Country Style Meatloaf Recipe

Who doesn't love a good meatloaf recipe? I just got done eating like two slices of this and it's insane. If you don't make this, you are crazy. It's super easy to make and I'm gonna show you some awesome tricks to make sure it's the most juicy, flavorful meatloaf on the block. I have to admit, when I was growing up, I hated meatloaf. My sister and I used to call it beefloaf because it just sounds nastier because it was just not all that great. Sort of dried out, not a lot of flavor in this chunk of meat. This wasn't that great. But I'm gonna show you some awesome tricks to make it amazing. Does that sound good? I'm gonna knock out some prep. Let's cook. I've got a loaf of Italian bread. You could use French bread. Heck, you could even use Wonder Bread or I've got a recipe for you here if you want. We're gonna slice it into about 3 1⁄4 length and I'm gonna put it into a container and immediately cover it in cold water. You could use milk too, which would be really classic, but that's kind of expensive. To make sure that it submerges in the water, I usually put a few plates over there to make sure it's dunked underneath. Here is why we're doing this. When you add breadcrumbs to a meatloaf, which would obviously be maybe a little more traditional, I mean, what is it? It's dried bread that needs reconstitution. It's gonna draw moisture from the eggs, from the meat, and it's gonna dry it out more. Sure, maybe it'll help hold it together a little better, but I'm not concerned with that because with this and the eggs, we're gonna be fine. This is what's gonna help make your meatloaf so juicy and so flavorful. Do not skip this step. Now, we need to prep up some vegetables. I've got some red bell peppers that I'm going to simply seed and then small dice. I've also got some green bell peppers. We are gonna do the exact same thing. Go ahead and set them to the side in a very large bowl. This is gonna be the bowl to mix everything in. I've also got a yellow onion. You could use red, you could use white, you could even use a sweet onion, completely up to you, use what you have. Next, I've got some garlic cloves. I'm going to, of course, run those through a garlic press because I'm so over chopping garlic in this life. So once you've squeezed all of it through, just take a nice slice to get all of it there. Now, I've got some ground beef. I use 90-10. Don't go too fatty. 80 to 20 may be too much. I like a nice lean 80-10 or 85-15. Go over to the bread. What we're gonna do now is squeeze as much of the water out of it as possible. So take a few chunks at a time. Squeeze it really good. It should be dried out a little bit after doing that. We are gonna add it right to that bowl with everything else. Now, to make sure we can hold all of it together, add in four large eggs right over the top. We're now gonna flavor it up. I've got some Worcestershire sauce. Gonna add a lot of nice natural salts there. We're gonna season it very well with sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. I can't say it enough. Meat loves salt and it loves pepper, so season generously. Before we mix this up, let me stop and say this. Yes, of course you can add things in and even take them out. If you don't like onions, maybe don't add those in there. But you can even add in yellow bell peppers, mushrooms. I've seen shredded mozzarella cheese. You can put in cooked pieces of bacon. I mean, how insanely delicious would that be? Make it work for you. Now let's mix this up. Using your hands, maybe you've got some gloves. If not, make sure they're really clean, or even a spoon will do. We need to completely mix this together. We want that bread to be incorporated in with the meat. As you can see, I'm squeezing it together to get all of those ingredients in there. Once it is completely combined, I've got a few loaf pans. We're gonna simply divide the meat in half and put it right into a prepared loaf pan. And I've sprayed it with a little bit of nonstick spray. Press it firmly down in there to pack it nice and tight so that when it slices, it doesn't fall apart. And sure, you could go ahead and hook that other loaf pan up with the rest of the meatloaf. Would be delicious. Absolutely amazing meatloaf recipe. But what if we line that pan with bacon? So simply line that pan with some bacon strips. Regular cut will do. So that it's overlapping by about two to three inches on the outside of the pan all the way around that pan. And then using the other half of the meat, load it up, pack it in tight just like before. Once it's all in there, you want to simply fold everything inward. I start with the top of the pan, then go over to the sides because it just looks better once it's finished baking. You got this nice little tight package. This looks awesome. And the flavor that's gonna come from this is absolutely amazing. And you could just cook these as is. I mean, the meatloaf is so flavorful. It's got a lot of great ingredients in there. It'd be amazing if you just cooked it like this. But if you like a little glaze, and I do, here's how you make that. Add some ketchup to a pot or a bowl, completely up to you. Once it is in there, next we're gonna add in some packed light brown sugar. You could use regular sugar or even honey would be really tasty here. And for a little umami flavor and a nice saltiness here, we're gonna hit it with some soy sauce. You could add in a little bit of vinegar too, if you wanted to, maybe red wine or balsamic. Give it a nice stir. Make sure it is nice and smooth. If you need to hit it up over low heat, go ahead and do that. Now what we're gonna do is just glaze the top of the one that isn't with bacon because there's gonna be plenty of other flavor in that other one. And once it's on there, just spread it and coat the top completely. This looks absolutely beautiful. It's gonna be seriously amazing. You're gonna absolutely love this recipe. I can't say it enough. We're going in the oven on 375 degrees. It's gonna take in between 50 and 60 minutes for it to completely cook through. Super excited to try this. I can't stress these things enough. I always say it. You start understanding these fundamental, basic cooking principles, like how do you keep meatloaf or meatballs or anything like that really moist? You use some wet bread, just like my grandma used to call it, wet bread. You start incorporating this into all of your cooking, all of these techniques that you've learned so far. Your homemade food from scratch is gonna be way better than anything else. It always tastes better. Better than the restaurants, better than the stores, you name it. You are gonna be the best cook on the block, my friends. Let's grab this meatloaf out of the oven. Golly, does this look good, my friends. That glaze is nice and crusted on there. That bacon's nice and browned up. So of course, let's plate up in slow-mo. I'm gonna be using a serrated knife. This will help slice your meatloaf without it falling apart. It kind of holds everything together. Let's take some slices of the ones with the glaze, and of course, some slices of the one that is wrapped in bacon. It smells glorious in here, you guys. And if you want, you can garnish with a little bit of fresh chopped parsley. And be sure to check out these beauties, and why not serve it up with some mashed potatoes, and of course, green beans. I mean this as humbly as possible. This is one of the best meatloafs out there. You have to give it a shot. You love meatloaf? This is the recipe for you guys. Be sure to like this video, and be sure to subscribe to my channel. Check out this video, because it is super good. See you on there.