A while back, I smoked some cheese for one of my wife's coworkers. As repayment, she brought me two bottle's of Rudy's BBQ sauce (Regular/Sissy) and a container of their bbq rub. I am a big fan of their bbq sauce ever since I tried it. I've been craving some smoked meatloaf and decided to use those ingredients in it...plus there were a few recent meatloaf smokes that put me over the edge. It's funny how the SMF hive mind works.
The recipe I use for meatloaf is pretty basic and standard. The only thing that really changes is the rubs and sauces added. Here's what I used. I don't add bacon or cheese to mine. Although delicious additions! I don't consider it to be a meatloaf then, more of a fatty.
Smoked Meatloaf
3lbs 80/20 ground beef
2 eggs
1c. milk
1 1/4c. bread crumbs
1 onion
1 poblano pepper
1/4c. bbq sauce (I used Rudy's)
3T. favorite dry rub
pinch of parsley
additional bbq sauce for glazing
I usually like to sautee my onions and peppers before mixing. I was lazy and decided to roast them in the oven instead. I prepped this last night, plus I had the oven already on when I made the Porketta loin roast. This was nice and less of a mess to clean up. I'll do this from now on.
Vegetables prepped for roasting. Place under a broiler on hi until poblano is charred. Remove pepper skins and dice pepper and onion. Sorry for no after picture, this was spur of the moment laziness on my part:
After I did this, the rest of the ingredients were mixed and placed in a loaf pan. I found the Rudy's bbq rub to be pretty salty so I used @chef jimmyj Carolina Q Dust instead since I didn't want it to be overly salty. I could always add more salt at the table. The Carolina Q dust is my favorite dry rub to make. I just omit the white pepper since I never seem to have it.
Meatloaf in the pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight:
The next day, meatloaf is out of the pan and dusted with some Rudy's BBQ rub, notice how much coarser the rub texture is:
The meatloaf went into the smoker at 1pm. I smoked at 230-240F with hickory smoke. When my IT was 155F I glazed the meatloaf with more Rudy's BBQ sauce and cranked the heat to 275F. I wanted to get a picture of the loaf before the sauce went on, but it was a pretty cold and windy day out...so I worked as fast as I could to keep some heat in the smoker. This meatloaf took me 5.5 hrs to smoke, my longest one yet.
Love this stuff!
Here's the meatloaf fresh off the smoker:
The carryover heat took the final IT to 167F. Verified it using my new @Inkbirdbbq instant read thermometer. I'm really happy with this thermometer, it's fast and accurate. Can't beat it for the price.
While the meatloaf rested, I went ahead and made the rest of the arugula salad:
For this, I finely chopped 3 garlic cloves, salt, pepper and approximately 3T of olive oil in a large bowl. Add arugula, grated Asiago and grated Pecorino Romano and toss to coat. I didn't add fresh lemon juice to this because the arugula mix contained sorrel greens which are sour and lemony. I just placed a slice of lemon on the side in case I wanted more. I didn't use the lemon, so I guess it's a garnish at this point.
Here's the finished dinner. Smoked meatloaf with baked potato and arugula salad:
Close up of the meatloaf:
This meal was fantastic. It satisfied my craving, plus we have probably two more nights of dinner from this. As long as I have the Rudy's BBQ sauce and rub, I'll continue to use it when making meatloaf.
Thanks for looking,
Joe
The recipe I use for meatloaf is pretty basic and standard. The only thing that really changes is the rubs and sauces added. Here's what I used. I don't add bacon or cheese to mine. Although delicious additions! I don't consider it to be a meatloaf then, more of a fatty.
Smoked Meatloaf
3lbs 80/20 ground beef
2 eggs
1c. milk
1 1/4c. bread crumbs
1 onion
1 poblano pepper
1/4c. bbq sauce (I used Rudy's)
3T. favorite dry rub
pinch of parsley
additional bbq sauce for glazing
I usually like to sautee my onions and peppers before mixing. I was lazy and decided to roast them in the oven instead. I prepped this last night, plus I had the oven already on when I made the Porketta loin roast. This was nice and less of a mess to clean up. I'll do this from now on.
Vegetables prepped for roasting. Place under a broiler on hi until poblano is charred. Remove pepper skins and dice pepper and onion. Sorry for no after picture, this was spur of the moment laziness on my part:
After I did this, the rest of the ingredients were mixed and placed in a loaf pan. I found the Rudy's bbq rub to be pretty salty so I used @chef jimmyj Carolina Q Dust instead since I didn't want it to be overly salty. I could always add more salt at the table. The Carolina Q dust is my favorite dry rub to make. I just omit the white pepper since I never seem to have it.
Meatloaf in the pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight:
The next day, meatloaf is out of the pan and dusted with some Rudy's BBQ rub, notice how much coarser the rub texture is:
The meatloaf went into the smoker at 1pm. I smoked at 230-240F with hickory smoke. When my IT was 155F I glazed the meatloaf with more Rudy's BBQ sauce and cranked the heat to 275F. I wanted to get a picture of the loaf before the sauce went on, but it was a pretty cold and windy day out...so I worked as fast as I could to keep some heat in the smoker. This meatloaf took me 5.5 hrs to smoke, my longest one yet.
Love this stuff!
Here's the meatloaf fresh off the smoker:
The carryover heat took the final IT to 167F. Verified it using my new @Inkbirdbbq instant read thermometer. I'm really happy with this thermometer, it's fast and accurate. Can't beat it for the price.
While the meatloaf rested, I went ahead and made the rest of the arugula salad:
For this, I finely chopped 3 garlic cloves, salt, pepper and approximately 3T of olive oil in a large bowl. Add arugula, grated Asiago and grated Pecorino Romano and toss to coat. I didn't add fresh lemon juice to this because the arugula mix contained sorrel greens which are sour and lemony. I just placed a slice of lemon on the side in case I wanted more. I didn't use the lemon, so I guess it's a garnish at this point.
Here's the finished dinner. Smoked meatloaf with baked potato and arugula salad:
Close up of the meatloaf:
This meal was fantastic. It satisfied my craving, plus we have probably two more nights of dinner from this. As long as I have the Rudy's BBQ sauce and rub, I'll continue to use it when making meatloaf.
Thanks for looking,
Joe
