You would be hard pressed to find a pork dish that’s as tender as our Skinny Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin. While it does take an extra step and a little planning, marinating the tenderloin is a crucial step. It really infuses every bite with the savory mixture of juices and spices. In the end, you’ll have a mouth-watering dish that’s so tender you can cut it with a fork!

When you go to the grocery store or your local butcher, you’ll find two products that sound similar but couldn’t be more different. Pork loin is a very large cut of meat, cut from the animal’s back. It has a layer of fat covering the top of the loin and you’ll find it at the store as a boneless or a bone-in roast. You might also find pork loin cut into steaks called pork chops.

Pork tenderloin, on the other hand, is a long, thin muscle that runs along the backbone. The store always sells it as a boneless cut because it doesn’t contain any bones! The cut is very lean with little to no fat content. That makes it one of the most tender, flavorful cuts of pork. Because it’s much smaller than the loin, the price is always much lower, too.

Depending on the recipe, you might be able to substitute one for another. Since this recipe uses a flavorful marinade to infuse deep flavor into the meat and we’re cooking it in the slow cooker, substitutions shouldn’t be a problem. If you do decide to use a pork loin, we would definitely recommend trimming the fat off the top of the loin. Our the nutritional information is based on a pork tenderloin, which doesn’t have a fat cap. If you don’t know how to do that, your butcher should be able to help you!

After you cook up our Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin, you have some choices to make. The meat is tender enough to shred, so you can pile it on top of your favorite bun or roll to make a pulled pork sandwich. The glaze would taste great on a sandwich, or you could swap-in our Skinny Ms Barbecue Sauce.

Another option is to slice the tenderloin. It’s cooked enough to be shreddable, but nice slices of pork tenderloin always look great on an entree plate!  If you’re looking for ideas, you could serve it with a side of vegetables, over rice or quinoa, or with our Green Bean Casserole. This is definitely a recipe that the kids will be asking for again, so get ready to make it on the regular!