve with your pineapple cilantro pork tenderloin

Obviously I’m gonna point you to my jalapeño avocado dressing because I just mentioned it –and it really does compliment this pork so well! You can find the recipe for it on my Sheet Pan Tacos blog post, which not so consequently would taste great with this protein swapped in! (would also be amazing in these Mexican Spaghetti Squash Boats!)

Similar Recipes

If you’re looking for other lean pork tenderloin protein recipes, (I’m kind of obsessed), here are a few more of our FAVES.

Brown Sugar Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Chimichurri – Lillie Eats and Tells

Greek Pitas with Instant Pot Pork and Cucumber Feta Salsa – Lillie Eats and Tells

Easy Low-Fat Slow Cooker Crispy Carnitas – Lillie Eats and Tells

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I love to prep my proteins in advance and have them on hand to whip up quick, easy, and delicious meals. All while keeping tabs on my macros. Follow along for daily tips, tricks, and macro friendly hacks!

Pineapple Cilantro Pork Tenderloin

A fresh new way to dress up your pork tenderloin. This pineapple cilantro pork recipe will have your mouth watering. If you’ve never tried the flavor combination of pineapple, cilantro, and jalapeno.. you’re in for a treat!

Print Pin Rate

5 from 5 votes

Course Pork, Protein

Cuisine Healthy

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Calories 191 kcal

Ingredients

• 2 pork tenderloins 1200 g
• ¼ cup fresh or canned pineapple chunks 70 g
• ¼ a white onion or ⅓ cup diced 50 g
• ½ cup cilantro 15 g
• ½ -1 whole jalapeno depending on how spicy you like it 16 g
• 6 cloves garlic minced (or frozen dorot cubes)
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar or other vinegar 30 g
• 1 Tbsp olive oil 15 g
• 2 tsp kosher salt and
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes

Instructions

• Start by trimming any fat or silver skin off of your pork tenderloins. Add them to a large ziploc bag.
• Blend or food-process the remaining ingredients to form the marinade. If it’s too thick to come together, add a little more vinegar. Pour marinade over the pork tenderloins making sure to move the pork around in the bag so it’s evenly dispersed. Leave on the counter to marinate for at least an hour before cooking or store in the fridge if you’ve got more time. It’s great overnight for more flavor!
• Pull it out of the fridge 30-60 minutes before you cook to bring it to room temperature. Sprinkle the tenderloins all over with a good fresh pinch of kosher salt and place in a preheated air fryer at 400 degrees. Cook for about 20 minutes, turning half-way through. Check the temperature at 17 minutes or so and pull when you’ve reached an internal temp of 145!*
• Let it rest for 10 minutes before you cut so you don’t lose all the juices! Then slice into thin slices against the grain. We love this drizzled with my jalapeno avocado dressing. YUM.

Notes

Pork tenderloin is much more tender than “pork loin”. So make sure you buy the right one! You want it to be a little pink inside at 145 and it is so delicious and still blows my mind that it’s so lean. Don’t overcook!

The problem with air-frying of course, is space! I can only fit one tenderloin in at at time, so if you’re doing both, you’ll have to do one at a time. If it’s for meal prep, it’s worth it since it’s SO easy. But otherwise, don’t be afraid to use the grill or oven!

Grill directions: Sear over high heat for a couple of minutes per side to get some good color, then turn down to medium heat and cook for 10-15 minutes until you reach an internal temp of 145.

Oven directions: Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes, until it reaches 145. You won’t get the pretty color you get grilling or air frying. But it’s still delicious. You can also sear on our stove top first for the color and char on the outside, and finish for 10-15 minutes in the oven.

And you can find the recipe for my jalapeno avocado dressing here!

MFP: Lillie Eats and Tells Pineapple Cilantro Pork Tenderloin

 

Nutrition

Serving: 116gCalories: 191kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 32gFat: 5g

Keywords air fryer, cilantro, jalapeño, pineapple, pork tenderloin, protein

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