Apple-Bourbon Barbecue Pork Tenderloin

Drool with me now. Can you say, "Never going to buy store bought barbecue sauce again?" This sauce will blow your mind! (Okay, so I lie when I say I'll never buy the store stuff again -- the husband and 4ft eat a lot of barbecue sauce and I don't want to be chained to my stove making barbecue sauce 24/7) but if barbecue sauce is an ingredient for a dish, you can bet your butt, I will be using this instead of the store bought kind.

I invented this sauce for pork, because really what goes better with pork than apples? But after tasting the final product (it was one of those lets throw a bunch of stuff in a sauce pan and see what happens moments), I would use it on EVERYTHING. At this point the protein is an excuse to get the sauce to my mouth. Seriously, it's that good. 

Because the key ingredient is applesauce it has that consistency and is pretty thick, next time I might run it through a food processor or blender to see if I can break it down a little more -- cooking it down for 10 minutes didn't liquefy it very much. However the bonus of it being so thick, it really stuck to the meat and glazed to it instead of running off into the bottom of the casserole dish. I'd had plans to take the drippings from the meat and the sauce that went with it and reducing it to drizzle over the meat. There wasn't any to reduce. It all stayed on.

(edit: I made the sauce again to put on bacon wrapped stuffed chicken and ran it through a blender, it cut down on some of the consistency but still really thick and still really really delicious.)

Picky Eaters' Seal of Approval: No words, too busy gobbling it up, making piggy noises and getting seconds! I'll take that as one of the highest compliments ever! 

And these totally happened for dinner the next two nights because I ended up doing two tenderloins because that's how they came packaged and I didn't realize it:

Sliders and Quesadillas oh my....

Apple-Bourbon Barbecue Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients
Sauce:
1/2 tsp coconut oil
1 TBS finely minced shallot
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 TBS Worcestershire sauce
1 TBS tomato paste
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
1 TBS bourbon
1/8 tsp mesquite liquid smoke (optional)
2 TBS clover honey
2 TBS light brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground pepper

Tenderloin:
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 TBS garlic powder
1 tsp coconut oil
2-1lb pork tenderloins

Directions
1.) Preheat a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 tsp coconut oil and minced shallots. Saute until onions are clear, soft, and fragrant.
2.) Add the applesauce, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, bourbon, liquid smoke, honey, brown sugar, garlic powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp ground pepper. Mix well.
3.) When the sauce reaches a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 - 20 minutes.
4.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat.
5.) Season the pork with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.
6.) When nonstick pan is hot, add 1 tsp coconut oil and pork. Brown on all sides -- about 3 - 5 minutes on each side.
7.) Remove pork from pan, place in baking dish, coat the tenderloins in the barbecue sauce, and bake at 350 for 20 - 30 minutes.
8.) Remove from oven, and set aside 5 minutes so the meat can rest and the juices can be sucked back into it.
9.) Enjoy!