How Long To Cook A One Pound Pork Tenderloin

An all in one dinner with tender and juicy pork tenderloin combined with potatoes and carrots. Cooked on a sheet pan or in a shallow dish, your easy dinner is done in well under one hour. Think of it as comfort food for the lazy cook.

Image of a pork Tenderloin with Potatoes and Carrots on a blue plate

Introduction

Pork tenderloins are a great meat for smaller households and if you need more, just double it up. Add some veggies, and you have a complete meal all in one dish.

There are lots of one dish/sheet pan recipes out there. Recipes like this do tend to over-cook the meat, but a tenderloin can take it in style. Pork tenderloin is an ideal meat to use. It is forgiving since it stays tender with almost anything you do to it.

I have no inspiration recipe for this recipe. I read many but mostly just imagined what we wanted to have and just did it.

We like things roasted potatoes and carrots, and my wife was asking for pork tenderloin since I hadn't done one for a while, but you can use other vegetables if you want.

My Rating

A nice solid 4.

🐖Pork Tenderloin

Many commenters on this blog over the years seem to get pork loin and pork tenderloin confused.

The tenderloin refers to the psoas muscle along the lower back. The psoas is generally the most tender cut since it is not used for movement.

A pork tenderloin usually weighs about 1 to 1 ½ pounds. A very large one could push towards 2 pounds, so if it is bigger, it is not a tenderloin. Be sure you are right since using a pork loin like this would have very poor results.

Be sure to use pork tenderloin and not a pork loin.

How Long to Cook the Pork Tenderloin?

The first thing to be aware of with this recipe is that the tenderloin will be "over-cooked" to some people. If you want your tenderloin 140 or 145 (pink), it won't be that. This is what my wife likes to call "done." She wants no pink.

But since it is the tenderloin, it is still moist and fork-tender. If you want a lower temperature, take the meat out 5-8 minutes early when it reaches the desired internal temperature and tent it lightly with foil while the veggies finish cooking.

But without the searing, the tenderloin's color will be a bit pale, and the potatoes, although done, will not have that nice browning I love. So a few minutes under the broiler at the end to get to the desired color is recommended.

🥕The Vegetables

The cooking time for vegetables will vary some by the type of vegetable.

Root vegetables, like potatoes and carrots, will take longer. About 30 minutes for 1-inch chunks of potatoes and 25 minutes for thinner carrots.

Note that a done potato has an internal temperature of at least 190°, but 200°-210° is much better.

Softer vegetables like broccoli, peppers, zucchini, bell peppers, and yellow squash will take about 15 minutes.

If you want to use other veggies, check roasting times at How to Roast Any Vegetable - The Kitchen.

✔️Tips

You can speed up the prep. Buy very small potatoes, use "baby carrots," use crushed garlic or garlic powder and onion powder. But it only takes a few minutes more prep to get things right.

The smaller potatoes are great, but those "baby carrots" are really cut out of large "woody" carrots. They have some tastes, but I'm not a big fan. But they do cook fairly well.

The Pan

I used a large baking dish, but a smaller sheet pan would be fine. If you double this recipe, use a large sheet pan.

Storage

Good refrigerated for 3-4 days and can make "freezer meals" that should be good for 3-4 months.

📖Sheet Pan Recipes

Easy Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas

Sheet Pan Chicken Breasts with Carrots and Potatoes

Sheet Pan Apple Pork Chops

Blue ribbon divider used for visual effect

🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

Pork tenderloin with with veggies and seasoning

Preheat oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional.

Trim a pork tenderloin of fat and silverskin.

cutting up carrots on a black chopping board

Peel and cut 3 medium carrots into ½ inch medallions. Clean and cut 1 pound of red potatoes into about 1 inch pieces. Roughly chop one half of a medium onion.

Add all the veggies to a 1-gallon ziplock bag. Add the trimmed tenderloin to the bag. Add 1 teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, 2-4 cloves of crushed garlic, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Seal bag and mix well.

pork tenderloin with veggies in baking dish raw

Prep a large baking dish or smaller sheet pan with a spray of PAM. Dump the tenderloin and veggies and spread evenly.

cooked pork tenderloin with carrots and potatoes in baking dish

Bake until tenderloin is 150°-160° per your taste, and potatoes are tender. About 30-35 minutes. In the last few minutes, turn on the broiler and get the color you want. Your cooking time may be a bit longer depending on the tenderloin's size, the veggies, and your oven.

cut pork tenderloin on blue platter with veggies

You can use the broiler for a minute or two if you want more browning at the end. Allow the tenderloin to rest for at least 5 minutes before cutting.

📖Full Recipe

Image of a pork Tenderloin with Potatoes and Carrots on a blue plate

One Pan Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Potatoes and Carrots

An all in one dinner with tender and juicy pork tenderloin combined with potatoes and carrots. This easy one-pan dinner is done in well under one hour. Think of it as easy comfort food.

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Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Servings #/Adjust if desired 4 servings

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

▢ 1 - 1 ½ pound pork tenderloin
▢ ½ medium onion - or one small
▢ 3 medium carrots
▢ 1 pound small potatoes
▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil
▢ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
▢ ½ teaspoon pepper
▢ 2-4 cloves crushed garlic - 2 for most people. 4 for my wife.

Preheat oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional.
Trim a pork tenderloin of fat and silverskin.
Peel and cut 3 medium carrots into ½ inch medallions. Clean and cut 1 pound of red potatoes into about 1 inch pieces. Roughly chop one half of a medium onion.
Add all the veggies to a 1-gallon ziplock bag. Add the trimmed tenderloin to the bag. Add 1 teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, 2-4 cloves of crushed garlic, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Seal bag and mix well.
Prep a large baking dish or smaller sheet pan with a spray of PAM. Dump the tenderloin and veggies and spread evenly.
Bake until tenderloin is 150°-160° per your taste and potatoes are tender. About 30-35 minutes. The last few minutes, turn on the broiler and get the color you want. Your cooking time may be a bit longer depending on tenderloin size, the veggies, and your oven.
Allow the tenderloin to rest for at least 5 minutes before cutting.

See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print.

Pro Tips:

Trim the pork tenderloin well and get the silverskin off if possible.
Use a shallow baking dish or a sheet pan.
Easy to double on a full ½ sheet pan.
Use baby carrots and small potatoes to save time.
You need to use thin skin potatoes cut into about 1-inch chunks or smaller. If you are using russets, please peel first.
The pork is "overcooked" by some standards (not in our house). If you want some pink in your pork then remove the pork when 145° and tent while veggies finish.
Good refrigerated for 3-4 days or frozen as "freezer meals" for 3-4 months.

To adjust the recipe size:

You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.

Course : Main Course

Cuisine : American

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Editor's Note: Originally Published December 17, 2017. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.