This easy slow cooker pork tenderloin is really delicious.
It also does double duty: It’s a perfect recipe for entertaining, but works equally well as a family dinner recipe.
You won’t believe how easy it is to get amazing taste from a piece of pork tenderloin and a few hours in your slow cooker.
The tender pork is rubbed with garlic, herbs and spices and cooked in what becomes an amazing honey balsamic glaze.
I love it served on hot creamy mashed potatoes, but with that rich honey balsamic sauce, it’s also perfect served over pasta, egg noodles or rice.
We’ll get to how to cook this wonderful piece of meat, but first of all what is it?
What is Pork Tenderloin?
Pork tenderloin is a long, narrow cut of meat.
If you have bought it before you will notice that is always long and narrow. It hasn’t been cut that way.
The meat is boneless and comes from a long muscle running along the backbone of the pig.
Pork tenderloin is very tender, because the muscle isn’t used by the animal for motion.
It is a beautiful piece of meat with very little fat on it, so nothing has to be cut away. You can use the whole thing.
Pork tenderloin and pork loin are not interchangeable. They are different cuts of meat.
Pork loin comes from the back of the animal and is wider. It can be boneless or bone in. It tends to be thicker than pork tenderloin so takes more time to cook.
Flavoring the Pork Tenderloin
There are two parts to flavoring this wonderful slow cooker pork tenderloin, the rub and the glaze.
The tasty rub includes garlic powder, parsley, onion powder and paprika to add lots of flavor to this tender piece of meat.
Just mix the herbs and spices together and rub them on the pork tenderloin along with salt and pepper.
That’s it. Just place the savory rubbed meat in the slow cooker and you are ready for the rest of the flavorings.
Making the Honey Balsamic Glaze for the Tenderloin
The honey balsamic glaze for your pork tenderloin is so easy to make.
Of course you start out with some honey and some balsamic vinegar.
The ratio is 2 parts honey to 1 part balsamic vinegar, so you can see that it’s easy to multiply it if you need to make a larger batch.
Add ketchup for a bit of extra sweetness as well as chicken broth. A couple of tablespoons of corn starch will make it all come together as a luscious sauce.
Mix the corn starch with the broth before you add it to the slow cooker.
This honey and balsamic vinegar mixture is added to the slow cooker on top of the pork.
The pork tenderloin is cooked in this flavorful sweet and savory mixture creating a wonderful tasting meat.
What if I Don’t Have a Crock Pot?
Don’t worry if you don’t have a crock pot. You can easily cook this pork tenderloin in the oven.
Just follow all of the instructions for seasoning the pork but put it in a baking pan with a lid.
Cover the meat and cook it in the oven on relatively low heat, 300ºF to 325ºF for a couple of hours.
That’s really all a slow cooker does – cook slowly. You can do that in the oven just as easily.
Here’s my tip for making this recipe:
You can serve the pork tenderloin immediately, simply pouring the sauce over the meat. That was what my original recipe called for and it certainly works.
But – an even better way to serve it is to thicken the sauce outside of the slow cooker first.
Pour the sauce into a saucepan, add more water and cornstarch if you think you need it.
Not too much water if you use it. You don’t want to dilute the flavor of the sauce.
Cook it on medium high until it thickens. The consistency should be more of a glaze as the recipe says.
It won’t look like a glaze when it first comes out of the slow cooker.
Pieces of the pork tenderloin served on a plate topped with that wonderful glaze makes a very nice presentation.
I really think you are going to enjoy this recipe, whether you use it as a family dinner recipe or for entertaining. It works equally well for both.
After you try it, please let us all know how it worked out for you. You can use the comment form near the bottom of the page, below the Pinterest button. (And you can also pin it in Pinterest so you can always find it).
Enjoy!
Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin with Honey Balsamic Glaze
Equipment
- 1 slow cooker (crock pot) 2.5 quart or larger
Ingredients
- 1 pork tenderloin, about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1/3 cup low sodium chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
Instructions
- If your pork tenderloin is longer than your slow cooker, cut it in half crosswise so you have two shorter pieces that will fit inside.
- In a small bowl, combine garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, onion powder and paprika. Rub over all sides of the pork tenderloin and place in the slow cooker (A 2.5 quart oval slow cooker works really well for this recipe).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the broth, honey, balsamic vinegar, ketchup and corn starch. Pour the mixture over the pork in the slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on high for 1.5-2 hours, or low for 4 hours, until a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part reads 150ºF-160ºF.
- Move the tenderloin from the slow cooker to a cutting board and let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
- Place the juices from the slow cooker into a saucepan. Add additional corn starch and water to the juices (only if needed) and boil it for a few minutes to thicken further.
- Pour the sauce over the pork tenderloin to serve.
- Serves 4.
Nutrition
You will find all of our pork recipes here.
Thanks for visiting the site. If you like this recipe, please take a moment to share it on your favorite social media. You can also add your comments below. Thanks a lot.
This is one of my favorite, set it and forget it meals.