Molasses Sweet Pork Skewers

By Todd Martin May 15, 2025 8 mins read 154 Views

We season and skewer pork tenderloin between chunks of fresh pineapple and purple onion and grilled over open fire. Then we cooked down an absolutely amazing sauce of Grandma’s® Molasses, pineapple juice, mirin, Worcestershire sauce, sesame oil, teriyaki, and white wine vinegar. The sword like skewers were placed over a sticky rice and topped with sesame seeds to make an epic meal of these Molasses Sweet Pork Skewers.

Molasses Sweet Pork Skewers - 64

OK, I’ll admit that I normally don’t do multiple different ingredients on a single skewer. I believe that ingredient specific skewers are the way to go. So one skewer with just the meat. One skewer with just bell peppers. One skewer with just pineapple. Because if the portions of the different ingredients are not cut to the perfect size something will be over cooked while something else will be raw. In fact I have all sorts of tips for the perfect skewers (or kebabs).

I also have a great shrimp lollipop recipe from dad.

And one of the greatest skewer recipes, Picanha with compound butter (think steak skewers).

But here I went with a very yet, amazing ingredient combination. Some lean pork tenderloin, juicy pineapple and savory onion. And in this case, all I had to do was cook the pork. The rest would be ready when the pork was done.

But more importantly for this recipe is the sweet molasses sauce. Holy smokes! This is one of the best sauces I’ve ever done. That is not hyperbole. I will be making this again and again.

Molasses Sweet Pork Skewers Ingredients

1 cup Grandma’s® Molasses**
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
½ cup pineapple juice
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp teriyaki
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 pork tenderloins (they usually come 2 to a package so just one package needed)
Salt
Your favorite BBQ seasoning
Pineapple
Purple onion
3 cups Sticky Rice
Sesame Seeds

Equipment needed:

Skewers of some sort. We used these skewers.

**We partnered with Grandma’s® Molasses on this recipe and that partnership has been fantastic because adding Molasses at the end of the cookout helps creates a sweet and sticky coating for the meat (and in this case fruit/veggies) that provides a satisfying flavor AND texture. I’m all about the mouthfeel and Grandma’s® Molasses really checks that box.

Combine the molasses, pineapple juice, Andria’s steak sauce, mirin, teriyaki, sesame oil, and vinegar in a pot:

Then get that over some heat. We dropped this on top of the Santa Maria grill which is an open fire cooker that I used oak firewood to for heat:

Obv, you can do this on the stove. Just get that pot boiling and cook down by at least a quarter if not a half:

Cooking the sauce down takes a good 45 minutes or more. So get that on before making the skewers.

Prepare the Pork Skewers

Trim the pork tenderloins of any excessive fat:

Uniformity is key here. Try to keep the meat uniform sizes. So thicker pieces cut a little thiner than the tapered in that will be better if sliced thicker.

I want to commend my 14 year old who was helping me shoot this recipe and did the carving here:

Once the pork tenderloin is sliced, season it with salt and your favorite BBQ seasoning:

Pro Tip ~ I highly recommend one of three skewer options. Double prong skewers like I used in this shrimp kabob recipe. Double skewers like in these steak pinwheels. Or these sword like skewers that have a wide piece of metal. Essentially, don’t go with a single round wooden or metal skewer or the various components on the skewer won’t always flip over when you want them to.

And the sword skewers have the added bonus of making for great selfies and lots of stupid, but great fun for guests:

The Grillin' Fool acting the Fool with Sword Skewers — The Grillin’ Fool acting the Fool with Sword Skewers

Don’t worry. There are no sharp edges and even the point is not really pointy.

The basic idea here is to layer the ingredients in some patter so as they cook, they exchange juices with each other and flavor the whole skewer:

Truth be told, my OCD is going crazy right now. I meant to do pork, pineapple, onion four times and then cap each skewer with one more piece of pork. Except that one on the right ends on onion and not a chunk of succulent pork like the other two. Yeah, I’m all twitchy right now just looking at that.

Waiting for that sauce to cook down requires some patience. But as you can see a couple pics above, we had some extra ingredients, so we grilled some of the pork:

I show you this for two reasons. One, we used that pork to test the flavor of the sauce (WOW!) and my 14 year old took that pic and I think it’s fantastic (Proud Dad).

