Elegant restaurant-quality Bacon Wrapped Pork Medallion with a smoky bacon wrap is bound to impress. It's now easy to make a great easy dinner for casual special occasions.
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What can be better than bacon-wrapped pork filet medallions grilled to perfection? A great change of pace from steaks for that special meal. Try it for your next casual company grilling night or date night.
This is a near-perfect "cooking for one" or "cooking for two" recipe. It is small scale already; it is delicious, economical, simple with everyday ingredients, and individual servings that can be easily frozen for later.
Slices of pork tenderloin coated with a great BBQ pork rub and wrapped with crispy bacon for a great restaurant-quality meal everybody will love. Serve with Grilled Red Potatoes and Grilled Mixed Vegetables.
For the short version with Grilled Pork Tenderloin Medallions. And don't miss these other pork tenderloin recipes, like Pan Seared Pork Tenderloin, Pork Tenderloin with Potatoes and Carrots, Memphis Grilled Pork Tenderloin, and Grilled Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches.
🐖Ingredients
- Pork tenderloin—do not use pork loin
- Bacon
- Suggested rub—brown sugar, Kosher salt, chili powder, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder OR seasoning of your choice
👨🍳How to Make Grilled Bacon Wrapped Pork Medallions
- Trim pork tenderloin, wrap it with bacon, and cut it between bacon strips to make medallions.
- Flatten medallions to equal thickness and season to your taste, then secure the bacon with toothpicks.
- Grill over direct heat, flipping every 5 minutes until an internal temperature of 145°-150°–about 20 minutes. Or sear on the stovetop and finish in a 450° oven.
- Allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
How to bacon wrap a pork tenderloin for medallions
The assembly technique is the big secret to this recipe. It just makes doing it ultra simple. You can cut the pieces first, then wrap them, but my way is much easier.
1) On a cutting board, lay out four strips of bacon side by side with a little gap between them (about 8 inches).
2) Lay the trimmed tenderloin on the bacon, trim off the skinny tail end of the tenderloin, and lay it beside the end of the tenderloin to make a thicker part.
3) Roll the bacon over the tenderloin, then cut between the bacon.
4) Lay flat and smash the meat to make the piece about the same thickness as the bacon. Now pin the end of the bacon with a toothpick and use two in the piece with the tail end to keep it together—spice to your taste.
♨️The Grill
Almost any gas grill will do. We want a grill surface temperature of 450° to a maximum of 500°. Most gas grills will be at about 60-75%. DO NOT look at the thermometer on the hood of your grill; it is not even close.
Please see my A Beginners Guide to Grill Temperature on a Gas Grill for help on grill surface temperature.
Charcoal should be fine. Just don't crank up the heat all the way and watch the temperature.
How to cook on the stovetop
Sear all sides (including the bacon) to about the final color over medium-high heat in an oven-safe fry pan with some oil. Check internal temperature and transfer to a preheated 400° oven to finish if needed.
Suggested spice rub
This is a version of my BBQ Dry Rub for Ribs, Pork, Beef, and More but use the rub or seasoning of your choice. The bacon gives a lot of flavor, so just salt and pepper work.
½ cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons kosher salt - Diamond Crystal preferred
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Note: this will make more than you need, but it stores well and is great on most meats.
🐖About Pork Tenderloin
Please be sure you are using pork tenderloin, sometimes called the pork filet, for this recipe. People seem to get confused with pork loin. Slices of pork loin are really pork chops. The tenderloin will have a different texture and taste.
❓FAQs
You can make these medallions ahead and refrigerate or freeze them. Assemble as directed and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for 3 months.
Add the seasoning for up to 24 hours ahead of cooking. If frozen, thaw completely before cooking.
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Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Clean and oil your grill. Adjust to get a consistent surface temperature of about 450°. That is about medium-high on most grills (or preheat oven to 400°.)
Mix your seasoning. A suggested pork rub is in the recipe card, but a simpler salt, pepper, and garlic combo (like my 7:2:2) would also be good. But season to your taste.
Trim pork tenderloin of any loose fat, membranes, and silverskin.
