Smoked Meatloaf Recipe
Excellent smoked meatloaf, perfect for a weeknight dinner or a tailgate party. Recipe adapted form Alton Brown's Everyday Cook.
Equipment
Ingredients
For the loaf
- 2 lb ground beef chuck
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1/4 C finely chopped onion
- 1 red chili stemmed, seeded, and minced (don't seed it if you want a spicy meatloaf!)
- 1/2 tsp ground sage
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 3 eggs
- 6 oz crushed/ground, ruffle-style potato chips
- 1/2 C milk
For the glaze (or you can use your favorite BBQ sauce)
- 2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce plus 1 Tbsp adobo
- 1/4 C tomato paste
- 1/2 C ketchup
- 1/2 C apple juice
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients for meatloaf in a large bowl and mix thoroughly but gently. Overmixing will create a meatloaf with a tight, sausage-like consistency—not all bad, but not light like the meat-cloud we're looking for.
- Preheat your smoker to 225°F (107°C). Form your meat into a tightly packed loaf on a half sheet pan or cookie sheet.
- Set up your RFX MEAT and RFX GATEWAY and place your probes. Place the meat probe in the very middle—the thermal center—of the loaf for greatest accuracy in cooking, being sure to immerse the probe to the minimum immersion line. Use the grate clip to place your air probe near the grates of your smoker.
- Set your air probe high alarm to 240°F (116°C) and the low alarm to 210°F (99°C) to make sure your smoker temperature stays steady. (Or use Billows BBQ Control Fan to keep the temperature right where you want it!)
- Set your meat probe high alarm to 120°F (49°C) and place the meatloaf in the smoker. Cook!
- Meanwhile, prepare the glaze by mixing all glaze ingredients in a bowl.
- When the meat temperature reaches its target and the high alarm sounds, brush generously with glaze.
- Reset your RFX MEAT's high alarm to 160°F (71°C) and continue cooking.
- When the meat probe high alarm sounds in the app again and RFX MEAT reads 160°F (71°C), verify your temperatures with your Thermapen ONE by sticking it through to the bottom and slowly pulling it up through the loaf.
- If your lowest temp is 160°F (71°C), take it off the smoker and let it rest a few minutes before serving. This will allow the carryover cooking to bring the temp the rest of the way up to 165°F (74°C) and will allow the juices to re-settle into the meat.
- Slice, serve, and know that you've made everyone happy!
