This juicy and tender pork loin is roasted on a bed of veggies for extra flavor and moisture, stuffed with garlic cloves, and rubbed with an herb mixture.
Preheat oven to 425°. If you wish, cover inside of the roasting pan with foil to make the clean up easy.
Chop onion and celery into chunks and cut 3 or 4 garlic cloves in half, length-wise. Spread veggies in the middle of the roasting pan in one single layer, about the same size as the pork loin. (This will serve as the bed for the pork to cook on.)
In a small bowl, combine dried herbs, salt, and pepper and mix well.
Prepare the Pork:
Using a small paring knife, pierce holes in meat in several places over the top and sides. Make the holes to be about 1/2 to 1-inch deep, about the length of a garlic clove.
Slice 4 or so garlic cloves lengthwise into 3-4 slices. Push a garlic slice into each hole. If garlic cloves are too big, cut them a little more.
Place the pork loin in a rimmed baking sheet to season it easily. Sprinkle the seasoning mixture over the pork and pat the mixture all over the top and sides. Pick up the pork and dip it into all of the seasoning that dropped into the baking sheet. Try to make sure that the pork loin is seasoned evenly on all the sides.
Place seasoned pork fat cap up into the prepared roasting pan, on top of the veggies. Insert the instant read digital thermometer probe through the side of the pork towards the center. (Tracking internal temperature is the most accurate way to know when pork is done.)
Baking Pork Loin:
Bake pork loin at 425° for 15 minutes and the lower the oven temperature to 350°. Bake until internal temperature reaches 145°, about 60 minutes but time depends on the size of the meat. For the 4-pound pork, the total bake time would be about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Estimate about 20 minutes per pound but rely mainly on the internal temperature.
Once pork reaches the temperature, take it out of the oven and out of the roasting pan. Loosely tent it with foil and let it rest for 15-20 minutes before cutting.
*Note: You can use the accumulated juices from roasting pork to make gravy. If not enough juices accumulated, add a little veggie broth. (Use my pan drippings gravy recipe to create one with pork juices.)
(Optional) To Make Pan Drippings Gravy:
Strain the pan drippings (and the cooked veggies) from the roasting pan into a measuring cup through a fine mesh strainer. Press a few times on the veggies in the strainer to get the juices out. Discard what is left in the strainer. After the pork has rested, combine the juices accumulated from the pork and from the roasting pan together.
Add enough chicken stock to the pork drippings to make 2 cups together. Measure out 1/4 cup all purpose four (or gluten free all purpose flour), and 4 tbsp. of butter.
Melt butter in a cooking pan over medium heat. Once melted, whisk in flour until smooth and blended.
While still whisking, start pouring in the pan drippings and chicken stock mixture. Keep whisking until smooth. Taste and add some salt if needed and about 1/4 tsp of black pepper (or more if you wish).
Slowly stir as the gravy comes to low simmer and thickens. Cook for a couple extra minutes, stirring slowly, and take off heat.
Video
Notes
How much pork loin per person: When making pork as a main course to be served with sides, estimate about 1/2 lb. per person. For those with bigger appetite or if you want to have leftovers, you can estimate up to 3/4 lb. per person.
Storing: store any leftovers in an air-tight food storage container, in the refrigerator. Properly stored, it will last 3-4 days.
Reheating: it's very important not to over-cook or heat up pork too much or it will before too tough. I recommend reheating slices, loosely wrapped in aluminum foil pockets, in the oven. Wrap a couple of slices in a foil pocket in reheat in the oven at 350° just until heated through.