Slow-Cooker Pork Medallions

These slow-cooker pork medallions are a bit of an outlier among our wealth of slow-cooker recipes. While most are built around slow, low-heat cooking—designed to cook meats and vegetables to a meltingly soft texture in three to six or even eight hours—this one has a cooking time of around two hours. Pork medallion slow-cooker recipes are rare because tenderloins are already so, well, tender. Sure, the slow cooker is great for fixing tough cuts of meat. But the tenderloin doesn’t need fixing. You can pull it together before those after-school activities with the kids, and dinner will be ready when you get home.

Ingredients for Slow-Cooker Pork Medallions

• Olive oil: Unlike most slow-cooker recipes, this one includes no added liquids. The oil coats the pork and keeps it from sticking and drying in the slow cooker.
• Soy sauce: There’s just enough soy sauce in the recipe to give it a layer of savory umami flavors.
• Montreal steak seasoning: This popular spice mixture provides a balance of savory, meat-enhancing flavors.
• Pork tenderloin: Tenderloin is boneless and has no surface fat to trim away, so it’s a no-fuss meal option.
• Wild rice or mashed potatoes: Serve the finished pork medallions with wild rice for an elegant meal, or with mashed potatoes for comfort-food vibes.

Directions

Step 1: Combine the seasonings

In a 5-quart slow cooker, mix the oil, soy sauce and steak seasoning.

Step 2: Cook the pork

Add the pork tenderloins and turn them to coat them in the sauce. Cook the pork, covered, on low until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the tenderloin reads 145°F, 1 hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Step 3: Slice the pork and serve

Let the pork stand for 10 minutes before slicing it into medallions. Serve the sliced pork with its cooking juices over wild rice or mashed potatoes.

Slow-Cooker Pork Medallion Variations

• Add a sauce: This recipe will give you a small amount of cooking juices to enjoy over your pork. Alternatively, you could cook your pork in a flavorful sauce, which gives you a more complete entree. If you have a favorite sauce for pork, by all means use it. If you don’t, browse our slow-cooker pork recipes and find one that appeals to you. Cooking time should remain roughly the same, though you should start checking the pork’s temperature a little earlier.
• Use Asian ingredients: The basic recipe here is very versatile, keeping the flavors savory but not specific to any style of cooking. You can easily coat the pork in teriyaki or hoisin sauce instead. Swap out the steak spice for 2 tablespoons each of minced garlic and fresh ginger, and cook as directed. To serve, arrange the pork over rice, drizzle extra hoisin over it, and garnish it with toasted sesame seeds or diagonally sliced green onions.
• Glaze the pork: For a slightly more elegant meal, you can opt to glaze the tenderloin after it comes out of the slow cooker. Pull the pork from your slow cooker when its temperature is slightly lower, 130° to 140°. Brush it with barbecue sauce, honey-garlic sauce or another glaze of your choice. Grill or broil the pork for two to three minutes on each side, until the glaze caramelizes, then let it rest for a few minutes before slicing it.

How to Store Slow-Cooker Pork Medallions

Leftover pork should be packed up in food-storage bags or containers and moved to the refrigerator immediately after the meal.

How long will the leftover pork keep?

You should plan to eat up any leftover pork within three to four days of the original meal.

Can I freeze my slow-cooker pork?

You certainly can. If this recipe makes more than you’ll eat in one sitting, your best bet is to only slice as much as you need for that first meal. The remaining intact tenderloin portions can be wrapped, whole or halved—whichever represents a reasonable serving size for you. Pack the wrapped pork portions into freezer bags or containers, where they’ll keep for one to three months. Slice them once you’ve reheated them. Sliced pork can also be frozen, but it won’t keep as well and should be eaten within a month.

Slow-Cooker Pork Medallion Tips

Isn’t tenderloin too lean for the slow cooker?

You’re not wrong; the cuts that do well in a slow cooker usually contain fat and connective tissue, which break down under slow, low-heat cooking. Pork tenderloin doesn’t have those, so it would be dry and unsatisfying if cooked for hours on end. At around two hours of cooking time, the pork simmers just long enough to be cooked through.

Is it really safe to eat pork at that temperature?

It is, yes. The USDA changed its guidance on pork several years ago and considers it perfectly safe to eat pork cooked to 145° and given a few minutes of rest. The risk of trichinosis from commercially raised pork is vanishingly small; the few cases seen each year in the U.S. generally come from wild-caught game.

Can I cook the tenderloins from frozen?

That would be really convenient, but sadly, it’s a bad idea. Any meat or poultry going into your slow cooker should be thawed first. Slow cookers are a low-temperature appliance by design. That means if you’re cooking from frozen, your meats are going to spend a long time in the food safety “danger zone” (40° to 140°), where potentially dangerous bacteria flourish best. The added convenience just isn’t worth the risk.

What’s the difference between pork tenderloin and pork medallions?

A “medallion” is just a small, round slice cut from a larger piece of pork. Medallions can be made from a loin, a tenderloin or even a trimmed-down piece from a larger cut. The tenderloin itself is a very specific cut, taken from the inside of the hog’s rib cage. It can be cut into medallions, and often is, but it can also be served in many other ways.

Should I sear the tenderloin before it goes into my slow cooker?

You certainly can, if you wish. Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat, add a splash of oil and brown the tenderloins, one at a time, on all sides. Then roll them in the flavorings as directed in the recipe, and cook them as usual. Searing adds flavor to the pork, but it’s very much an optional step. You may choose to skip it, on the basis that it can smoke up your kitchen and spatter your work area with oil.

What keeps my pork from drying out in the slow cooker?

That’s a good question. Most slow-cooker recipes call for one or another liquid, and the steam helps keep meats from becoming dry. This recipe doesn’t call for any liquid other than the splash of soy sauce. What saves the day is the oil, which is less common to see in slow-cooker recipes. The oil coating the surface of the pork limits evaporation and keeps the pork from drying out.