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This easy, all-in-one Instant Pot Pork Tenderloin Recipe delivers a perfectly cooked, seasoned pork tenderloin alongside a delicious apple and sweet potato puree.
Pork tenderloin is a lean cut of pork that when cooked with care, results in a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth cut of meat.
But because pork tenderloin is such a delicate cut of meat that can easily overcook, I was hesitant to try cooking it in the Instant Pot. After all, I love my recipes for Balsamic Pork Tenderloin and Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin--why mess with perfection?
But after many requests from YOU, I have perfected the timing for cooking pork tenderloin in the Instant Pot and the results are quite spectacular.
Seasoned with garlic and cooked in apple cider, the pork tenderloin absorbs so much flavor, while cooking to the perfect temperature.
And while delicious served as an entree all on its own, I love to cook apples and sweet potatoes along with the pork, which results in a delicious, easy, one-pot meal that everyone loves.
Key Ingredients
- Pork Tenderloin: Be sure to use pork tenderloin not pork loin. The typical size of pork tenderloin is between 1.25 and 1.5 pounds.
- Apple Cider: Apple cider or apple juice is the perfect cooking liquid for pork tenderloin. It will help to season and sweeten the pork. Just be sure to NOT use apple cider vinegar--vinegar would ruin this meal.
- Garlic and Onions: For additional flavor and savoriness to the overall dish.
- Sweet Potato and Apple Mash: This is completely optional, but does make for a nice all-in-one meal. Just be sure to use an apple variety that holds up well to cooking like Gala, Honeycrisp, or Granny Smith.
How To Make Instant Pot Pork Tenderloin
- Turn the Instant Pot to Saute, add in oil, and let heat for 2-3 minutes.
- While the Instant Pot is heating, trim the silverskin if necessary from the pork and season liberally with salt and pepper.
- Once the Instant Pot is heated, add the seasoned pork to the inner pot and sear the pork on each side, 2-3 minutes per side, or until just golden.
- Remove the pork tenderloin to a plate. Turn the Instant Pot OFF.
- Add the apple juice to the inner pot and use a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom. This will prevent a burn notice.
- Add the cubed sweet potatoes, apples, and onions to the inner pot, if using.
- Nestle the seared pork on top of the potatoes or in the apple juice.
- Place the lid on the inner pot and set the cooking time for 3 minutes on high pressure.
- Once the cooking time has elapsed, allow the pressure to release for 10 minutes. This will prevent the pork from being tough!
- Remove the pork tenderloin from the instant pot and place it on a cutting board to rest.
- Strain off the apples, sweet potatoes, and onions and place them into a blender or a large mixing bowl and add in ½ cup of the cooking liquid. Mash or blend to desired consistency, adding additional cooking liquid as needed.
Cooking Frozen Pork Tenderloin
You can prepare frozen pork tenderloin in the Instant Pot. There are just a few things to keep in mind.
- You will not be able to sear the pork, so the meat will be a bit more gray and soft after cooking.
- You will need to cook the frozen pork tenderloin for 12 minutes on high pressure instead of 3 minutes.
- Cut the sweet potatoes and apples into larger (2-inch) chunks to account for the longer cook time.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! Simply omit the sweet potatoes, onions, and apples from the recipe. Season, sear, and cook the pork tenderloin in apple juice as the recipe states.
No. You can serve sweet potatoes, apples, and onions on the side of the pork tenderloin. I just find that the mash is more kid-friendly.
Pork tenderloin is a very lean cut of meat and therefore only needs to be cooked in a couple of minutes. Cooking longer than the suggested times will result in an overcooked piece of meat that will likely be dry and tough. This method for cooking pork tenderloin at 3 minutes on high pressure will result in pork tenderloin at 150-155 degrees--which in my book is perfect. The pork tenderloin will be juicy, and slightly pink, but warm all the way through.
Searing meat seals in the juices of the meat and gives the meat a bit of texture. It is not a necessary step, but it will elevate the flavor of the pork tenderloin, significantly. If you opt to skip searing the pork, cook for 4 minutes under high pressure.
YES! If you would like to prepare 2 pork tenderloins instead of just 1, simply sear both tenderloins in batches and cook on high pressure for 3 minutes as instructed. If you would like to double the sweet potato and apple mixture, reduce the cooking time to 2 minutes to account for the extra time it will take for the Instant Pot to come to pressure.
More Instant Pot Pork Recipes
If you enjoyed this recipe for Instant Pot Pork Tenderloin, be sure to leave a comment and review below.
Instant Pot Pork Tenderloin
Video
Ingredients
- 1 pork tenderloin, ~1 ½ pounds
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt, divided
- 1 teaspoon pepper, divided
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup apple cider, or apple juice (NOT APPLE CIDER VINEGAR!!!!)
- 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed into ½ inch cubes
- 1 large firm, sweet apple, cubed
- 1 large sweet onion, cubed
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled
Instructions
- To remove the silver skin from the pork tenderloin slip a knife blade just under the silver skin making a "tab" to hold on to. Hold on to that tab with one hand and then run the blade of the knife under the membrane, keeping it angled away from the meat, to remove just the silver skin, not the meat itself. Discard the membrane.
- Season the pork generously with salt and pepper.
