This Lemon Garlic Roasted Pork Loin is one of my favorite dishes to make for Sunday night dinners. The lemon and garlic marinade is wonderful and gives amazing taste to the pork loin.
I want to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine’s day and I hope you all spend it with your loved ones, eat good food and have fun.
Personally, it’s Friday, it’s Valentine’s day, and I have a super long 4 day weekend. Life is great. The month of February is all about love, and I love and appreciate all my readers and to show you my love I have one of my favorite Sunday dinner recipes here for you.
Growing up every Sunday we used to have a big meal, nothing fancy, usually roasted potatoes with roasted chicken, or some kind of roast meat. But we all ate together and it was just great family time. Pork was always a staple at our house, as a matter of fact I remember when my dad would buy half a pig or a whole pig and he’d bring it home and we’d make all kinds of sausages, head cheese, blood sausages, pork greaves, and we’d fill our freezer with pork. This was one way for my parents to save money, and we’d have meat from this for months.
But one of my favorite cuts of pork is the loin. I just love it because it’s a leaner meat. My mom is not the adventurous cook so her dishes always used pretty basic spices, but I on the other hand always loved to experiment with different flavors and spices. Although my mom always uses garlic on pork, you can’t have pork with no garlic, she would never think of using lemon on pork. So today’s pork recipe uses lots of lemon and lots of garlic, oregano and a bit of cayenne pepper.
To me cooking is about having fun in the kitchen, trying new things, hey if I don’t like something I won’t make it again, but if I do like it, I’ll make it over and over again. And I love this pork loin. I love the lemon and garlic flavor so much I even made a bit of gravy from it and poured it over the pork. It’s fabulous. My favorite side dish next to a wonderful piece of meat is always roasted potatoes. There’s just something special about roasted potatoes, to me they are home, family and they’re so darn delicious.
If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!
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Lemon Garlic Roasted Pork Loin
Ingredients
- 5 cloves garlic chopped
- 1/2 cup olive oil for marinade
- 2 tbsp oregano dried
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 1 tsp pepper or to taste
- 2 tbsp lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 lbs pork loin
Instructions
- In a blender add the garlic, olive oil, oregano, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper, zest and lemon juice and blend until smooth. In a baking dish, put the pork loin and pour the marinade over the pork and turn it over to coat well. Cover it up with plastic wrap and set it in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.
- Bake the pork loin for about 1 hour, or until it's no longer pink in the center. Insert a meat thermometer in the center of the pork loin and it should read 145 F degrees when it's done.
- Once it's done, take it out of the oven and cover it up with aluminum foil and let it rest for 10 minutes, don't cut it right away, if you do all the juices will run out of it.
Brian Taylor says
Very tasty recipe and easy to make. I served it with roast potatoes, lightly steamed broccoli and caesar salad. Everyone just loved it. Thanks!
Alma says
What do you do with the marinade? Can it be cooked down and used as a sauce. It seems a big waste of flavor to throw it out.
Jo Cooks Team says
As you can see in the photo above the recipe card, we left as much marinade as possible on the pork to roast.
Campnurse4 says
The recipe was not overpowering nor greasy. I had my doubts with the amount of oil used, but when blended it was just the right amount for putting over the meat as well as using for a gravy. I included root vegetables and enclosed them both tightly. They came out very tender!
Mary says
This was amazingly delicious and i knew it would be..
Great recipe wouldnt change a thing…will be making this again!!
Cathy says
I have made this before with a 2lb roast delicious! I have a 3.3lb roast and was wondering how much longer it will take to cook also wondering if I should lower temperature or leave at 375 thanks!
Joanna Cismaru says
Best way is to use a meat thermometer and check it for doneness.
Dave Knight says
I made this with some mods that I thought I’d share since you offered up great suggestions and directions to get me started.
I brined in a ziploc bag first for a day with some ham base (2 tbsp “better than boullion” ham base and 1 1/2 cups water) and did a complete pour off with no rinse (eliminates need for salt to taste). I then marinated but cut the oil down to 1/4 cup and added some dill to the mixture.
When I put in the oven, I added a heaping tablespoon of bacon grease before covering my pyrex dish with foil. I then cooked to 145, took it out, and seared the 2 tenderloin pieces with my own smoke sear set up. I take a steel grill plate loaded with hickory chips set the chips ablaze with a gas grill burner providing the searing heat underneath. This is a really nice finish to this great dish for smoke lovers like myself. Oh, I also did the reduction you did on the stove of the drippings but did not thicken it. I would have thickened but I’m on keto, so I try to cut the carbs where I can. I also did the 10 minute rest with foil covering before cutting the seared meat. I then poured the reduction onto the medallions.
