Tender Pork Tenderloin seasoned with a chipotle marinade and drizzled with cilantro lime Sauce. Chipotle Pork Tenderloin is one weeknight dinner dish that my whole family loved!
Pork tenderloin recipes are perfect for busy weekday meals. When we’re craving Italian flavors, we love Pesto Pork Tenderloin with pasta!
Why this Recipe Works
You know those dinners that blow you away? The ones you know will be “good” but that turn out unexpectedly AMAZING?
This chipotle pork is one of those. Best of all, it’s a dish everyone in the family can agree on!
- Pork tenderloin cooks quickly. Dinner is on the table in 30 minutes.
- An orange juice marinade imbibes the meat with juicy flavor.
- It has the perfect amount of smoky heat from chipotle peppers.
- Cilantro and lime flavors balance the heat with fresh cool flavors.
We served our pork tenderloins sliced with a side of mango guacamole. It’s the perfect pairing! Add today’s recipe to your cinco de mayo menu!
Ingredient Notes
- Pork tenderloins. Not to be confused with pork loin (a different cut of meat), your tenderloins should be as even in size as possible. We used 1 pound tenderloins.
- Chipotles in adobo sauce. These are the canned chipotles in the smoky spicy sauce. You’ll need both the peppers and the sauce. You’ll need 2 peppers from the can (unless you want it even spicier)!
How to Tell When Pork is Done
Using a meat thermometer is the best and most accurate way to tell when your pork is done. The pork is fully cooked when a meat thermometer inserted into the center of a tenderloin reads 145 degrees F.
In our oven, Chipotle Pork Tenderloin takes about 20 minutes to cook through. Home oven temperatures can vary so using an oven thermometer helps ensure the pork is cooked to a safe temperature for consumption.
It’s okay if your pork is still slightly pink–as long as that internal temperature is at least 145!
Tips and Tricks
- Make the marinade ahead of time. You can prep the marinade and add the tenderloins up to 24 hours in advance. Then, just transfer the pork to the oven and bake for a quick and easy meal.
- Use a blender to combine the ingredients for the cilantro lime sauce. It makes it so much easier to get everything smooth and combined.
- Drizzle the cooked pork with the cilantro sauce right before serving.
- Store leftover dressing and pork separately in airtight containers in the fridge. Reheat and enjoy within 2 days.
Serving Suggestions
There are so many ways to turn this chipotle pork tenderloin into a balanced meal. Try it with this Cilantro Lime Rice or Mexican Street Corn Salad.
It’s perfect with a side of grilled flour or corn tortillas too. Add a little Guacamole and wrap it up for tasty tacos. Or top it with our mango salsa.
Mix up leftovers with romaine lettuce and southwestern veggies for a lunch salad the next day. Save a little cilantro lime sauce to drizzle on top as a dressing. Delicious!
For dessert, everyone will love Dulce de Leche Banana Cream Pie or a slice of Pineapple Upside Down Cake.
Recipe FAQs
The pork tenderloin tastes best when it has at least 2 hours to marinate in those tasty sauces. It’s even better if you can leave it overnight!
No, it is not. Pork loin comes from a different park of the pig and is much denser, taking longer to look. Be sure to use pork loins in this recipe, which are boneless, long cuts of pork.
If you don’t have access to a meat thermometer, you can use the touch test to gauge when the pork is fully cooked.
When ready to eat, the pork should feel at least as firm to the touch as the tip of your index finger. Raw and undercooked pork will feel soft and squishy to the touch.
Yes, this pork tenderloin tastes magical when grilled. Cook on the grill top for about 12 minutes on each side (or until internal temperature reaches 145). Wrap grilled pork in foil and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.
