Thai Peanut & Spice-Encrusted Pork Tenderloin

This is a really easy, delicious, and fast recipe using just a few ingredients.

It turned out great -- I recommend serving with large lettuce leaves, onions, spicy peanuts, cilantro, and spicy peanut sauce (I made some out of peanut butter, yogurt, and lots of spiciness w/ red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, etc)

Pork tenderloin
Taste of Thai Spicy Peanut Bake
Olive oil
Minced garlic, salt, pepper

1. Coat tenderloins with olive oil, salt and pepper.
2. Rub minced garlic onto tenderloin
3. Coat tenderloins with as much of the Spicy Peanut Bake as will stick.
4. Bake on a foil-covered rimmed cookie sheet at 450 for 20 minutes, or until center of meat reaches 145 degrees.

Pulled Pork with Caramelized Onions

My mom made this recipe when I was last home to visit and it was so good I decided to give it a shot. It has a great spicy undertone and the extra step of caramelizing the onions first made a big difference (even if I'm not sure that we'll ever clear the onion smell from our house now!)

I also realized while making this that I've never cooked with huge piece of butcher-cut raw pork before, and to be honest, de-fatting it was a little gross, but worth it.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

3 large onions, thinly sliced

1/3 cup raw cane sugar, such as Demerara or turbinado

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cider vinegar

1 cup chili sauce (I used a southwest red chili sauce from Whole foods)

4-5 tsp minced chipotle chile in adobo sauce (I increased this substantially from the original recipe)

3 pounds boneless pork shoulder or blade (butt) roast, trimmed

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften, 3 to 6 minutes. Add sugar and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the onions are golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes more. Add garlic, oregano, pepper, and salt and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add vinegar and bring to a boil. Cook until mostly evaporated, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in chili sauce and chipotle to taste.

2. Place pork in a 4-quart (or larger) slow cooker and cover with the sauce. Cover and cook until the pork is almost falling apart, about 4 hours on High or 8 hours on Low.

3. Transfer the pork to a cutting board and shred using two forks. Stir back into the sauce.

(Can be made ahead and frozen as well)