Smoking a boneless pork loin is fabulous. This apple filled smoked pork recipe is amazing. Takes just 15 minutes to prep. and with our dry rub on the outside you’ll have a tender smoked pork loin you’ll love.
My husband is a bit obsessed with his electric smoker, and I am totally okay with that! ๐ He’s come up with a bunch of easy smoker recipes along with this new smoked pork recipe. It’s stuffed with apples and has a sweet and smoky flavor that the kids said was their favorite one he’s made thus far. (affiliate links present)
Smoked Pork Loin
Looking for the best meats to smoke in your new outdoor cooker?? We have a killer idea right here. Using a bit of natural sweetness with sliced apples, seasonings and apple pellets in your Traeger you too will have an amazing dinner without heating up your house.
I don’t know about you but when it comes to the summertime I love when dinner is cooked in the backyard. I mean it smells amazing but it is nice to keep the heat outside.
My husband does it most often but I have been known to make smoked pork in a Traeger a time or two also. It’s easier than you might think really. We started this journey creating a lot of electric smoker recipes. Those will work too if you’re looking for more ideas.
To get your meats absolutely perfect we have this printable meat smoking chart to refer to so each and every time it will be fork tender.
- Recently we upgraded to this Traeger pellet smoker and grill and love it.
- We started with an electric smoker that was a Charbroil which worked well to start with.
- I like applewood pellets, we always have those on hand and make almost everything.
Pork Loin in a Smoker
Several times I have gone to the store and found these dirt cheap. Maybe they just ordered an excess or it was something to draw customers into the store but I take advantage of it. Since we have a deep freezer in our garage and buy meat in bulk often it is a great way to save money.
I mean I do this with any sort of protein really. Not only does it agree with my budget but since we live in snow country it minimizes the trips to the store during the winter time. The last thing I want to do then is plow my driveway just to buy some dinner at the grocery store.
Instead I load up, freeze them and defrost the night before. If the pieces are really large I will cut ones like you see here below in half and wrap each one in a freezer Ziploc and then freeze.
There are only 4 of us in the house so it’s a bonus if I get two meals out of one piece. For this one specifically I do leave it whole though so I can stuff it.
Here are a few questions you might have before you get started;
We did not. If you want that smokey flavor on the outside of your meat and a crustier/browned exterior you shouldn’t. If you want to you can alternatively sear outside in a large skillet before or after cooking.
Wrapping it aluminum foil will help keep it moist all over. When doing so the moisture will remain trapped inside. Just note it won’t have the same smoked flavor or outside texture. Or spray, pour apple cider over it a few times while cooking as we did with our smoked pulled pork Traeger recipe here.
What goes well with smoked pork loin?
We love vegetables like smoked corn on the cob or smoked baked potatoes personally. A side salad is always an easy side dish too. Apples, honey and brown sugar were the main flavors with a bit of salt of course to bring it all together.
Dry Rub Smoked Pork Recipe
We used a center cut pork loin which is wider than the traditional tenderloin you might buy. It worked well for this particular creation since he was planning on stuffing it with goodies.
If you’ve never smoked pork before it is a great way to cook it. We’ve had smoked pulled pork before but we’re making our way around the pig and used this center cut this time. ๐
- Wood chips or pellets add great flavor to pork. It also comes out so tender versus cooking it in the oven.
- We didn’t wrap ours in aluminum foil so the outside would really soak in the smoke flavor but you could do that if you chose.
I have never been a huge fan of pork but ever since he’s created several smoked pork recipes like these smoked bacon wrapped pork chops I can’t get enough.
A nice large pork loin is best. Those are thicker and wider than a tenderloin. This is important so you have room to create a cavity to stuff it with all the things in the center of it.
Ingredients
- Center cut pork loin – a pork tenderloin could be used too but those are narrower and don’t allow you to stuff them as full
- Apple – large Fuji is what we used
- Brown Sugar
- Honey
- Salt – we prefer sea salt or kosher salt
- Wood chips or smoker pellets
- If your smoker doesn’t have a built in digital thermometer you’ll want that too.
How to Cook Pork Loin on Pellet Grill
I have a printable recipe card for you at the very bottom of this post. Before you get going you might want to take a quick peek at how we did this. Especially if you’re just starting to grill this way you may need to wrap your head around the whole process.
- Preheat smoker filled with wood chips or pellets to 250 degrees F.
- Core and slice apple, the thinner the softer they will become. Slice loin lengthwise so there’s a pocket but not all the way through.
- Sprinkle half of brown sugar and salt mixture into crevice, then lay apples inside with other half sprinkled on top.
- Drizzle honey on top of apples
- Put meat on to preheated grate (we didn’t wrap with foil), close lid and smoke for 2.5 hours.
- Check internal meat temperature which should be 145 F.
- Wrap in foil when done for 15 minutes to rest before slicing to maintain juiciness.
Should pork tenderloin be 145 or 160?
145 degrees F. is the minimal temperature your loin should be in the thickest part before consuming. The range is from 145-160 to keep it moist, any higher than that and it will likely be dry when sliced no matter what you do.
Use choice of pellets, this is our favorite one that we literally use for everything. I have used hickory before if that was all I had on hand too and yep, just as good. Some electric smoker machines use wood chips instead of pellets. You can generally find the same versions in those too. There is no need to soak in water or apple juice beforehand.
Reason being is to start the actual smoke they would have to dry out first anyway so adding moisture just would make it take even longer.
You can choose to add our steak dry rub ingredients on the outside of the whole thing or just use simple seasonings. I will say that we do use the mixture linked below in our printable recipe card below on our how to smoke steaks and smoked pork steaks too. Choose either way or both and see which you prefer best.
- We enjoyed the natural apple and smoke flavor but some onion powder and black pepper would work well just for a little bit on the bottom and sides. That is totally up to you.
Just pop it in at 250 degrees and enjoy!! Use leftovers for pulled pork sandwiches. Just add a bit of barbecue sauce to the sliced pork, stir and add to slider buns the next day.
Smoked Pork Loin
Equipment
- 1 smoker
Ingredients
- 3.5 lbs pork loin, center cut boneless
- 1 large apple, fuji, cored and sliced
- 2 tbsp honey
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- dry rub, optional for coating outside of meat before stuffing with apples
Instructions
- Cut a slit in the top of your pork loin lengthwise in the middle, half way down but not all the way thru, creating a pocket. Do not cut end to end as contents will spill out, look at photo.(season outside of meat now if you choose to, we just sprinkled with salt and pepper)
- Mix sugar and salt together and sprinkle half in the middle of your crevice, then put sliced apples, then the other half of your sugar/salt mixture on top of your apples.
- Drizzle honey over top of pork, mainly in the middle where it is stuffed.
- Put in smoker that has wood chips in it that has been preheated to 250 degrees. If you have a probe that measures temperature put it inside one end all the way inside your loin.
- Smoke until inside temp is at least 145 degrees which took 3 hours for us if you don't have a temp. probe.
- Wrap in foil and allow to rest for 15 minutes to maintain juices, then slice.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Fantastic on the Traeger when you use Super Smoke!
Did use dry rub on outside and swapped honey for Canadian Maple syrup.
Very yummy!
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