Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

Well hello everyone!! It’s been a long minute since you’ve heard from me… I apologize for the absence, but quite frankly, life is nuts. Between working, three very active children, and trying to carve away some time to spend with my beautiful wife, I’ve barely had time to cook, let along even think about blogging! Truthfully, I had no intention of even putting this up, but after I posted the picture on Facebook and Instagram, people started asking for my recipe… So here it is!

Serves 6-8

Ingredients (Meat Mixture)
2.5lbs Ground Beef 80/20
1.25lbs Ground Pork
1lb Ground Sweet Sausage
5 Garlic Cloves, chopped
1/2 Sweet Onion, chopped
2c Unseasoned Panko
3 Eggs
1/2c Grated Parmesan Cheese
2tbsp Salt
1tbsp Ground Black Pepper
1tbsp Garlic Powder
1lb Thick Cut Bacon

Ingredients (Glaze)
1.5c Ketchup
1/3c Light Brown Sugar
1/4c Soy Sauce
2tsp Ground Black Pepper
2tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flake

Preheat your oven to 500F.

In a large bowl combine the ingredients for the meat mixture, except for the bacon. Do not overwork the mixture or you risk getting a gummy texture. Just hand mix it until everything is pretty well incorporated. Transfer the mixture to a greased 9.5×13″ baking dish and form into a loaf shape, gently smoothing out the outside. Once formed, diagonally lattice the bacon over the top, as you get towards the edges you’ll need to cut a couple of strips in half so it fits. Tuck any exposed edges under the loaf. Place in the oven at 500F and cook for 35-40 minutes, or until the bacon starts to lightly crisp up (there’s a pic below to show you where you want it). Baste the meatloaf every 8-10 minutes with the rendered bacon fat in the bottom of the baking dish. This will help crisp the bacon faster, as well as keep the meatloaf moist.

While the meatloaf is baking combine the ingredients for the glaze. Feel free to adjust the quantities to taste. Some people prefer a sweeter glaze, some people want more salt, some want heat… Your call.

Once the bacon is starting to crisp up, remove the meatloaf from the oven and let rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the loaf. Using a baster I also removed any of the rendered bacon fat fluids from the bottom of the dish to keep the bottom of the loaf from being soggy, and to use in other ways (I used it to sear golden potato fondant rather than oil or butter… bacon fat potato fondant? heck yeah!).

Reduce the oven temperature to 350F.

After the meat has rested, evenly coat it with the glaze. Then place in the oven at 350F and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Remove from the oven then let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

That’s it, you’re done. Super simple with a ton of flavor, and probably the moistest meatloaf you’ll have in your life! Enjoy!!