Apply the Fire

Once the sweet molasses sauce thickens remove from the heat and get to grilling those skewers.

This is what it is all about, Meat and Fire

When cooking over live fire, it is a skill to keep things consistent. Finding the hot spots before burning something. I can raise and lower the grill grates, or in this case the frame for the grates, and it is a bit of a shell game rotating the skewers to get even cooking:

We are looking more for something between hot and fast grilling and a slow roast here.

Pro Tip ~ Reseason a couple times. A great deal of the seasoning is lost during cooking so give it a dusting here and there:

Keep rotating and shifting the skewers after a little char is achieved:

Now that we have a good amount of char and our pork has hit 145F we can move to the next step:

According to the USDA 145F is all you need to cook pork to and we highly recommend that.

Let’s get some of that glorious Grandma’s Molasses glaze on there so that we live up to the title of this recipe: Molasses Sweet Pork Skewers:

Brushing on that Grandma's Molasses Glaze — Brushing on that Grandma’s Molasses Glaze.

We partnered with Grandma’s molasses on this post and a few others recipes as well. Anyone who has been on this website for any amount of time knows we don’t partner with anyone unless we absolutely believe in the product. I absolutely love this stuff and have had a blast incorporating it into different dishes. I highly recommend giving it a try in lieu of sugar to bring a more nuanced flavor profile.

Pro Tip ~ DO NOT leave these over the fire long. In fact, make sure to either have them up higher than when roasting or farther off the edge of the hot fire. We are working with a good amount of sugar at this point and it will blacken quick.

Also, drizzling the glaze over the skewers works too:

And we are ready to serve:

Molasses Sweet Pork Skewers ready to Plate

I plated these over sticky rice and a sprinkle of sesame seeds:

Now you can serve this a couple ways. Leave the sword skewer on the plate and hand the whole thing to the guest:

Or you can slide the pork, pineapple and purple onion off onto the platter and let guest scoop off what they want:

Make sure to drizzle some more glaze over the top:

And sprinkle some sesame seeds:

Done:

Molasses Sweet Pork Skewers Summary

I will say it again, this glaze was one of the best I’ve ever made. So well balanced and absolutely wonderful. It really marries well with the pork. I’m trying it on shrimp next.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

Also, if you could leave us a great review with lots of stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ that would be most appreciated!

Additionally, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter/X and YouTube feeds

Thank You to Grandma’s® Molasses for partnering with us on this recipe. We appreciate the support and truly love the product.

Skewers Recipe Card

Molasses Sweet Pork Skewers

Molasses sweet pork skewers are pork kebabs with fresh pineapple and purple onion, roasted over open fire and glazed with a Molasses sauce.

Course Entree, Main Course

Cuisine American, American Fare, Asian, Kababs, Kabobs, Skewers

Keyword Fresh Pineapple, Glaze, Glazed, Grandma's Molasses, Grilled Pineapple Rum Ham, Kababs, Kabobs, Live Fire, Molasses, Molasses Sweet Pork Skewers, Onion, Pork Skewers, Purple Onion, Sesame Seeds, Skewers, Sticky Rice, Sweet Pork, Sweet Pork Skewers

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 20

Equipment

skewers

Ingredients

Molasses Glaze

1 cup Grandma's Molasses
2 tbsp Andria's steak sauce Substitute Worcestershire
½ cup Pineapple juice
2 tbsp Teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp Sesame oil
2 tbsp White wine vinegar

Pork Skewers

2 Pork tenderloins
1 Fresh pineapple
1 Onion Any color will work other than green onions

Accoutrements

3 cups Sticky rice
Sesame seeds For garnish

Instructions

Combine the glaze ingredients in a sauce pan and cook down by 1/4 to 1/2 (depending on your patience)
Cut the pork tenderloin into similar-sized chunks along with the pineapple and purple onion.
Skewer the pork, pineapple and purple onion in a consistent pattern
Once the glaze cooks down, place the skewers over the fire. Once some char appears flip them over. Rotate as necessary to avoid the hot spots for even cooking. Re-season a couple times.
Once the pork hits 145F apply the glaze and rotate. Apply more glaze and rotate. When the sauce thickens a bit, remove from the grill and serve over sticky rice and garnish with sesame seeds.