As part of "I Heart Meatloaf" month, we asked our friend Tim Kenlan - a former chef and local Renaissance man - to prepare an easy at-home meatloaf recipe with Double Z ground beef. He came up with a delicious bacon-wrapped meatloaf with a sweet and tangy glaze. Tim says prep time was about 15-20 minutes, total cooking time around 90 minutes. If you don't have Valentine's Day dinner plans, try this recipe with the one you love!
Ingredients:
2 lbs Double Z ground beef
2 eggs
¼ cup quick oats
¼ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
5 glugs of Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 package thin-sliced bacon
For the glaze:
¼ cup Ketchup
3 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Putting it all together:
Preheat oven to 350° F.
In a large mixing bowl, add beef, eggs, oats, bread crumbs, cheese, salt and pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Set aside.
In a medium skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high heat until hot.
Add chopped onion and sauté until translucent and starting to brown
Add a pinch of salt and pepper
Add the onions to the beef bowl and mix with your hands (using gloves is a good idea) just until everything is incorporated evenly. Be very careful not to over mix as this can cause the meat to become tough when it’s cooked.
In a roasting pan, line the bottom with a piece of parchment or wax paper and coat with a Tbsp or 2 of olive oil to prevent sticking.
Form the meat mixture into a loaf shape on the parchment paper (probably about 8 inches long by 4 inches wide and 3 inches tall? You can certainly make any shape your heart desires, so long as it will cook evenly, and I don’t recommend using a loaf pan as it adds time to the cooking and will severely dry out the meat).
Brush the loaf with the glaze mixture then wrap with individual slices of bacon.
Place the meatloaf in the oven until internal temperature reaches 155° F, about 50 minutes. Remove from oven and glaze over the bacon, replace in the oven and cook until you reach 160 degrees, or another 10-15 minutes. If you have a probe thermometer, that’s the best way, but if not, cook time was just under 1 hour.
Once done, take the meatloaf out of the pan and wrap it loosely in a sheet of tinfoil. Allow it at least 10 minutes to rest, as this will bring the internal temperature up a few degrees, and will also bring all the juices back into the meat and make it moist and delicious.