Tenderloin Stuffed with Apples

What's up, you guys? Hopefully, we've made a few improvements in our filming and editing over the last seven years. It's an oldie but a goodie— a classic recipe that you guys are going to love: Apple Pie Stuffed Pork Tenderloin. Let's do it!

Tenderloin Stuffed with Apples Recipe-Grilled Bacon Wrapped Pork

This easy recipe combines savory and sweet flavors by stuffing pork tenderloin with apple pie filling, wrapping it in bacon, and seasoning with your favorite BBQ rub. Grill hot and fast at 400-450°F for crunchy bacon, or smoke at 275°F for a smoky flavor and tender, juicy pork. Perfect for fall gatherings or a holiday meal, this dish is ready in about 90 minutes to 2 hours. The result? A delicious, balanced bite of pork, bacon, and apple in every slice!

The Ingredients

Before I jump into anything else, let's talk really quickly about this dish. It's legitimately just four ingredients. It's super simple:

• Pork tenderloin

• Six slices of bacon

• A can of apple pie filling (more than you need, so I recommend getting the smaller cans if you can find them)

• Your favorite barbecue seasoning. We're using rib rub because it has a little cinnamon, which works perfectly with the apple pie filling to give it a really yummy BBQ flavor.

That's it! Those are all the ingredients.

The Cooking Method

The original recipe called for this to be grilled hot and fast at 400 to 450 degrees. But today, we’re going to do it low and slow— at 275 degrees. Why? We got a lot of questions about whether this could be cooked on a smoker, and the answer is, absolutely!

You’ll see slightly different results when grilling. Grilling gives you that nice, crunchy bacon on the outside, but smoking it gives you a deeper smoke flavor and beautifully rendered bacon. But first, we've got to prep everything, so let’s do that!

Prepping the Pork Tenderloin

To stuff our pork tenderloin, we need to make a pocket. For this, I've got a fillet knife. I'm going to start about an inch from the end of the tenderloin and cut down, but not all the way through. We don’t want to create a hole in the bottom—just a long slice down the center of the pork tenderloin. This should allow us to open it up almost all the way, creating a nice little pocket for the apple pie filling to sit in.

That was super simple. Now, we're going to fill it with apple pie filling. I know a lot of people make their own apple pie filling in the fall, and if that's you, major kudos! I’ve got the canned kind, and it works great. I grew up eating pork chops and applesauce, so to me, pork and apple are like the Dream Team flavor combo.

Wrapping with Bacon

Once we’ve got our apple pie filling in the pork, it's time to wrap it with bacon. I’ve got about six slices here, which is about half a pound, and that’s all you’re going to need. Start at one end and wrap, gently overlapping as you go. You don’t want the pie filling to tip out in the middle, so I tend to leave it on the cutting board and lift it as needed to get the bacon underneath.

Boom! It’s beautiful. Todd, you did it!

Seasoning and Smoking

Now that it’s wrapped in bacon, we’re going to season it with our rib rub—probably a couple of teaspoons will do.

Once it's seasoned, it's ready to go onto the smoker. Like I mentioned earlier, we're smoking this one, so instead of the crunchy bacon you’d get from grilling, we’ll get nicely rendered, beautifully tender bacon. We’re looking for an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Our smoker is rolling at 275 degrees, which should give us enough time to render that bacon for a great texture while still letting enough smoke penetrate the pork tenderloin.

We’re running applewood in our smoker, which makes sense—apple pie, pork, applewood—it’s all coming together!

Time and Temperature

This took about 90 minutes at 275 degrees, and then…

It took almost the full two hours to get up to 145 degrees Fahrenheit, but as you can see, we have a beautiful render on our bacon, some gorgeous color from the smoke, and everything looks perfect. We’re going to let it rest for just a few minutes before slicing into it. I can’t wait to show you guys that cross-section— the tender pork, the apple pie filling, the bacon. This is one of my favorite things, and my mouth is already watering just thinking about it.

Slicing and Serving

Normally, when I serve pork tenderloin, it’s in small, pencil-thin slices. But with this dish, you want to go a little thicker. I recommend slicing it about half an inch to three-quarters of an inch thick. This ensures you get a good ratio of pork, bacon, and apple pie filling in every bite.

Look at that right there—it’s a hearty but perfect slice for this dish. It’s steamy and juicy. Okay, I can’t resist—I have to steal a little taste-test bite.

The Taste Test

Oh man, that pork tenderloin is so juicy and tender. The bacon is perfectly rendered, bite-through, and tender. It gives you that nice, salty contrast to the sweetness of the apples. And then the cinnamon in the rub, combined with the smokiness, ties everything together. This is an epic, incredibly easy weeknight dish, but it’s also perfect if you’ve got family over or if you’re hosting a holiday meal.

Especially in the fall, when everyone’s gathering around the table, this is a winner.

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Becoming a Backyard Barbecue Hero

All I want to do is help you guys make better barbecue at home so you can feed the people you love and become a backyard barbecue hero. I think this recipe will help you do just that.

Okay, see you next time!