I had a moment recently where I thought I was going crazy.
Joey was making something that required kitchen twine, which I knew I had, and I even knew which drawer it was in.
But after shuffling everything around in that drawer and several others, I just couldn’t find that darn ball of twine.
About a week later, I was making some cookies and pulled a scoop out of that same drawer, revealing my ball of twine, tucked snuggly into it. Of course.
I was happy to finally find it, because it came in handy this week when I decided to try something new.
This comes from the fabulous television chef Pati Jinich. You can find her original recipe at https://patijinich.com/pork-tenderloin-enchiladas-with-mole-verde/. I added extra garlic in my version and left off a pickled radish garnish she made.
Pork Enchiladas with Mole Verde
Ingredients
Pork Ingredients
- 2 pounds pork tenderloin
- 8 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tablespoons fresh sage finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 6 tablespoons olive oil divided
Mole Verde Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh tomatillos husked and cleaned
- 1 or 2 serrano or jalapeno peppers
- 3/4 cup raw pepitas
- 6 to 8 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 medium white onion roughly chopped
- 3 to 4 leaves romaine lettuce roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 cup cilantro leaves and upper stems
- 1 cup Italian parsley leaves and upper stems
- 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cup broth reserved from the tenderloin
- 12 corn tortillas for serving
Instructions
Pork Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Cut a slit (don’t cut all the way through) down the length of the tenderloin.
- In a small bowl, combine the garlic, sage, salt, black pepper and four tablespoons oil, and stir. Spread the oil mixture all over the tenderloin, and especially into the slit you created.
- Tie the tenderloin with kitchen twine, wrapping it around the entire length, so it holds together. (The tenderloin can be prepped up to 24 hours in advance.)
- Heat the other two tablespoons of oil in a Dutch oven with a lid over medium-high heat. Once it’s hot, add in the tenderloin, letting it brown for a few minutes on all sides.
- Add three cups of water to the Dutch oven, cover it, and roast the tenderloin for 30 minutes or until the meat is cooked through to an internal temperature of 150 degrees.
- Remove the tenderloin from the Dutch oven and let it rest on a cutting board for around 15 minutes, tenting it loosely with aluminum foil. Transfer the juices to a measuring cup, and set them aside.
- Once it’s done resting, dice the pork into bite-sized pieces.
Mole Verde Directions
- Put the tomatillos and peppers into a saucepan, cover them with water, and bring them to a low boil over medium-high heat. Let them simmer for about 10 minutes until everything is fork tender.
- While the vegetables cook, add the pepitas to a dry saucepan and heat over medium-low. Stir them regularly to keep them from burning, and remove them once they are lightly browned and start popping in the pan.
- Drain the tomatillos and peppers and add them to a blender, along with the garlic and salt. Puree until it’s smooth. Add in the pepitas, onion, lettuce, cilantro and parsley and puree again until smooth.
- Heat the canola oil over medium in a Dutch oven with a lid (I used the same one as for the pork). Add in the pureed sauce and one and one-half cups of the reserved broth from the pork (save the rest in the fridge for reheating leftovers). Stir until the mixture is at a low simmer, and then cover the pot with the lid askew and let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring every five. (Warning: this sauce will spit and pop all over the place and gets pretty messy.) If it starts sticking to the bottom of the pot too much, turn the heat down a bit. The sauce is done when it thickly coats the back of a spoon. Add more salt and pepper, to taste.
To Serve
- Carefully dredge both sides of a tortilla in the sauce, and place it on your serving platter or plate. Put a scoop of the pork onto the tortilla, fold it over and add more sauce, as desired, to the top.
- Alternatively, we added the pork to the finished sauce, skipped the dredging, and ate it like tacos.
This was absolutely delicious. The sauce has this amazing, bright flavor, and the pork was delicious, too. It was also awesome for leftovers. When you reheat the sauce, just add a little bit of that pork broth to loosen it back up, and it’s perfect. I will definitely be making this again.
And when I do, one thing is certain: I’ll know where to look for my twine.
This piece first appeared in print April 10, 2025.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
