This easy Mini Meatloaf recipe is made with ground beef or ground turkey and topped with a delicious meatloaf sauce. They cook faster, are easier and healthier than traditional meatloaf.

Looking for more kid-friendly meals? Try Hawaiian Meatballs, American Goulash, or Chicken Pot Pie!

Two easy mini meatloaf with sauce on a plate next to a green salad, ready to be enjoyed.

Why I love this meal:

  • Fast – Making meatloaf in a muffin tin is easier to make and faster to cook than regular meatloaf.
  • Make Ahead – This meatloaf is easily prepped in the morning or even the night before, making dinnertime way less stressful. I also like to make extra and freeze the individual portion sizes for future quick meals.
  • The Sauce – The homemade sauce only has four simple ingredients and couldn’t be easier to whip up. It takes this meal over the top with how delicious and flavorful it is!

How to make Mini Meatloaf:

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.

Two images showing all of the meatloaf ingredients in a bowl, and then all of it mixed together for Mini Meatloaf.

Press Into Muffin Tin: Divide the meat among the 12 cups in a standard muffin tin, pressing them down to fill the cup. Bake for 15 minutes.

A scoop of meatloaf mixture in each compartment of a muffin pan.

Make the Sauce:  Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Once meatloaf has cooked for 15 minutes, remove them and blot out any grease in the muffin cups. Spoon the sauce over them.

Two images showing brown sugar, ketchup, dijon mustard, and nutmeg in a bowl to make a meatloaf sauce, and then that sauce being spread on top of mini meatloaf.

Return to oven for 10-15 minutes until cooked through.  Serve mini meatloaf muffins with a side of Perfect Mashed Potatoes or this Apple Pecan Salad.

Three mini meatloaf with a fork cutting into one, with a simple green side salad on the plate next to it.

Healthy Meatloaf?

These easy mini 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.

Make Ahead, Freezing, and Storing Instructions:

  • To Make Ahead: Combine meatloaf ingredients and then press into a muffin tin. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to bake, or up to overnight.
  • To Freeze: Grease muffin tin and press meatloaf mixture into each. Cover and “flash freeze” for about an hour.  Carefully remove each partially frozen meatloaf muffin and place them in a freezer safe container.  Freeze for up to 3 months. When ready to bake, place the frozen servings back in muffin tin and allow them to thaw completely in the fridge. Then bake as instructed.
  • To Store: Place the cooked muffins in a container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Serve With:

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Recipe

Two mini meatloaf with sauce on a plate with a green salad, ready to be enjoyed!
Prep 10 minutes
Cook 25 minutes
Total 35 minutes
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Ingredients
 
 

Meatloaf sauce:

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • In a large mixing bowl (using your hands, meat chopper, 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

Love it? Try our traditional meatloaf!
Store Leftover meatloaf in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
To Make Ahead: Combine meatloaf ingredients and then press into a muffin tin. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to bake, or up to overnight.
To Freeze: Grease muffin tin and press meatloaf mixture into each. Cover and “flash freeze” for about an hour.  Carefully remove each partially frozen meatloaf muffin and place them in a freezer safe container.  Freeze for up to 3 months. When ready to bake, place the frozen servings back in muffin tin and allow them to thaw completely in the fridge. Then bake as instructed.
 

Nutrition

Calories: 137kcalCarbohydrates: 13gProtein: 13gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.3gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 49mgSodium: 299mgPotassium: 268mgFiber: 1gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 151IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 25mgIron: 2mg

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I originally shared this recipe September 2013. Updated August 2019 and February 2022.

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Lauren Allen

Welcome! I’m Lauren, a mom of four and lover of good food. Here you’ll find easy recipes and weeknight meal ideas made with real ingredients, with step-by-step photos and videos.

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Comments

  1. 5 stars
    This was the quickest and best turkey meatloaf I have ever cooked! I have a great recipe for cooking turkey meatloaf that my family loves, but it just takes too long to prepare and too long to cook. This recipe is amazingly delicious and it only took 25 minutes to cook! My family loved it! Second helpings all around!

  2. LOVE this recipe! This is the second time I’ve made them this month. Our kids requested them again for supper tonight!

  3. 5 stars
    My family loved it ! Even my toddlers , no leftovers with this meal. Would even be a great maindish for a holiday

  4. 5 stars
    This was a great idea for many meatloafs. Usually I’ll just make mini meatloafs and put it on a baking sheet. The only thing that I would do differently is there’s too much sugar in here. I followed the topping part and even left out some of the sugar especially that brown sugar and it was still too sweet. So if you are looking for a sweet recipe for meatloaf this is the one for you. If you’re looking for a recipe that tastes like regular meatloaf this is not the correct way to do it. I think what I did was the barbecue sauce had sugar in it the ketchup had sugar in it everything had sugar in it in terms of sauces that you added to the meatloaf or the topping. I would do probably no sugar and then add that brown sugar in there. Overall I’m still going to give it a 5-stars for the fact that I never thought to use a muffin pan. The meatloaf part other than the sauce was excellent. I think the sauce added too much sweetness even though I only added a few tablespoons. I will continue to use this recipe because it was great but modifying the sauce with other no sugar condiments. Thank you! 🙂

  5. Followed the recipe except I added a little Worcester to the sauce & I topped it with bacon that I precooked during the first 15 min. Loved the sauce.

  6. Do we spray/oil up the muffin tin before adding the mixture? Sounds delicious. Trying this week!

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