How to Smoke Meatloaf
Today I’m going to show you how I smoke meat loaf. We love meatloaf. But smoked meatloaf—it’s just over the top. Even my wife loves this stuff so much, I don’t know if she will ever cook meatloaf in the kitchen again.
Like usual, my goal is to share my story and show you how easy amazing barbecue can really be. There are a ton of smoked meatloaf recipes online, but I hope you’re here to read my story, not just read more about meatloaf. 🙂
So far, I haven’t done any supreme meat loaf with all the vegetable toppings. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should check out the BBQ Pit Boy’s Meatloaf Burger Supreme video. It looks delicious and I want to try it sometime. However, stay with me. You can top your meatloaf with peppers, onion, cheese, and sausage Pit Boy style and still use my recipe.
First, you mix up the meat. We used 5 pounds of hamburger in the foil pan shown on this page. Simply multiply it to fill the size of pan you have. Here is the recipe:
Meatloaf Recipe
1-1/2 pounds ground beef
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup chopped onion
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
Mix the above ingredients in a bowl. Shape the meat into a loaf in a disposable aluminum pan. Cover the surface of the loaf with a brisket rub or your favorite beef rub. If your seasoning is heavy in salt, sprinkle it lightly. I prefer a seasoning I can put on thick as in the picture below.
Next, I set the pan in my smoker. The smoker should be running at 250-275 degrees F. I use a Meadow Creek SQ36 Smoker. This model is perfect for backyard smoking.
My smoker takes very little maintenance besides occasionally adding more wood and charcoal. Half of the fun is hanging out around the smoker with the boys. 🙂
I like to take the internal temperature up to about 180-190. It’s not really critical, but it’s a little like eggs. Some people like ’em hard, some like ’em soft. You can vary it according to your preference. I really wouldn’t eat it mushy though, unless you are a true barbarian.
About 20 minutes before it’s done, brush your favorite barbecue sauce over the whole top of the meatloaf. We use Jeff Phillip’s sauce recipe, called Goodness Gracious Sakes Alive. It really is my absolute favorite sauce. He’s asking $10 for the sauce recipe and I would buy it in a heartbeat. I wish I could share it with you, but I can’t.
After it was cooked, I sliced the meatloaf into small pieces for our church fellowship meal the next day. I covered the pan with foil, refrigerated it overnight, then we reheated it in the oven the next morning for the noon meal.
We served extra sauce on the side. Where I messed up was not saucing it during the reheat. The sauce got a little too much heat and baked into the meat. It was very delicious, but didn’t have the presentation it should have had. So if you do reheat it, give it another coat of sauce about 20 minutes before you’re ready to pull it out of the oven. Just give it a little time to glaze the top of the meat and make it beautiful. 🙂
Above is another meat loaf I did once when we had some out-of-state friends here. Ain’t it just worth looking at?
This is what it looks like 10 inches from your mouth.
Well, I guess that wraps it up. I hope you enjoyed my tips. Fire up the smoker over the weekend, make some good lookin’, lip-smackin’ moo-moo and tell us how it swirled out with a comment below. I can’t wait to hear from you.
Have fun!
Lavern
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March 31st, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Thanks I will give it a try ! HB
March 31st, 2012 at 7:54 pm
We like meatloaf and I will get my wife “who is a great cook” to give it a try.
April 2nd, 2012 at 10:12 am
@Harry and @Lloyd, you won’t be sorry. 😉
April 1st, 2012 at 7:24 am
Sounds great, can’t wait to try it, thanks Lavern
April 2nd, 2012 at 10:11 am
@Jerry Shinaver, you are very welcome.
April 1st, 2012 at 7:05 pm
Awesome recipe & good looking meat loaf! Cant wait to try this…
April 2nd, 2012 at 10:11 am
@Amani, thank you. 🙂 Post a comment to let us know how it went.
April 2nd, 2012 at 5:01 am
Tried the “loaf” this week-end and D…N it was good. This will help[ keep the kitchen cooler this summer.
April 2nd, 2012 at 10:11 am
@HSC, Glad you liked it. That’s great! 🙂
April 2nd, 2012 at 10:55 am
Hey Lavern..I took my meat mix…..flattened it out to about 3/4″ in the bottom of the pan….smoked it for about 1 hour at 180*. Then I took the meat out, formed it into a loaf and finished it in the smoker at about 245* until done. Then after letting it cool just a bit (so it would slice easily), served it as open faced sandwiches with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy. That smokey flavor was all the way through the meat….best ever meatloaf..
