Slow-cooker Citrus Jerk & Apricot Pork Sliders

A few nights ago we had the most delicious meal! It wasn’t just delicious – it was so simple, very little prep work (like 2.44 minutes of prep!!) and few ingredients. All of these factors combine to put this recipe on permanent meal rotation status for our family!

I was given this recipe by my BFF Laura…not only did she give me the recipe, she also special-delivered the key ingredients of this recipe — TO MY DOOR!! Now, when something like this happens – I pay attention. I quickly squeezed this meal into our week, ran to the store to retrieve the one thing I was lacking: pork tenderloin.

Laura shared her 2 most favorite parts of this recipe, both of which are brand contingent:

• Griffin’s Apricot Preserves ((Laura says: “I like Griffin’s because it seems to make a more syrupy sauce – and it doesn’t have huge chunks of fruit. Also, it seems to add sweetness without an artificial taste.”))
• Weber’s Caribbean Jerk marinade mix ((Laura tried others and this is the winner))

Now, something funny happened AFTER I placed the 4 items pictured above in the ((LINED)) slow-cooker…I read cooking the instructions ((too late)). I don’t know what I was thinking, but I bought a 5 pound pork roast….this seasoning packet is intended for a 1-1½ pound pork tenderloin. Oops. Well that explains why the pork had to be folded in half to fit inside the slow-cooker.

I did what any other well-seasoned home cook would do in such a predicament: grabbed a knife and cut off the end of the roast. But I probably still had 2½ extra pounds of pork ((which isn’t a bad thing – haha)). So, here is the highly refined technique I used next: I sniffed to see if I could figure out the primary spices in the mix in order to replicate & bolster the seasoning packet. Apparently a little too hard because after that I couldn’t quit coughing. Either way – I picked up (literally) cinnamon, citrus, garlic & chili-type powder. I added a few more things to fix my error & hoped for the best.

It turned out delicious! All the kids loved it, we had so much food — all the boys had thirds & we had two more meals from the leftovers. That fixed my meal problems for the rest of the week!!