Mini Meatloaf
My mom made us meatloaf in a muffin tin all the time when I was a kid. It’s so yummy cooked this way and it’s also way easier to make and faster to cook the regular meatloaf! I particularly love that this recipe can be prepped in the morning, or even the night before, making dinnertime way less stressful.
I LOVE mini meatloaf because:
- Faster cook time
- Individual portion sizes
- Easy to make ahead, store and freeze
- More fun to eat!
Mini Meatloaf in 5 easy steps:
- Combine meatloaf ingredients. In a large mixing bowl (using your hands or a large spoon), combine ground beef, breadcrumbs, onion, barbecue sauce, mustard, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and egg.
- Press into muffin tins. Divide the meat among the 12 cups in a standard muffin tin, pressing them down to fill the cup.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Make the sauce. Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Once muffins have cooked for 15 minutes, remove them and blot out any grease in the muffin cups. Spoon the sauce over them.
- Return to oven for 10-15 minutes. Serve muffins with a side of Perfect Mashed Potatoes
I love the meatloaf sauce in this recipe because it’s delicious and couldn’t be EASIER, with only four simple ingredients: ketchup, brown sugar, dijon mustard, and nutmeg. You can prepare it up to one week in advance, stored in the refrigerator.
Healthy Meatloaf?
These meatloaf muffins are only 140 calories made with lean ground beef or about 120 calories made with ground turkey (that’s including the sauce!). I often use ground turkey instead of ground beef because once I add the sauce, my family really can’t tell the difference.
Freezing and Storing Mini Meatloaf:
- To store: place the cooked muffins in a container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- To freeze: prepare the meatloaf and press it into the muffin tin. Cover the muffin tin with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer to “flash freeze.” After about 1 hour, remove the raw, partially frozen meatloaf muffins and place them in a freezer safe resealable bag. Freeze for up to 3 months.
- To re-heat: remove the muffins from the freezer and place them in the muffin tin, in the refrigerator overnight. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes, remove them from the oven and top them with sauce. Bake again for 10-15 minutes.
Sides for mini meatloaf:
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Recipe
Mini Meatloaf Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef (or ground turkey)
- 2/3 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup onion , chopped
- 1 Tablespoon barbecue sauce
- 1 Tablespoon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 egg , lightly beaten
Meatloaf sauce:
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 2 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large mixing bowl (using your hands or a large spoon), combine ground beef, breadcrumbs, onion, 1 Tbsp barbecue sauce, mustard, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and egg.
- Divide the mixture among the 12 cups in a standard muffin tin, pressing them down to fill the cup. Bake for 15 minutes.
- In the meantime, in a small bowl mix together all of the ingredients for the sauce.
- Remove the meatloaf from oven and use a paper towel to soak up any grease on the meatloaf.
- Generously spoon sauce over each mini meat loaf. Return to oven for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the meat is cooked through.
- Serve with mashed potatoes and any extra sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
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I originally shared this recipe September 2013. Updated August 2019.
I, too, have made these several times and love it!! Planning to make a double batch to freeze.
This is probably my 10th time making this. Love it so much!
The meatloaf was great! Cooked in the amount of time as said in the recipe. But the sauce on top was far to sweet for me. I would do half the brown sugar next time. Will definitely make this again though!
excellent!
Delicious! Used real garlic, Colby jack cheese, and onion powder (since I didn’t have any onions). Next time I’ll use less brown sugar cause the glaze was very sweet. Easy and tasty recipe!
This came out AMAZING. So moist, so flavorful, so fast!
Took much less time than a regular meatloaf and our 6yo loved it. We paired it with a cauliflower mash. I only gad a pound of ground beef so I adjusted the other ingredients accordingly. Delicious!
I didn’t have brown sugar, so I used a scant half-cup of palm sugar. Excellent results. This is a clever way to serve meatloaf. We loved it!
So delicious. I only used 1/4 cup brown sugar for sauce and it was just right. The bake time is half the time so helpful for summer when you don’t want to heat up your kitchen!!
Love these mini meatloaves! They’re always a hit!