This Tarragon Pork starts with a bone in pork loin roast, cooked on the stove-top with a wine, mustard and tarragon gravy.

pork loin tarragon sliced in pan with sauce

If you are a fan of my Pork Loin with Wine and Herb Gravy, I know you will love this one as well. It’s similar, but different :) The main difference is the use of tarragon and mustard in the wine gravy, which is a treat if you are a tarragon lover, like me!

Also different with this one is that it starts with a bone-in, centre-cut pork loin roast. I find these roasts on sale often and can never resist popping one in the freezer. It’s not always easy to find nice ways to cook them up though, which is why I love this recipe.

Even though this one starts with a bone-in roast, I will often remove the meat from the bone and thinly slice it, as I’ve done here. Alternately though, as this is a bone-in roast, you can cut it into wide “chops” from your roast and serve drizzled with the delicious gravy. This method of cooking the pork ensures a lovely, tender piece of pork whichever way your decide to serve it.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Pork Loin – a pork loin is different from a pork tenderloin. While a pork tenderloin is small, long and skinny, a pork loin is thicker and may or may not have a bone in it. This recipe specifies a bone-in pork loin. You can make this with a boneless pork loin, but the cooking time will vary. A boneless pork loin will cook more quickly. If you want to try this recipe with the smaller, thinner pork tenderloin, it will cook a lot more quickly (30-45 minutes), depending on size and thickness of the pork cut. Be sure to test internal temperature often during cooking to gauge progress.

Tarragon – tarragon is a somewhat divisive herb. You either love it or hate it. So obviously, you hopefully you will know which camp you fall in to before you start this recipe :)

White Wine – Use a nice, dry white wine here. Any wine you would enjoy drinking will work nicely here.

Recipe Tips

  • If your pan is free of liquid when the roast is cooked and you have removed it to rest, add a splash of wine to the pan to deglaze, before adding the stock/cream etc.
  • Be sure to test the sauce and season with salt and freshly ground pepper, as needed. You can also add a bit more mustard/tarragon to the sauce if you feel it needs it.
  • I tested my roast for internal temperature when I checked it every 20 minutes and found the following: at 20 minutes it was 56F (roast was still cool from the fridge), at 40 minutes it was 70F, at 1 hour it was 102F, at 80 minutes it was 129F. I cooked a further 5 minutes (so 1 hour, 25 minutes total) and the temperature was 135F when I removed it from the pan. This makes for a wonderfully moist, but ever so slightly pink pork. You may wish to cook to 140F if you prefer no pink, but still lovely and tender. Roast will rise a further 5F as it rests.

pork loin tarragon sliced in pan with sauce

Top Tip

Be sure to check the pan while it is cooking to make sure there is still wine in it. You don’t want the pan to go dry! I will often need to add a splash of extra wine for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

pork loin tarragon sliced in pan with sauce

Get the Recipe: Tarragon Pork

Bone-in, centre-cut pork loin roast, cooked on the stove-top with wine and finished with a mustard and tarragon gravy.
5 stars from 10 ratings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and whole
  • 3 medium shallots, peeled and quartered
  • 3 lb bone-in, centre-cut pork loin roast, *or see Notes below for options
  • 3 inch length fresh tarragon
  • 1 1/2 cups dry white wine, any kind you enjoy drinking

To finish:

  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 3 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 3 Tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves, roughly chopped
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper

To thicken, if necessary:

  • 1 Tablespoon water
  • 1 Tablespoon cornstarch

Instructions
 

  • Heat oil over medium-high in a large, heavy-bottomed pot with a lid, such as a Dutch oven, big enough to hold your roast. Season roast with salt and pepper. Place top/fat-side down into the pan and allow to cook until golden. Flip over roast and allow to cook another few minutes. Add garlic cloves and shallots to the pan and stir around the pan a minute or so to soften (watch closely so they don't scorch).
  • Add wine to pan and allow to boil for a minutes, then reduce heat to medium-low, placing the lid over-top slightly ajar, so that pot is not completely covered. Cook for 20 minutes, flip roast and stirring, making sure there is liquid in the pan that is at a gentle simmer. Continue cooking, flipping and checking every 20 minutes, for a total of about 1 1/2 hours, adding more wine if necessary if pan gets dry, or until the roast internal temperature reaches 135-140 degrees when tested with a thermometer. Remove roast to a cutting board and tend loosely with foil.
  • To the pan, add chicken broth, heavy cream, Dijon and tarragon. Bring to a simmer, stirring pan to loosen any brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Season with salt and pepper. If necessary, thicken sauce by stirring together water and cornstarch and adding a bit at a time to the gravy until sauce thickens as much as you'd like.
  • Keep sauce warm. Cut pork away from bone in one large piece and thinly slice to serve with gravy or alternately, cut down through the roast and bone into thicker chops and serve drizzled with sauce.

Notes

A pork loin is different from a pork tenderloin. A pork loin is large and thicker. The cooking times listed here are for a bone-in pork loin roast. A boneless pork loin roast will work, though you should expect the cooking time to be less. If you want to try this recipe with a smaller, thinner pork tenderloin, the cooking time will be considerable less, in the 35-40 minute range. Test often with a thermometer to test for doneness.
Be sure to read the notes above this Recipe Card, for more tips, options, substitutions and variations for this recipe!
Cuisine: American, Canadian
Course: Main Course
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 539kcal, Carbohydrates: 7g, Protein: 36g, Fat: 37g, Saturated Fat: 14g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g, Monounsaturated Fat: 17g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 138mg, Sodium: 172mg, Potassium: 803mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 455IU, Vitamin C: 4mg, Calcium: 89mg, Iron: 3mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @seasonsandsuppers on Instagram or tag #seasonsandsuppers.