Grilled Pork Loin

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The loin is a reliable and tasty cut of pork to serve for any occasion, but why only roast it? With this recipe, you can enjoy a perfectly grilled and marinated pork loin that will satisfy anyone’s meaty cravings.

For a super simple side to serve with your pork loin why not try Air Fryer Green Beans? Or in keeping with the grilled theme you could make Grilled Cauliflower!

Grilled Pork Loin

Pork loin used to be seen as a pretty expensive and complicated cut of meat to make at home.

Thanks to modern butchery and supermarkets, however, it is super easy to just pick up a pack of boneless pork loin, take it home, and eat it as a roast.

For those that want a little bit more flavor and sophistication, this recipe combines roasting it in the oven with also some time on the grill.

The grill not only adds a ton of smoky flavor and attractive grill marks, but it creates that great contrast between the roasted interior of the meat with the grilled, charred outside, making for the perfect way to enjoy a pork loin.

What To Do If You Can Only Find Bone-In Pork?

This recipe calls for the use of a thick boneless pork loin, which is a pretty typical cut sold at most supermarkets and butchers.

However, de-boning the loin isn’t done everywhere, and there is a good chance that you might only be able to find bone-in pork loins instead. If you are cursed with a big bone in your loin, will this recipe still work?

Well, don’t fret; having the bone inside your pork loin is really only going to make your meat tastier!

The bones in a bone-in pork loin will tend to be the lower rib section, meaning that they will be filled with delicious collagen and marrow that, while cooking, will actually help to flavor and enrich your pork loin.

The only thing you need to keep in mind is that the bones being inside the meat is going to increase the total thermal mass of your pork loin. This means that everything is going to take a little bit longer to cook on the grill.

To compensate for this, you might want to bake it in the oven beforehand a little bit longer than the 20-25 minutes in this recipe, closer to around 30-35 minutes, so as to allow for the meat to come up to temperature properly.

Can You Use Other Cuts Of Meat?

This recipe uses one of the most ubiquitous cuts of pork available in most supermarkets. Pork loin is not only usually pretty decently priced, but it is also easy to cook, and tends to be delicious and rich no matter how you cook it.

However, if you struggle to find this exact cut of pork, or you just don’t like pork loin, nothing is stopping you from buying an entirely different cut to use instead.

So long as you get something with a good amount of fat on it for richness, you should be able to alter the temperature and timings of this recipe and use basically any cut of pork you want!

One of the simplest replacements for pork loin in this recipe would be a thick cut of pork shoulder.

Keep in mind, however, that if you replace the pork loin with pork shoulder, you will need to make sure the pork shoulder has enough time to heat up sufficiently to be able to convert the collagen inside of its connective tissue into gelatin.

The pork shoulder needs to hit around 160 Fahrenheit internal temperature before you can even think about serving it, as otherwise, the whole shoulder will be way too thick and chewy to eat.

Play around with the temps, and give it as long in the oven and on the grill as you think it needs, checking it frequently with an instant-read thermometer to ensure you hit that magic temp.

Can You Leave The Pork To Marinate Over Night?

The question of exactly how long to leave your meat in its marinade is always going to vary based on what kind of texture and flavor you want from your marinated meat.

While this calls for around 2-4 hours of marinating time, the longer you leave your meat in its marinade, the deeper the flavor will penetrate into the meat, resulting in a more uniform flavor.

Keep in mind, however, that alongside more flavor penetration, you can expect the meat to also start to break down and partially fall apart the longer you keep it in the marinade.

So while you absolutely can leave your meat in its marinade overnight, you might find the texture of the exterior of the meat starts to become a little bit gummy and chewy. Some people really like that flavor and texture, though, so just adjust to your personal liking depending on what you prefer.  

How Often Should You Be Checking And Basting The Pork?

Basting the pork is a super valuable step, not only for the fact that the added juiciness means that your pork loin won’t dry out, but also because the added layers of juice and flavor from the basting will brown better when on the grill.

You want to be careful, though – trying to baste too often will result in a lot of the heat and smoke escaping from your grill as you baste it.

You want to be basting infrequently, maybe around every quarter hour and not much more, as otherwise, your pork loin won’t really get the chance to actually brown on the grill.

What To Serve With Your Grilled Pork Loin

Grilled pork loin is tasty enough o serve on its own, but you can always pick one of these tasty side options to serve it with!

• Green Beans

A BBQ classic, some simply cooked green beans provide snap and a little bit of green to pair with your meat.

• Roast Garlic Asparagus

Asparagus is a love-it-or-hate-it vegetable, but roasted with garlic and olive oil will ensure that basically everyone enjoys it.

• Grilled Cauliflower

Since you have the grill already on, why not throw on a head of cauliflower, sliced in half, oiled, and sated to enjoy some grilled, salty cauliflower with your pork?

Looking for more delicious Pork recipes? Try these out:

• How to Cook a Boneless Pork Loin Roast

• Apple Butter Pork Loin

• Pork and Sauerkraut

Happy Cooking!

Love,

Karlynn

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