I remember as a kid growing up, my sister and I would always tease my parents about their love of freshly-cracked black pepper. We had a huge pepper grinder that used to be placed on the table for every meal, and — while we rarely touched it — they took great delight in cracking fresh pepper onto just about every meal.
Now, decades later, it’s Yours Truly who has a slight obsession with the pepper mill. :) Absolutely love filling it with all sorts of beautiful peppercorns that I come across, and enjoying the satisfaction of grinding out some amazingly fresh, fragrant and oh-so-delicious black pepper.
So it will come as no surprise that I’m a huge fan of peppercorn sauce. I usually just improvise and toss in whatever ingredients (wine, brandy, cream, herbs, you name it…) I have on hand. But wrote down this delicious combination I tried last week on my day off to share on here. I ended up serving it over a cooked pork tenderloin, but it would be great on steaks, chicken, seafood, grilled veggies…whatever you’d like to make! Very simple, very versatile, and very flavorful.
So pull out your pepper grinder (or jar of coarsely-ground pepper), and give it a try!!
Pork Tenderloin with Burgundy Peppercorn Sauce
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 1 lb tenderloin and 2-3 cups peppercorn sauce
Description
You’ll love this Pork Tenderloin With Burgundy Peppercorn Sauce recipe! So delicious and easy to prepare!
Ingredients
- 1 (about 1 lb.) pork tenderloin
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil (separated)
- 1 cup finely chopped shallots or onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup freshly-cracked black peppercorns (preferably coarsely ground)
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup parsley
Instructions
- To prepare the tenderloin: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Trim pork tenderloin of any excess fat, and remove silver skin. (For a helpful video on how to remove silver skin, see here.)
- Heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Generously season the tenderloin with the freshly-cracked black pepper, and press to be sure it sticks. Add to the skillet and cook, turning as needed, for 4 to 5 minutes (about 1 minute per side), until evenly browned. Transfer tenderloin to a greased baking dish, and place it in the oven to roast for 12 to 15 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the tenderloin reads 140 degrees. Remove dish from oven and transfer the tenderloin to a plate and cover loosely with aluminum foil to keep warm.
- To make the sauce: Meanwhile, in a skillet or saucepan over medium-high heat, add the shallots and sauté for 2 minutes. Then add the garlic and saute 1 more minute. Add the red wine and as it boils, deglaze the pan by scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon (helps to have one with a straight edge) to dislodge all the browned bits. Once the wine is almost cooked away, add the beef stock and turn the heat to high. Boil the sauce down until there’s a noticeable trail when you drag a wooden spoon through the center of it (4-5 minutes).
- Pour in the heavy cream and resume boiling. Again, boil down until you can make that telltale trail from the wooden spoon. Turn off the heat and add the parsley and any remaining black pepper (no more than 1 Tbsp, the rest should have already been used to pepper the tenderloin). Taste for salt and add if needed.
- Cut the tenderloin on a slight diagonal (in 1/2″ or 1″ slices), and then spoon the sauce over to serve.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes
Ali’s Tip:
Feel free to substitute in any other favorite wines, brandy, or cognac in for the red wine on this. Anything will work, and be delicious!
Just had this for dinner. Absolutely fabulous. My husband has high cholesterol so instead of heavy cream I sub’d 1/2 cup 1% milk & 1tbl of corn starch. Perfect! Served with roasted parsnips & fresh asparagus. Will definitely make again..
Made this quite a few times now and we love it. The sauce is so delicious that we always double it! It’s honestly as good as a fillet steak with peppercorn, but for a fraction of the cost.
Just for reference (because of one or two of the commenters), the more stock/broth you use, the longer it will take to reduce! Just keep boiling and it will eventually reduce. I usually start the sauce before cooking anything else. My sauce comes out quite thick, which is great because we dislike watery, thin sauces!
Amazing as is! Will make again and again!!! Thank you
Added the following: iron skillet for yum-yums, used the BBQ and kept the skillet while still cooking also with olive oil , butter and 1 whole garlic. Browning continuously on all sides of meat, let rest. Tasting and I went…
While skillet is on heat add shallots till you smell the favor, then add garlic 1 min, add wine, I used cabernet. All accordingly, added a few herbs, tarragon 🌿, see but works. Added grilled peaches, add sliced.
Delicious and so easy to make. We always double the sauce. Usually serve with fries and peas, and sometimes mushrooms – it’s like a much cheaper version of a fillet steak with peppercorn sauce! Yummy!