April 2nd, 2012 at 9:23 pm
@Brad, wow, that’s just great. I’m glad you liked it.
April 2nd, 2012 at 12:12 pm
How long do you reheat the loaf and at what temp. I am in the same situation for a get together and would like to cook thie meatloaf. Looks great.
April 2nd, 2012 at 9:26 pm
@Donald, I would make sure it’s covered with foil and put the oven on low/medium and simply heat it until it’s warm enough to eat. I can’t say how long because it will depend on how large the meatloaf is. It will be cooked already so the only concern is getting it to eating temp again and not drying it out with excess heat.
April 2nd, 2012 at 8:39 pm
Grandkids are with us this week so we will try it and see how we like it, looks great
April 2nd, 2012 at 9:26 pm
@Russell, thank you. Let me know. 🙂
April 3rd, 2012 at 7:06 pm
Lavern, I have been smoking meat loaf for years on my weber grill. I do not use a pan I use crackercrumbs, frnch onion soup mix, a couple of eaggs, grenn peppers onions. Shape it like a loaf of bread with Bacon on the top. When done add steak sauce or any kind of topping. Try it it is awesome. P.S. love your smokers maybe someday I will be able to afford one. Thanks and happy Easter my friend!!
May 1st, 2012 at 10:28 am
@dan nicksic, That does sound delicious. Thanks for sharing.
April 24th, 2012 at 6:00 am
Lavern, tried your meat loaf recipe !! AWESOME !! The rubb I used was a little salty but all in all, I will give you a 10 out of 10 !!
Thanks for sharing,
Don
May 1st, 2012 at 10:27 am
@Don Robinson, thanks for your kind words. 🙂
June 7th, 2012 at 8:22 am
Lavern, I gotta try this it has the mouth watering just reading the recipe.At 250-275 degrees,how long did the smoking process take? P
June 12th, 2012 at 8:35 pm
@Ryan, something like a couple hours. Can’t remember for sure. But it will depend on the size, temp, etc.
July 5th, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Lavern,
The old lady’s birthday is this weekend and instead of the usual out to dinner I think I will give this a shot. Will let you know how it turns out my friend!
Thanks in advance for the recipe and many more.
Jeff
September 21st, 2012 at 7:43 am
i used a standard meatloaf pan with a lot of 3/8 inch holes drilled and debured, that way tha meatloaf doesnt stew
September 26th, 2012 at 8:42 pm
Neat idea. Some meatloaf will not cook in grease, but if yours does, great idea.
December 27th, 2012 at 4:35 pm
I found some wonderful info in your site and bookmarked to visit again . Thanks.
April 4th, 2013 at 12:55 pm
An important question: What kind of wood do you like to use with a meatloaf. Looks yummy!
April 4th, 2013 at 3:10 pm
Thanks for asking. I am still learning myself, but I really like fruit woods, such as apple and pear. I think the best answer is use smoking wood that is most available to you and go from there. Of course, keep it safe and don’t use moldy wood or wood from pines or other sap-producing trees like that.
May 24th, 2013 at 4:32 pm
I’m gonna try this recipe. I make something similar that I call the redneck wedding cake (**Note: the wifey hates the name I gave the dish). I use cast iron skillets, stack the loaves and use BBQ sauce as the icing… For meatloaf I use hickory or oak.
July 4th, 2013 at 4:51 pm
Lavern, I used your recipe, but I put it in a perforated pan and cooked it on a PR60 pig roaster. It turned out great, and all the grease runs out the bottom. It’s still good and moist, and holds a wonderful smoke and flavor. I serve 20-30 people for our club events and I get nothing but compliments. Thanks for a great recipe!!!
July 5th, 2013 at 2:42 pm
Thanks for sharing that. Using a perforated pan is a great idea. Do you put the holes in yourself? Or where do you get a perforated pan? -Lavern
September 9th, 2014 at 4:28 pm
I did your Meatloaf recipe Sunday and had a couple of people over. Everybody loved it. I’m not a fan of meatloaf but this is the best I’ve ever had. Will have this way more often. I used a cheap aluminum pan and poked holes in it and there was no grease when I took it out of the smoker and the meatloaf was moist and delicious. Wish I would have made a bigger batch since there was none left.
September 10th, 2014 at 2:33 pm
Great to hear! Thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you enjoyed it.