- Turn the instant pot to saute function, add in 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil and let heat. Once heated, add seasoned tenderloin to inner pot and sear on each side until just browned. Remove the pork from the instant pot and place on a plate.
- Pour 1 cup apple cider into inner pot and scrape up any browned bits of bottom of instant pot.
- Add in 3 large sweet potatoes (diced), 1 large firm, sweet apple (diced), 1 large sweet onion (diced), and 3 cloves garlic (minced). Season with pinch of salt and pepper. Place the pork tenderloin back into the pressure cooker on top of vegetables.
- Secure lid on instant pot and turn vent knob to sealed. Cook on high pressure:4 minutes for 165℉ (74℃)3 minutes for 155℉ (68℃)2 minutes for 145℉ (63℃)
- Allow pressure to release for 10 minutes and then do a quick release. Remove pork from instant pot and place on cutting board to slice.
- While pork is resting on cutting board, use a hand held-immersion blender or a potato masher, to combine the sweet potatoes, apples and onions until smooth. (Remove ½ cup cooking liquid if you would like a thicker mash.)
- Serve pork alongside the sweet potato apple puree.
Notes
- Sweet Potato Mash: There will be a lot of cooking liquid, feel free to remove ½ cup with a ladle or measuring cup before blending up the sweet potatoes and apples, for a thicker sweet potato mash. You can also opt to serve the apples, onions and sweet potatoes whole instead of serving it as a mash.
- Apple Cider: Feel free to use apple juice in place of apple cider. But DO NOT USE APPLE CIDER VINEGAR--this recipe is for apple cider or apple juice. Vinegar will ruin your dish.
- Pork Tenderloin without Sweet Potatoes and Apples: Sear the pork tenderloin as directed, and then add in apple cider to the Instant Pot and scrape up any browned bits from bottom of inner pot. Add in the onions and garlic and place tenderloin back in pressure cooker and cook as directed.
- Frozen Pork Tenderloin: skip Searing Pork Tenderloin and cook on high pressure for 12 minutes. If you want to add in sweet potatoes and apples, cut them into 2 inch chunks to account for the longer cook time.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was originally published in 2018 but was updated in 2021 with step-by-step process shots.
Your step 5 and main instruction say 4 minutes will cook the pork to 165 but that will be dried out. You also said, "This method for cooking pork tenderloin at 4 minutes on high pressure will result in pork tenderloin at 150-155 degrees–which in my book is perfect. " Can you clarify? Thank you!
Hi Linda, I am sorry for any confusion. I will be sure directions are clear. 4 minutes will equal 165 degrees. 3 minutes will equal about 150-155 degrees and 2 minutes will be 145 degrees. Hope that helps you!
My tenderloin came out way over cooked (internal temp was 195 degrees). I’m a pretty decent cook and followed the recipe very closely. The mash came out great, but the meat was all wrong, even though I only set it for 3 minutes. Any thoughts?
Hi Matt! Sorry for your frustration with the recipe. It may have been that your tenderloin was either very thin or seared for much longer than I seared mine. Or if you did not do an instant release of pressure that would cause the meat to overcook as well.
But the instructions say to let it NATURALLY release for 10 minutes... what's this talk of instant release?
I meant if the meat was left in the pressure cooker past the 10 minutes of natural release. But I was not very clear! Sorry about that. You want to release pressure after 10 minutes and immediately remove pork tenderloin so it is not left to cook in pressure cooker.
Delicious recipe! If I wanted to cook 2 of the tenderloins with this recipe would the time change? This one tenderloin isn't enough for everyone so I'd like to double that. The mash was fantastic and plenty there so just adding the additional tenderloin would be my only change.
Hi Aidan! I am so glad you enjoyed this meal. You can certainly make 2 pork tenderloins. The cook time should remain the same, but if they are frozen together, you will need to increase the time by 1-2 minutes total. Enjoy!
Absolutely yummy!!! It snowed all day and I had thawed out bone in pork chops- googled pork chop sweet potato instant pot recipes and found yours! Thank you for sharing! It was a wonderful dinner and my family agreed!!!
I am so glad you enjoyed Kristen! Safe warm and safe in the snow!
Have a pork tenderloin at home, this is just what I was looking for for dinner this weekend. Looks amazing with the sweet potatoes too.
My first time cooking pork tenderloin in the IP, and it came out really well! Perfectly seasoned and delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!
That is wonderful to hear Dini! I am so glad you enjoyed this meal.
So this is my first ever Instapot recipe, of course there’s potential for user error but honestly I didn’t understand what the purpose is sweet potato mixture was. It came out so mushy so it didn’t not feel like a mashed sweet potato side. It was like a baby food purée that we ended up using more of a sauce on the pork. You couldn’t really eat it as a side dish. Not sure if there something we could’ve done different with this more like mashed potatoes
I am so happy you tried out your Instant Pot, but I wish you would have enjoyed your first recipe more. You may have missed my tip that said
There will be a lot of cooking liquid, feel free to remove 1/2 cup with a ladle or measuring cup before blending up the sweet potatoes and apples. I did add it right to that step in the directions now to help people in the future, so it is not overlooked. In the future, I would ladle out some excess liquid before blending or or even omit apples (which give off a lot of liquid), that will really help to thicken your sweet potato mash.