I jump at the chance to review any of the Kirkland Signature pre-made meals at Costco, but I haven’t reviewed all of their prepared, ready-to-cook raw meat options yet, like the stuffed chicken breasts or these Kirkland Signature Maple Chipotle Pork Tenderloin Medallions. The price of the pork seems really reasonable, and I love the flavors of maple and chipotle, so I decided to give these a try. Would I buy them again? Read on to find out!
Location in Store
You can find this in the refrigerated meat section that’s closest to the pre-made meals. It’s beside the Kirkland Signature Seasoned Chicken Wings and the Kirkland Signature Stuffed Salmon. The item number is 12437.
Taste
I’ll start by commenting on the quality of the pork, which seemed very good. The pork tenderloin pieces are tender and juicy, without a lot of gristle or fat, which I really appreciate.
The main flavor coming through is smokiness. The pork tenderloin isn’t too salty, and the maple flavor is very subtle. I almost don’t notice any sweetness at all, mainly just smokiness with a hit of heat that lingers in your mouth.
I gave some of these to my parents to try, and my dad thought they were a bit too spicy, but I didn’t think so. However, if you have anyone in your family who’s very sensitive to spicy foods, you may want to pass on these. The flavour that really shines through is the smokiness.
Cost
The pork tenderloin costs $11.99 per kilogram, and I paid $23.24 for the pack I bought. My pack contained 21 pork tenderloin medallions, which seems like a lot! I think the price is very reasonable since it’s a generous amount of meat and gave us two dinners, with leftovers too.
Convenience
There are oven and grill cooking instructions on the label, I decided to cook my pork in the oven. It took about five minutes longer than 25 minutes to fully cook my pork in the oven. It turned out perfect, but I think if you grilled the pork, you could get a nice sear on it!
I recommend serving these with rice, potatoes, salad or roasted vegetables. We used the leftovers to make pork fajitas, and they were quite tasty. The pork tenderloin medallions have a best-before date that’s about four days from when they were packaged, but you could also freeze them.
Nutrition
Calories
Two pork medallions contain 150 calories, two grams of fat, five grams of carbohydrates, zero grams of fibre, three grams of sugar, 26 grams of protein and 540 milligrams of sodium. That’s a lot of protein for not many calories or much fat!
Ingredients
The ingredients list has a few things I don’t love seeing and wouldn’t use at home, such as maltodextrin, canola oil, palm, cottonseed or soy oils, and flavor. The pork tenderloin medallions may contain milk, egg, fish, molluscs, crustaceans, tree nuts, peanuts, soy, sesame, wheat and mustard.
Scoring
Taste: 7/10
Cost: 9/10
Convenience: 7/10
Nutrition: 8.5/10
Overall
Give it a try!
These pork tenderloin medallions are convenient and versatile. The flavour is nice and smoky, but some people might find them a bit too spicy. If you’re sensitive to spicy foods, you may not enjoy them.
Have you tried the Costco Kirkland Signature Maple Chipotle Pork Tenderloin? What did you think of it? Drop a comment below!
Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).
We tried these a few months ago. I made kabobs with them and vegetables. They were grilled on the BBQ. Really good, nice and tender as you said. Not too spicy at all for us. It’s just a lot of pork!