Joanna Cismaru says
Sounds wonderful! Bet it tasted even better. 🙂
Gino says
Did you seer or Polk holes prior to cooking? Better to be on Convection Bake or Convection Roast? If i double the marinade refrigerate then heat up after cooking to pour over after slicing would that hurt it? I’m giving a shot tomorrow sounds yummy.
Joanna Cismaru says
For this recipe I haven’t seared or poked holes in the pork loin. I used convection bake and it worked fine, I know convection roast works as well and it gives a nicer crispier outside if that’s what you’re looking for, however pretty much whenever I use convection roast my fire alarm goes off. LOL
Gaileypoo62 says
Hi Jo! 🙂 Was wondering if I could make this in my pressure cooker?
Fenne Kieken says
Yes you certainly can and would need to adjust your time accordingly. I dont use one so would not be able to tell you anything further.
Rocio Ambriz says
Hi Jo, So technically the total amount of this dish is almost 3 hours correct since the minimum amount of time to kept refrigerated is 1 hour ?
Is there a more recommended amount of time in the fridge? I Just marinated it and put it in the refrigerator.
Joanna Cismaru says
Hi Rocio, 1 hour should be enough, but you could make this the night before and marinate it overnight in the fridge if you want.
Elaine Goos says
do you bake it in the marinade or not?
Joanna Cismaru says
Yes, that’s right, you bake it with all the marinade.
Lisa says
Hi Jo,
This looks awesome! What would you serve with this?
Joanna Cismaru says
Hi Lisa, I served this with some roasted potatoes, but mashed potatoes would be great, some steamed veggies, or just a nice green salad. 🙂
Latochia Bell says
I have made this before and it is really good. But has anyone used regular vegetable oil instead of olive oil? (Not wanting to go to the store at this moment!)
Joanna Cismaru says
I’m sure vegetable oil will be just fine. 🙂
Angel says
Could you give me and idea on how much salt and pepper ??! I am not good with to taste! Thanks!
jo says
I would use about 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.
Kelly says
Do you think I could make this with pork chops instead of a pork loin?
jo says
I suppose you could, but you’d have to readjust the cooking time.
Jennifer says
Making this tonight!! Do you cover it while its cooking!?
jo says
No I didn’t Jennifer. Hope you like it. 🙂
SkippyMom says
This is absolutely delicious. Plenty of marinade for a 2 lb roast and smells like heaven.
I did substitute red pepper flakes for cayenne pepper, only because I was out – and still….amazeballs.
Thank you for sharing and all the additional hints in the comments. I will be sure to share with my friends and family.
jo says
So glad you guys enjoyed it. 🙂
Whitney says
Hi Jo! I have a roasting pan and about a 5LB pork loin do I need to douple the spices and stuff or how do I do this!? Lol help
Thanks so much Whitney
jo says
Hi Whitney,
I would definitely double the spices and everything. You want to make sure you have enough marinade for the loin.
Whitney says
Thank you so much! What about cooking time does that change?
jo says
Yes I would also increase the cooking time, since it’s a bigger piece of meat. The internal temperature of the pork loin should be about 150 F degrees.
Allison says
How did you make the gravy?
jo says
Hi Allison, that was easy. I took the juices that were left at the bottom of the baking dish, added some chicken broth, or whatever broth you happen to have, about 1 tbsp of flour and cooked it on low heat until the sauce thickened. If you want it thicker add more flour, or if you want it thinner add more broth.
Marcey says
Hi,
Can this be done in the slow cooker? If so is there any changes I should make or add? Thanks! Loving your recipes!
jo says
Hi Marcey,
You could definitely make this in the slow cooker. I wouldn’t make any changes to the ingredients, I believe this pork loin cooking slowly in all those wonderful flavors would turn out excellent. You’d probably need to cook it for about 6 to 8 hours on low.
jo says
Just wanted to also mention you probably don’t need to marinade the pork anymore.
Norma says
Hello Jo, like your recipes. Do you have a cookbook ?
jo says
Hi Norma, not yet, working on one soon. 🙂
Judy says
Hiya Jo.
Can I use chicken instead of pork? Have a good weekend.
jo says
Of course you can Judy, lemon and garlic on chicken is amazing!
Judy says
Yay for Jo.
Explain why I love bacon. Like ham but can’t abide the thought of pork.
jo says
LOL, no idea. You gotta love bacon though. 🙂