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
Video
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.
Yum. If you use lean meat make sure to add a little extra sauce to the meat. This recipe was delicious and I used a little olive oil spray, I was surprised it didn’t stick to the pan at all. Great recipe!
OMG I loved this recipe!
I do not enjoy cooking AT ALL, but this looked so good! I have always loved the ends & edges of regular meatloaf so you can imagine how thrilled I was to see this version!
I did change it up a bit as I only had Progresso Italian bread crumbs. I also did not add mustard. Lastly, I also cut up a green bell pepper to add like my grandmother used to!
I changed the sauce as well. Again, like my grandmother I just used ketchup & a whole lot of brown sugar.
I never comment on recipes but this was FABULOUS!! I will definitely cook this again! I also appreciate the info on freezing as it will come in handy! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Great recipe, very easy and quick to bake. My one substitution was celery instead of onions. I thought the sauce was a bit too sweet, will cut down on the sugar next time or try BBQ sauce instead of sugar as others have suggested. I liked the chili powder in the meat mixture very much!
I cut the recipe in half since there is just the two of us. And I substituted impossible burger for the ground beef. Came out great. Got a thumbs up from my husband who also ate the leftovers for lunch the next day.
Made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing! This was definitely a quick, 30-minute meal and I really appreciated that. I will definitely save this to my favorites list. 🙂
Great recipe! I added one carrots finely chopped into it and my 3 yo loved it.
These were fun to make and eat, but not fun to clean up the muffin tins afterwards (I almost threw them away!!!!) I also did not have the ingredients for the sauce but made my own up and was delish – used a small Spicy Sriracha sauce from Chickfila in it!
Soooo good! The sauce is boss! My brother said it was better than mom’s (but of course we didn’t tell her that 😉 I used regular breadcrumbs that I had on hand and made mini loaves on a sheet pan. I’ll definitely make more sauce next time as everyone wanted more for both the meatloaf and baked potatoes I served it with. I’m a newbie with cooking, and this is definitely one to add to my recipe stash. Simple and delicious! Thanks for sharing it!
Very flavorful! Perfect size for me since I don’t eat much. For the topping I did half ketchup and half BBQ sauce. This recipe is definitely a keeper!