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