Smoked Stuffed Pork Loin
I’ve wanted to make this recipe for quite some time. It started to get cold outside and I had a lot of basil in garden to use up. I took a pork loin and butterflied it open, hammered it thin, and brined it for a day. Then I stuffed it with mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, red onions and my basil. Then it got rolled up and tied, then smoked. Once the pork reached an internal temperature of 150 degrees, I pulled it from the smoker and let it rest for 20 minutes. I sliced the loin into 1” thick pieces, resulting in a pinwheel effect of stuffing in the pork loin.
Equipment
- Meat Mallet
- Butchers Twine
- Electric Smoker
- Probe Thermometer
Ingredients
- 4 lb boneless pork loin roast
- 9 slices mozzarella cheese
- 2 cups Italian basil leaves
- 8 oz sun dried tomatoes
- 1/2 medium red onion thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 3 tsp black pepper
- 3 tsp garlic powder
Brine
- 1/2 gallon water
- 1/2 cup sea salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
Wood Chips
- 2/3 hickory wood chips
- 1/3 applewood chips
Instructions
- Mix together the brining ingredients. Set aside.
- Place the pork loin fat cap side up.
- Slice a third of the thickness of the pork loin horizontally almost all the way through. You are almost butterflying the loin, except you are cutting into only a third of the thickness instead of in half.
- Butterfly open the thicker side of the pork loin. It should look like you have 3 sections wide open of pork loin.
- Using a meat mallet, hammer down the pork loin all over until it is equal thickness; about 1”-1.5” thick.
- Placd the pork loin in a gallon sized storage bag with the brine. Squeeze out any air. Brine for 24 hours.
- When ready to stuff, pat dry with paper towels. Lay out the pork loin flat.
- Place the mozzarella across the entire pork loin.
- Layer whole basil leaves and sun dried tomatoes on top of the cheese.
- Cover with sliced red onions.
- Carefully roll up the pork loin.
- Using butcher’s twine, tie up the pork loin. I start by tying in the middle, then 3 ties on each side of the center. Then tie up the loin once horizontally. Let the pork loin sit at room temperature an hour before smoking. Season the outside with paprika, black pepper, and garlic powder.
- Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. Placd the stuffed loin in the smoker.
- At the 3 hour mark, take the temperature with a probe thermometer. Continue smoking until the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees.
- Let rest for 20 minutes before slicing.
