July 13, 2026

Why Cook Chicken Breast Again When Pork Tenderloin Is Nearly as Lean? Cuban Mojo Pork with Black Beans and Rice

A 25-minute Cuban plate that makes the case for the lean cut everyone walks past: pork tenderloin seared in a citrus-garlic mojo and glazed in its own pan sauce, over black beans and a scoop of brown rice. Forty-seven grams of protein and eight grams of fiber, and it eats like a Havana lunch counter, not a diet plate.

This is the dinner to make when you want the bright, garlicky, citrus-soaked pork of a Cuban cafeteria but not the heavy, fatty pork-shoulder original. The move is pork tenderloin instead of shoulder. It is a genuinely lean cut that the USDA FoodData Central database lists at about 119 calories, 21.6 grams of protein, and 3.9 grams of fat per 100 grams raw, which puts it in roughly the same lean league as the skinless, boneless chicken breast everyone defaults to, but with the deeper flavor pork actually carries in a mojo. Sear the medallions hot, build a quick mojo pan sauce in the browned bits left behind, and serve over black beans and rice for fiber and volume.

Per serving (recipe serves 2): about 480 calories, 47 g protein, 45 g carbs (8 g fiber), 10 g fat. Macros computed here from USDA FoodData Central ingredient data; the source recipe is credited below.

Ingredients

• 1 pork tenderloin, about 12 oz (340 g), silver skin trimmed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
• Lime wedges, for serving

Steps

1. Slice the tenderloin crosswise into 1-inch medallions and press each one lightly to an even thickness with the palm of your hand. Pat them dry, then toss with the cumin, oregano, salt, and red pepper flakes. Dry meat is the difference between a crust and steam, so do not skip the pat.

2. Heat the oil in a skillet (cast iron or nonstick) over medium-high until it shimmers. Add the medallions and sear undisturbed about 3 minutes per side, until an instant-read thermometer in the thickest piece reads 145F. Move them to a plate and let rest.

3. Pour off any fat, then add the orange juice, lime juice, and garlic to the same pan. Scrape up the browned bits and simmer 2 to 3 minutes until the juice reduces to a glossy, slightly syrupy mojo. Return the pork and any plate juices to the pan and toss to glaze.

4. While the sauce reduces, warm the black beans in a small pot with a splash of water, a pinch of cumin, and salt. Warm the rice.

5. Divide the rice and beans between two plates. Lay the pork over the top and spoon the mojo pan sauce over everything. Finish with cilantro and a squeeze of lime.

Make it better

Pull the pork at 145F and let it rest three minutes before slicing. That is not a guess; it is the USDA's own safe temperature for whole cuts of pork, lowered from 160F to 145F in May 2011 precisely because the three-minute rest keeps killing pathogens while the meat stays juicy. Lean tenderloin goes from perfectly blushing pink to dry and chalky in about a minute, so a cheap instant-read thermometer is the single best upgrade you can make here. Cook it to the old 160F and you get the dry pork chop everyone complains about, which is exactly the reputation this cut is fighting.

Batch prep

This scales cleanly. Buy a two-pack of tenderloins (about 1 lb each), double the mojo, and sear in two batches so the pan stays hot; the beans and rice are trivial to multiply. Leftover mojo pork is excellent the next day, sliced cold into a wrap with the beans, or tucked into a Cuban-style sandwich with a swipe of mustard and a few dill pickles.

Adapted from Dr. Sonali Ruder's Cuban Mojo Pork Tenderloin at The Foodie Physician (August 2022), which uses the same lean-tenderloin-for-shoulder swap and the classic citrus-garlic-oregano mojo; the macro math, two-serve scaling, medallion sear, and pan-sauce deglaze here are my own.