1) On a cutting board, lay out four strips of bacon side by side with a little gap between them (about 8 inches).
2) Lay the trimmed tenderloin on the bacon, trim off the skinny tail end of the tenderloin, and lay it beside that end of the tenderloin to make a thicker part.
3) Roll the bacon over the tenderloin, then cut between the bacon.
4) Lay flat and smash the meat to make the piece about the same thickness as the bacon. Now pin the end of the bacon with a toothpick and use two in the piece with the tail end to keep it together—spice to your taste.
Place over direct heat and flip about every 5 minutes until an internal temperature of 145°-150° (depending on your taste)—about 20 minutes. Be sure to have the bacon sides face the flame to crisp the bacon some.
Stovetop instructions: Sear all sides (including the bacon) to about the final color over medium-high heat in an oven-safe fry pan with some oil. Check internal temperature and transfer to a preheated 400° oven to finish if needed.
Allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
📖The Recipe Card with Step-by-Step Instructions
Bacon Wrapped Pork Medallions
Ingredients
- 1 pork tenderloin
- 4 strips bacon
- seasoning of your choice - 7:2:2, salt and pepper or rub below
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Clean and oil your grill. Adjust to get a consistent surface temperature of about 450°. That is about medium-high on most grills (or preheat oven to 400°.)
- Mix your seasoning. A suggested pork rub is in the recipe card, but a simpler salt, pepper, and garlic combo (like my 7:2:2) would also be good. But season to your taste.
- Trim pork tenderloin of any loose fat, membranes, and silverskin.
- 1) On a cutting board, lay out four strips of bacon side by side with a little gap between (about 8 inches).2) Lay the trimmed tenderloin on the bacon, trim off the skinny tail end of the tenderloin, and lay beside that end of the tenderloin to make a thicker part.3) Roll the bacon over the tenderloin, then cut between bacon.4) Lay flat and smash the meat to make the piece about the same thickness as the bacon. Now pin the end of the bacon with a toothpick and use two in the piece with the tail end to keep it together—spice to your taste.
- Place over direct heat and flip about every 5 minutes until an internal temperature of 145°-150° (depending on your taste)—about 20 minutes. Be sure to have the bacon sides face the flame some to crisp the bacon some.Stovetop instructions: Sear all sides (including the bacon) to about the final color over medium high heat in an oven-safe fry pan with some oil. Check internal temperature and transfer to a preheated 400° oven to finish if needed.
- Allow to rest 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- Check the post above for a visual example of how to cut and wrap the medallions.
- Spice to your taste. Just some salt and pepper is fine–usually with garlic. That would be my 7:2:2 seasoning. My wife wanted my rib rub, which is listed below. Only use about 2 teaspoons of the rub if you elect to use it. Seal tightly and store for later.
- The bacon cooks well for me with this recipe, but if your bacon is not cooking adequately, spend the last few minutes of grilling with the medallions on their side to cook the bacon more.
- FOR TWO TIP; easy to freeze for 3-4 months. Freeze after assembly. Season after thawing.
Optional Dry Rub
You will only need a few teaspoons of this if you use this as your seasoning. Seal the remainder of the rub and save for later.- 8 tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You can adjust the number of servings above; however, only the amount in the ingredient list is adjusted, not the instructions.
Nutrition Estimate (may vary)
Originally Published June 8, 2014. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Clancy says
Better than any restaurant bacon wrapped pork I’ve ever eaten. I followed you steps exactly as written and the rub truly elevated the tenderloin taste. I very much appreciated your instructional photos on how to wrap the bacon around the pork. I had a different vision of how to wrap, that is until I got to your photos. Certainly wasn’t how I planned to wrap, but yours was much easier. Thank you. Next up is your shredded pork tenderloin recipe. Haven’t had a fail yet with your recipes.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Clancy,
Welcome to the blog and thanks for the comment. I do find the rub was that special extra touch–all my wife's idea.
Thank for the comment and hope you enjoy the rest if the blog.
Dan
PS—I just noticed all the other comment have disappeared. There was a tech issue during the rewrite and about 50 comments were lost. My apologies to those commenters.