Tasty Tuesday: Crock Pot A&W Pork Loin

Dearest eaters and readers,

It is time for another edition of “Tasty Tuesday” but if I don’t get this typed and published quick, it’s going to be a “Tasty Wednesday”.  Just doesn’t have that same ring.

Long, long ago in the days before the Internet and Pinterest, women had print cookbooks.  Some came in hardback book form, others were in three ring binders and we could even buy cookbooks in a magazine format.  We had to come up with some way to store our cookbooks, and some method for remembering which recipes were in which cookbooks.  Either that or look through every book until we could find the recipe we were seeking.  Archaic, huh?  Even for a librarian and book-lover like me!

Today’s recipe is one from a 2013 All Recipes magazine that I picked up somewhere.  Thanks to the Internet, I was able to find and pin this recipe to Pinterest.  So bye-bye print copy.  Hello, 21st century!

Girls, you are going to love this A&W pork loin.  So are the men in your life.  And what’s not to love? Three ingredients, one crock pot, seven hours and dinner is done.  Dust off your crock pot then meet me in the kitchen.

Let’s Get Cooking:  Crock Pot A&W Pork Loin

When my girls were younger,  beef brisket was one of our favorite crock pot meals.  Brisket is wildly popular in El Paso, served at every local restaurant and for everything family gathering.  I would toss a slab of brisket into the crock pot with about a half a bottle of Claude’s marinade.  Cook it on low for 8 hours.   Lauren liked her brisket just like that, with the smoky flavor from the Claude’s.  But Brennyn liked hers with barbecue sauce.  I would separate some of the meat out to mix with barbecue sauce and a sprinkle of brown sugar.  We would eat it for days.

This A&W pork loin has the same smoky flavor but in a leaner cut of meat that cooks up tender, moist and delicious.  Here are the ingredients you need:

Easy enough.  Now let’s mix it together.

The Recipe

• 2 pound pork tenderloin
• 12 ounce bottle of root beer
• 18 ounce bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce (used about 12 ounces because I didn’t want it to be soupy with sauce)

The Directions

• Lightly spray crock pot with non stick spray
• Place pork loin in the center of the crock pot
• Pour root beer over the meat
• Cook for 6-7 hours on low
• Drain well
• Shred meat
• Mix in barbecue sauce
• Serve on buns or crusty rolls

Ok, I am the most un-readingest librarian I know.  In writing this post, I’m really just reading this recipe all the way through for the first time.  Guess what?  I prepared my pork loin differently.  Ha!  So, you can try it the right way above or you can do what I did below.

• Spray crock pot with non stick spray
• Place pork loin in the center of the crock pot
• Pour root beer over the meat
• Pour barbecue sauce over the meat so that it is covered with BBQ

• Cook for 6-7 hours on low
• Remove meat from crock pot

• Shred
• Drizzle with sauce

• Serve on buns or crusty rolls

I didn’t want our meat to be swimming in barbecue sauce.  Guess I subconsciously edited the recipe so it wouldn’t be.  The meat is so flavorful and moist that just a spoonful of the sauce was plenty for me. If you are wanting more traditional BBQ sandwiches, I would follow the original recipe.

As prepared my way, a 4 ounce serving of A&W pork loin is about 6 Weight Watcher points.  We ate ours on buns, with borracho (drunken) beans and a half baked sweet potato.  I forgot about taking a photo until I had eaten a third of my sandwich.  Please excuse my half eaten meal.  I was hungry!

Had never made borracho beans before but they were a great complement to the pork loin.  I baked our sweet potato in the microwave.  Melted about a teaspoon of butter, mixed with a sprinkle of cinnamon and cloves, a little brown sugar and a few walnuts.  Mmmm.

Your Turn

I grew up in Memphis where they take their BBQ seriously.  But we didn’t eat a lot of it at home.  Does your family eat a lot of barbecue?  Do you prepare yours with more of a dry rub or super saucy?

My daughter Lauren called last night wanting a a quick recipe that I knew she would like; I shared this. My sister Valerie was interested in it, too.  I offered to send her the recipe this afternoon but she said she’d stop by to find it here.  Hi, baby sister!!

Hope you will give this a try.  I truly think this is a winner, prepared either way!  Enjoy.

Thank you for spending a few minutes in my kitchen, gathered ’round my crock pot with me.  Hope to put together a post from “My Fashion Haus” later in the week.  Please come back by.

Hugs and kisses,