More Dinner Recipes:
- Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Crock Pot Carnitas
- Meatloaf Recipe
- Orange Chicken
- Root Beer Pulled Pork
- Lasagna Soup
- More Delicious Dinner Recipes
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Chipotle Pork Tenderloin
Ingredients
For the Pork:
- 2 pork tenderloins about 1 pound each
- ½ cup orange juice
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
For the Cilantro Lime Sauce:
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
- 1 lime juiced
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- handful of cilantro garnish
Instructions
- In a food processor, add oil, salt, pepper and chilies in adobo. Process until chilies are finely ground. Slowly stream in the orange juice. Pour ingredients into a large ziploc bag, add pork tenderloins and seal. Shake and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
- When ready, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bake tenderloins on baking sheet and cook for about 20 minutes, until internal temperature of pork reaches 145 degrees. Oven temps may vary, so using a meat thermometer yields best results!
- Remove from oven and allow to rest about 5 minutes before slicing.
- While the pork is cooking, combine all the dressing ingredients in a blender (or food processor). Blend until smooth.
- To serve, slice pork and drizzle with cilantro lime dressing. ENJOY!!
Notes
- Pink pork is okay as long as the temperature reaches 145 degrees!
Nutrition
Juicy flavor, zesty lime cilantro sauce and a kick of peppery heat make this Chipotle Pork Tenderloin a meal to remember! An easy weeknight dinner idea never tasted so good.
The combination of the Chipotle Pork Tenderloin with the Cilantro Lime Sauce sounds wonderful! Pork tenderloin would be excellent choice for Easter! You and I were thinking along the same lines because I recently posted my recipe for Pork Loin for Easter dinner. Thanks for sharing. I’m going to have to give your recipe a try.
I’m pretty sure I would eat every last bite of this meal. Love the cilantro lime sauce!
Nothing better than #pinkpork! Fabulous flavors in this recipe!
I love this marinade and this recipe! Your #pinkpork really shines in your gorgeous photos too!
Thank you so much for participating in this campaign!
Thank you Kristen, it was fun to be a part of again!!
mmmmmm this looks like an amazing marinade, Aimee! I love chilis in adobo, and it’s been ages since I had pork. Pinning this immediately! 😀
If it has chipotle flavor, I’m all over it!! I love this recipe. That guacamole is a must!
Great recipe, flavor combinations and pictures! Thank you for participating Amy!
Thank you Jennifer. It was wonderful working together creating something delicious!
I love this flavor combo! I make something along these lines, though somewhat reversing how you have it. I marinade in a cilantro-lime mixture and have a chipotle sauce.
Love the idea of doing this in the reverse! YUM!
This looks divine- I love the colours and the flavours all sound amazing together!
Thank you Jess. It was quite a delicious meal!
Wow, love it! Can’t wait to give this a try!
The Cheap Chef
Pork is my favorite meat. Thanks for the links to the charts – I bookmarked them both. Your tenderloin looks wonderful and I have been on such a chipotle kick lately this is calling for my time and attention.
Thanks Maralyn! I hope you enjoy the recipe, let me know if you give it a try!!
I grew up thinking the same thing! We invested in a meat thermometer and it is the best thing! No guessing when the meat is ready! This looks great!
Thanks Nancy!! I love using the meat thermometer, no overcooked pork for us!
This is a meal the whole family would enjoy!!
Yes indeed!!!
This looks amazing! I need to take my pork tenderloin out of the freezer I’m thinking 🙂 Yum.
This looks so delicious, pork tenderloin is one of our favorites to grill this time of year!
That cilantro lime sauce sounds perfect!
Love smokey chipotle flavor and pork tenderloin–I don’t cook with either enough. Thanks for putting it all together for me 🙂
That is one perfect looking pork tenderloin! The flavors all sound amazing. I love chipotle chilies in adobo sauce too, I have a bunch in the freezer right now and never thought to use it for marinade.
Thanks for the ideas!
Give them a whir in a food processor and they make a FANTASTIC topping for burgers too. Or put them in your scrambled eggs!
This seriously looks SO good! Definitely need to add it to our dinner menu soon! 🙂
You totally should!! And don’t forget the sauce, so important 🙂
Oooh this looks beautiful, and I love that it has a tint of pink. My dad has always loved a medium rare, so I have grown up with the pink, and love it, so tender, and this would be so flavorful. Pinning right now; a perfect post workout source of protein!
Thanks for pinning Tina!