It’s that good. Seriously.  Get the ingredients and make this immediately.  The boys wouldn’t eat more than a few bites, but they’re on strike from all meat, so the fact that they actually ate more than one bite is a pretty glowing recommendation.  I’m pretty sure if we hadn’t finally cut ourselves off, Mr. Blue and I would have eaten ourselves right into a case of the meat sweats.

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I saw this recipe for Brown Sugar Balsamic Pork Tenderloin on Pinterest and immediately pinned it onto my “Mom Cooking” board.  That means things that look like they require such a slight amount of work that they are weeknight friendly. The key to this recipe is the sauce, and I think it would be equally divine on chicken.  I rubbed the tenderloin with salt, pepper, and garlic and put in the crockpot with some water before we left for work.  When we got home, the house already smelled delicious. I decided to finish it off in the oven, brushing it with sauce every few minutes. I didn’t broil it as the recipe suggests, but that would have worked great, too.  I just wanted extra layers of the sauce “crust” so I did a lower temp and left it in a bit longer.  Either way would make a great crust and it makes it look more “Dinner Party” approved than if you just left it in the crockpot, but I have every intention of just throwing the ingredients for the sauce in the crockpot to start off next time and see how it turns out.  If it works, it will instantly become my favorite freezer crockpot meal.  I changed just a few things from the original recipe, but it’s hard to mess with perfection.

Ingredients:
  • pork tenderloin (ours was about 2.5 lbs)
  • salt
  • pepper
  • garlic powder
  • 1 tsp. minced garlic (we love us some garlic–so I increased this to about 1 tbsp.)
  • ½ c. water
  • 1 c. brown sugar
  • 2-4 Tbsp. cornstarch
  • ½ c. balsamic vinegar
  • ½ c. water
  • 4 Tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
Directions:
  1. Rub salt, pepper, and garlic powder over the pork tenderloin.  Add ½ cup of water to the crockpot and place the pork inside.
  2. Cook the pork on low for 6 hours. Our crockpot just goes to warm after the cooking time, so I started the next step when we got home rather than in the last hour of cooking. The last hour of cooking, in a saucepan mix together garlic,  water, brown sugar, 1-2 tsp. cornstarch, balsamic vinegar, and soy sauce together. Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium and stir.  If you need to add more cornstarch to thicken the glaze, add a half tablespoon at a time until the glaze thickens.
  3. Pour half the sauce in the crockpot directly over the tenderloin.  If you want to finish in the crockpot, brush the tenderloin with the remaining sauce every 15 minutes for the last hour.  If you want to get the extra yummy crust, remove the meat from the crockpot and place on a pan (cover with foil for easy clean-up because the glaze will stick hardcore to your pan). Brush  the glaze on top and broil on high for 2-3 minutes or lower your heat to 325 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, brushing with glaze every 5 minutes.
  4.  Remove from oven and shred the pork. You can add the remaining glaze to the table for those that wish to add more.

I suggest serving it the first night with vegetables of your choice and rice or a dinner roll.  For leftovers, I highly recommend it on sandwiches with slaw, quesadillas, in eggs or a breakfast sandwich, on nachos . . . the list goes on and on.

Enjoy!