Great low-fat pork tenderloin chili that will fit any diet with only 4 oz of fat per serving. Easy to follow step by step photo instructions.
Editor’s Note: Originally Published January 16, 2010. Last Updated June 16, 2018, with re-edited photos and text. I have also modified cooking time to fit my current practice. See that discussion below.
I have always said that pork and Mexican are made to go together. Well, I just proved it again. With only 10 minutes of prep, a crock pot and 4 hours, you can have a very healthy wonderful tasty meal.
With only about 3-4 grams of fat per serving, this will fit any diet. But I don’t want you to think of this as a diet dish. This will blow any other chili out of the water on taste.
My Rating:
Many times I have trouble with the rating. Not this time. This will be in the top ten for the year for sure. A healthy recipe has no right being this good.
Recipe Notes for Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin Chili
There are very few recipes for a pork-based chili, but I did find an inspiration recipe Jerre’s Black Bean and Pork Tenderloin Chili at Allrecipes. With my inspiration in place, I changed the beans around for some variety and modified the spices some for taste and added a jalapeno.
One other major change from the inspiration recipe is cooking time. 8 hours is just too long to abuse pork tenderloin. It is more than done, and the chili flavors have come together nicely in 4 hours.
I rinsed all the beans. I have increased the chicken broth a bit to make up for the volume lost.
You should be able to do this on the stovetop with a 2-3 hour simmer.
Prep onion and green pepper and chop medium. Prep jalapeno chop fine.
Prep tenderloin by removing all trim-able fat and the silverskin. Cut into 3/4 to 1-inch cubes.
Rinse all beans. Place all ingredients in a crock pot on low for 4 hours.
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Crock Pot Southwest Pork Tenderloin Chili - A Low Fat Wonderful Thing
Ingredients
- 1 pork tenderloin
- 28 oz black beans - rinsed
- 14 oz light kidney beans - rinsed
- 4 oz green chilies
- 1 onion - medium diced
- 1 green pepper - Chopped
- 1 jalapeno pepper - diced small
- 16 oz salsa
- 16 oz low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon cumin
Instructions
- Prep onion and green pepper and chop medium. Prep jalapeno and chop fine.
- Prep tenderloin remove all trimmable fat and the silverskin. Cut into 3/4 to 1-inch cubes.
- Place all ingredients in a crock pot on low for 4 hours.
Have a question or something not clear? Ask in the comments.
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Nutrition is for one serving. Number of servings is stated above and is my estimate of normal serving size for this recipe.
All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.
If you like this recipe or find it useful, the pleasure of a nice 4 or 5 rating would be greatly appreciated.
Originally Published January 16, 2010
I'm DrDan and welcome to my blog. You will find delicious easy everyday recipes mostly for smaller households. Please look around and enjoy your visit. 
Susan
September 21, 2015 at 11:54 amDr. Dan – I realize this is not a new recipe for you but I just found your blog and tried it over the weekend. I’m a bit of a spice wimp so I did not add jalapenos and I only had half the red salsa called for. I ended up with half red and half chili verde salsa. It was wonderful. Thanks for the site. I live alone and it is great to find some recipe with smaller servings. The chili made a lot but I shared with extended family. Thanks again!
DrDan
September 21, 2015 at 1:38 pmHi Susan, I leave the comments open on all recipes (at least for now) so readers can still contribute.
I find it hard to believe this recipe is 4 yrs old. I really do love this one.
Thanks for the note and rating.
Dr Dan
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November 22, 2012 at 4:02 pmumbrellalady, I feel your pain re sodium. I am new to learning ways to curb it. But so far in my education it appears that prepared stocks and bouillons are the devil for me. (I started rinsing canned vegetables so many decades ago that I can’t remember the reason.) I’m not about to begin making homemade stock regularly so I am relegated to diluting regular canned stock or using the low-sodium stuff.
DrDan, I really like this recipe. Pork is just wonderful easy low-fat thing, isn’t it? And lends itself well to crockpotting.
Martha (MM)
May 5, 2011 at 7:35 pmGorgeous slow cooker dish! Thanks for linking this one up too :-)
Jeffrey and Juli
January 20, 2011 at 1:23 pmThis looks great- and I love your high-tech slow cooker!I agree with Chris, it looks like Darth Vader.
One assumes that the[cooking]force is strong with this one? ;)
Dr Dan
January 18, 2011 at 10:14 pmI was thinking R2D2… it beeps
Chris
January 17, 2011 at 9:48 pmAhhhh! Your crock pot control panel looks like Darth Vader! I now dub he, Crock Vader.
“You don’t know the power of the Crock side!”
Steph@PlainChicken.com
January 17, 2011 at 10:49 amsounds great!
Dr Dan
January 16, 2011 at 12:54 pmI thought it was just right but I like salt and my blood pressure is good. I always use low sodium broth for what little that is worth.
You can rinse the beans if you’re sodium sensitive or worried. The total sodium my way is about 3 teaspoons of salt. It sounds heavy but you add salt to a recipe but you don’t usually count what is in the components. From what I can find, rinsing the beans would decrease the sodium by 20-40%. You could also use low sodium beans or dry beans.
umbrellalady
January 16, 2011 at 12:30 pmThis recipe sounds wonderful but I wonder about the salt content with all the canned beans and their liquids, as well as the chicken stock and salsa, especially if they are all commercially produced.
Great with the fat content being so low!