BBQ Bacon Meatloaf
Hallelujah, it’s another meatloaf recipe! If you don’t know this about me by now, you should know that I absolutely adore meatballs and meatloaf. No clue why. It might be because my mother has been conditioning me for 30 years to love meatloaf. It’s what she serves me every year on my birthday so I’ve come to associate meatloaf with fun times and happy celebrations. A few months back I turned 30 and I posted a meatloaf recipe on my birthday in honor of myself. Which reminds me, that is an awesome recipe. If you like meatloaf as much as me, or even half as much as me, make sure you check out my Chicken Bacon Ranch Meatloaf as well. That one is another winner.
One question I get constantly is where do I get inspiration for my recipes? Travel is definitely the biggest source of inspiration for the recipes you see on this blog. And by “travel” I mean anything I eat outside of my own kitchen that somebody else prepares for me, so it could even be “traveling” to the restaurant a few towns over. Hi Bacon Wrapped Dates and Sweet and Crispy Brussels Sprouts.
Every year in September I attend a trade show in Burlington, Vermont for my job. Who knows what’s happening in the world this year, but if it is still going on this year it will be my sixth year attending! Sometimes I think it’s bananas I’ve been at my current job for as long as I have. This past year when I went I stayed at a different hotel than I usually choose because my hotel of choice was sadly crazy expensive for the dates I needed to stay. I felt a little guilty putting such a hefty charge on the company card, so I chose a less expensive hotel. One night for dinner the weather wasn’t great and I was pretty tired so I didn’t feel like straying far for dinner. I walked over to The Lighthouse Restaurant after looking it up online and seeing rave reviews for their salad bar. I’m always a sucker for a salad bar, so that option got my vote pretty quickly, coupled with the fact that I could walk there. They had an awesome salad bar indeed and I chose to order…you guessed it…BBQ Bacon Meatloaf for my entree. It was SO DELICIOUS I ate the entire plate and that was even after 17 trips to the salad bar. What can I say? I had worked a full day at a trade show AND worked out in the hotel gym after, so I was a Hungry Hungry Hiker indeed.
As delicious as it was, I kind of forgot about that meatloaf for a few months. It wasn’t until recently that I made a cleaned up version of BBQ Sauce and I was brainstorming different ways of using it that I remembered how much I enjoyed that meatloaf. I thought it would be easy enough to recreate a Whole30 version in my own kitchen, and so here we are! Another recipe for the BBQ Series! I just have a feeling that this year’s BBQ Sauce will be last year’s Caramelized Onions. Only time will tell!
BBQ Bacon Meatloaf
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 375° F.
- Add the bacon to a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Saute for 10-12 minutes until bacon starts to color and release some fat. You do not want to cook it until crisp! Remove half of the bacon and place it in a large bowl. Continue cooking the other half of the bacon until crispy and cooked through to your liking. Remove and set aside on a paper towel lined plate. Reserve 1 tbsp bacon fat in a small bowl for later use.
- While the rest of the bacon finishes cooking, add all of the remaining meatloaf ingredients except the dried parsley to the bowl and use your hands to mix to combine. Add the mixture to a large loaf pan (I used a 1.5 quart glass loaf pan 5" x 9"). Place the loaf pan on a baking sheet (in case it bubbles over; mine did not, but better safe than sorry) and bake at 375° F for 55-60 minutes until juices run clear and meatloaf is cooked through. Let rest 10 minutes before carefully removing the meatloaf from the loaf pan and placing on a serving platter.
- Scrape off any bits that have been cooked on to the loaf pan. Pour the cooking juices into a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Add the 1 tbsp reserved bacon fat and ¼ cup BBQ Sauce and whisk with a fork to combine. Let simmer 3-4 minutes. Whisk in the tapioca flour ¼ tsp at a time until the gravy has thickened to your liking. Remove from heat.
- To serve, place one slice of meatloaf on a plate and top with the gravy and sprinkle with the reserved bacon bits. Garnish with parsley if desired and enjoy hot! I like to serve my meatloaf with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables on the side.
