An Iowa classic. A tasty tender fried pork tenderloin sandwich. The perfect recipe for the opening day of the Iowa State Fair.
For you non Iowans, this is a small town classic. Almost every small town in Iowa has a restaurant who will claim to have the best, most award winning or the biggest tenderloin sandwich. You don’t need to say pork, it is understood. The pork producers have a yearly contest to pick the best restaurant version. There are web sites dedicated to this much celebrated delicacy.
Rating:
Maybe it is a 4 without the memories but it’s a 5 to me.
This recipe started with what I wanted and then I read lots to get to the final recipe. Here is the summery of what I found.
1) The meat: Many actually use tenderized pork loin or a boneless pork chop. I believe this is ok but if you want the meat to be melt in your mouth, I suggest a pork tenderloin.
2) The wash: most use egg or egg with milk. Several used milk or buttermilk alone. I went with egg with some milk added.
3) The coating: There was flour without even any salt or pepper. There was onion powder, onion salt, garlic powder, garlic salt, oregano, paprika and a few other spices I don’t remember. There was cracker crumbs, bread crumbs, Italian bread crumbs, panko bread crumbs and corn meal.
4) Cooking method: Most did pan frying like I did. Several truly deep fried and two “oven fried”.
From all the above you should conclude…. do what you want. Everyone will swear by their method and I’m sure they are all fine. Mine is simple tasty and melt in your mouth good with not much work.
Start with about a quarter inch of oil in a large pan. I used a 12 cast iron chicken fryer but any heavy large fry pan would work. Preheat oven and a tray to 200 to use to keep batches warm while you do additional trays. Put the oil over medium heat and heat to 365. You need to check temp and a good instant read thermometer is great here.
Trim a pork tenderloin of any fat and silverskin. Now cut into 4 equal size piece. You are going for approximately equal weight. Next “butterfly” the pieces. Do this by cutting 3/4 of the way though and fold it back to double the size.
Next cover with plastic wrap and pound to 1/4 inch thick. Some go to 1/8 inch but that becomes huge.
Set up two pans. In the first, combine one egg and 1/2 cup milk. Whip well. In the second pan, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 1 t salt, and 1/2 tsp each of pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Start with coating the meat with the egg wash. Shake to remove excess.
Coat well in the flour mixture and shake off excess.
Place in the 365 degree oil.
Fry for 3-4 minutes per side. About a minute into each side, shake the pan a little to move the meat a little, this will keep it from sticking and help it be crispy. See the color change at the edge in the picture. The meat is saying “turn me now”
Cook until golden brown and internal temp of 160 plus. You will need to adjust heat to keep the oil in the 365 range. You will not be able to keep it perfect but be aware you need to turn up the heat. Between batches, you should turn the heat down to keep it from overheating.
Transfere the completed tenderloin to the heated oven and pan to keep warm for serving.
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Iowa Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich
Ingredients
- 1 pork tenderloin - trimmed
- 3/4 cup oil
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup AP flour
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Start with about a quarter inch of oil in a large pan. I used a 12 cast iron chicken fryer, but any heavy large fry pan would work. Preheat oven and a tray to 200 to use to keep batches warm while you do additional trays. Put the oil over medium heat and heat to 365. You need to check temp, and a good instant read thermometer is great here.
- Trim a pork tenderloin of any fat and silverskin. Now cut into four equal size piece. You are going for approximately equal weight. Next “butterfly” the pieces. Do this by cutting 3/4 of the way through and fold it back to double the size.
- Next cover with plastic wrap and pound to 1/4 inch thick. Some go to 1/8 inch, but that becomes huge.
- Set up two pans. In the first, combine one egg and 1/2 cup milk. Whip well. In the second pan, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 1 t salt, and 1/2 tsp each of pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.
- Start with coating the meat with the egg wash. Shake to remove excess. Coat well in the flour mixture and shake off excess.
- Place in the 365-degree oil. Fry for 3-4 minutes per side. About a minute into each side, shake the pan a little to move the meat a little, this will keep it from sticking and help it be crispy.
- Cook until golden brown and internal temp of 160 plus. You will need to adjust heat to keep the oil in the 365 range. You will not be able to keep it perfect but be aware you need to turn up the heat. Between batches, you should turn the heat down to keep it from overheating.
- Transfer the completed tenderloin to the heated oven and pan to keep warm for serving.
Nutrition is generally for one serving. Number of servings is stated above and is my estimate of normal serving size for this recipe.
All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.
Ruth
How much does the pork tenderloin weigh that you call for in this recipe? Seems like I have a lot of flour mix left over. The loins are very good, better than a restaurant as my husband puts it.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Ruth,
Welcome to the blog.
The Tenderloins are about 1 1/2 lb. usually. You are right, you can decrease the coating volume but I always have problems with breeding when I’m skimpy. So I always have a bit too much.
I need to rewrite this recipe a bit. Most people are using the oven fried version at https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/oven-fried-pork-tenderloin-sandwiches/ which is less of a mess.
Thanks for the note and rating.
Dan
David Fatka
Can you use Canola oil to deep fry in?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi David,
Welcome to the blog.
Yep, any vegetable oil in fine. I usually use corn or canola oil or mixture. Anymore though I usually do my oven version which is easier with less mess. https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/oven-fried-pork-tenderloin-sandwiches/
Thanks for the note and rating.
Dan
Will from Waterloo
Best meat sandwich in the world. Great recipe, great tips. A ten for sure.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Will,
Welcome to the blog and sorry for the delayed response.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe. This and my oven version seem better to me than what I have had in Iowa in recent years. Too many restaurants are using premade.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Alice Cato
If someone knows Millies recipe would you post it to my Email Thank you
Frank Schroedl
The recipe is good
Try making pork cutlet the easy way
Pork loin is best, but you can use trimmed, boned pork chops or steaks.
1. Trim and bone chops or steaks
2. Pound them out with a tenderizing hammer ( Both sides )
3. Dip in egg and milk mixture
4. Press your pork into crushed cracker crumbs (Premium) Don’t use cheap salteans
5. Pan fry in corn oil until golden brown
Enjoy!
It’s rare there are any leftovers
Lyle Mains
Frank, try soaking or marinating the loin overnight, after pounding out to desired thickness in buttermilk. Dredge in milk/egg, flour, then dredge again, and coat with panko bread crumbs. Fry 3 minutes on a side, in 350 degree peanut oil!
Nancy Brousseau
I grew up eating these in Iowa. Always made with coating of eggwash and crushed cornflakes. Am going to make them for my grandkids. Had forgotten how good they were.
DrDan
Thanks for the note and rating. I really like this but due to the fat I have moved on to the oven baked ones at https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/oven-fried-pork-tenderloin-sandwiches/ and I now like them better. Overall easier.
Dan
Dr Dan
I just had to put this in the top 10…
Kingdango
Yum, sharing this with Jenni…
Chris
I’ve seen that state specialty on some of the food travelogues on TV but haven’t tried making myself. Yours looks so nicely cooked and I bet it was tender.