One of many comfort foods we like to eat that is also relatively simple, easy, and quick to make. In short, Pork & Rice; in a bit more detailed of a title Pork Tenderloin with Spanish Rice. The following is my Winter 2024 iteration of the recipe followed by some thoughts for future iterations.
To start, the ingredients are rather straightforward. You will need, at a minimum, a Pork Tenderloin, a package of ready to make Spanish Rice (I typically use Uncle Ben’s), sliced mushrooms (fresh are nice, but canned work well and what I generally use), some salsa (as spicy or as mild as you prefer or that fits your diet), and some chicken broth.
First up, start the Spanish Rice. This does require the rice be cooked in a pot big enough to add the tenderloin to at the end. Adjust the recipe to use chicken broth and salsa in place of the water the package calls for. In this case, a full package of rice calls for 3-1/2 cups of water. Switch this to 3 cups of chicken broth and 1 cup of salsa. Set your timer to the low side of the recommended cooking times.
Next, trim down the pork tenderloin as needed. Our diet requires an extremely lean version of any meat. This may take a few minutes. You might consider doing this before starting the rice as needed. Once the tenderloin has been further trimmed, cube it to reasonable bite size pieces and put in a pan to brown and cook to a medium level.
As the meat approaches the medium level, add the sliced mushrooms. These can be prepped while the meat is cooking or you can open the can and drain the majority of any liquid the mushrooms are packed in.
Continue cooking the pork with the mushrooms until most of the liquid has been cooked off and with a bit of luck this will time out to the rice timer you set earlier.
Turn off all the stove burners.
Add the pan of pork and mushrooms into the rice pot. Mix well, and leave to cook on the cooling range burner for approximately 5 minutes.
Stir and serve with a tablespoon, or two, of sour cream on top. Enjoy!
Future considerations:
– adjust the rice recipe to 2 cups or water and 2 cups of salsa.
– and/or add a cup of salsa to the pork pan when you add the meat.