This recipe really started as a joke. My friend, Laura, posted this to my facebook page. Why? Because it has bacon. That’s it. She knows I love bacon, so pretty much every time she sees a recipe with bacon in it, she posts it or tells me about it. This one in particular she found on a great blog – Make Ahead Meals for Busy Mom’s. Check out the recipe HERE, and see her original great idea.
After looking at this recipe for about…3 seconds…I realized I wanted to make it immediately. It was a snowy day in St. Louis, I had all the ingredients, so I made the decision – we made it that night. And we made a LOT.
So, here’s the deal: This is meatloaf. With bacon. And it looks like a filet mignon.
I feel like I should end the description there, because honestly, if that doesn’t motivate you to print the recipe card immediately…I just don’t know what will.
But here’s what I did, besides a few tiny tweaks to the ingredients – I smoked them. (Duh) And holy mother of tasty discoveries, these turned out stupid crazy ridiculous offensively good. (check out this recipe for a full sized Smoked Meatloaf on a Pellet Grill).
Best of all – they’re easy to freeze and store, and they’re just as good frozen and fresh. Yes, I’ve already cooked them twice. Maybe three times. Don’t judge.
So check out the full recipe and please consider making these tonight-ish. You can definitely make them in the oven too – we tried both ways and both are awesome. It’s just that a little hickory smoke makes everything a little better.
Kinda like bacon.
Smoked Bacon-Wrapped Mini Meatloaves
Ingredients
- 3 lbs ground beef could substitute half or all for ground turkey
- 2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
- 1 lb bacon
- 1 onion finely diced
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 c Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 c milk
- 1/4 c ketchup
- 1 tbs garlic powder
- 1 tbs parsley
- 1 tsp basil
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
- I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to form a perfect "mignon" sized meatloaf.
- For make ahead and freezing, plop them down on a pre-cut piece of saran wrap, then wrap the bacon around and seal the saran wrap tightly around it.
- For making fresh, just plop them on whatever dish you're using and wrap with bacon.
- Set up grill for indirect cooking. Get grill temp to around 300-350 degrees.
- Add hickory chips to coals and smoke meatloaves for about 30 minutes.
- If frozen, cook them for about 45 minutes.
- Makes about 16-20 servings.
Tried this one time, we’ve been hooked ever since!! Excellent flavors!! This has become a repeat favorite in our home! This is a MUST try!
I will be trying these this week, I am going to make one little change. When I make regular meatloaf I use 2lbs 80/20 ground beef and 1lb ground pork so I will be doing this when I try these. Cant wait to try them out.
O my……making these tonight!
Gonna have to Ellbeeize them of course, cause we just don’t have garlic powder in the house!
I’m excited about dinner at the Styer’s tonight!
Did you make them? If so, which Ellbees seasoning did you use?
There is no BACON on the ingredient list. Do I wrap each mini-loaf with a whole or half piece? Does thick cut bacon work better? How do you keep the bacon from falling off? Toothpick or does it stay on it’s own? How many 1/4 cup loaves should I expect?
I’m so sorry I forgot to list bacon! I’ll add that. We used a half piece of bacon for each mini-loaf. We used thin cut, but I don’t think it matters. We actually did not need a toothpick…it stuck the meat really well…but you certainly could use one. With the amounts listed, I believe we made around 16-20.