You can get this hearty chicken stew cooked with baby lima beans on the table in less than an hour. The cooking time is reduced when using boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and they maintain their tenderness throughout the simmering process. Use as much or as little Creole seasoning to suit your family’s preferences. With a hot, crunchy cracker and cooked white rice, it was even more “down home”!
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 35 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 2 loaves |
Ingredients
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- ½ cup crushed saltine crackers
- 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ¼ cup finely chopped onion
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped green bell pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground thyme
- ¼ teaspoon ground marjoram
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Combine ground beef, cracker crumbs, tomato sauce, eggs, onion, bell pepper, salt, thyme, and marjoram in a large bowl and mix well. Shape beef mixture into two equally sized loaves. Place both loaves in a 9×13 inch baking dish. Cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour. Meanwhile, mix ketchup and corn syrup in a small bowl to make a glaze.
- Remove baking dish from the oven and remove foil. Brush glaze onto the loaves. Return baking dish to the oven uncovered, and continue baking until loaves are no longer pink in the center, 15 to 20 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 395 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 15 g |
| Cholesterol | 165 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 34 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 859 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 22 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I really like this recipe. Reminds me of my mother’s
We truly enjoyed this meatloaf way more than the usual way I make it! So… you can teach an old dog new tricks! Lol I even took your advice and froze half of the meat mixture because we are two empty nesters… thank you for the great tip… never thought of that either! I did sub Ritz crackers for the saltines because I had some and I googled subbbing marjoram so I used oregano. I did as more onions too. The pan is a mess so next time I’ll line the entire pan in foil….I only laid down a small parchment paper but it’s soaking. We ate it with smashed potatoes which I need to work on. I shared this with my good friend who is also trying to make new recipes and not go out to eat or do take out. I saw another similar recipe that called for milk but it doesn’t need it. I love the corn syrup in the glaze… usually I use brown sugar. I can’t wait to make this again from the frozen half! Thank you for sharing your mom’s meatloaf recipe! My mom rarely cooked…lol.
This is very much like the Favorite Beef loaf recipe in the old Better homes and Garden recipe book from the 60’s. This is the meat loaf from my childhood.
The best meatloaf recipe that I’ve ever eaten!!!
Left out bell pepper since my family doesn’t like it and replaced it with grated carrot; also substituted seasoned bread crumbs instead of crackers. Came out great!
made no changes. great home cooking!
I would add more pepper & onion & i would do a barbeque sauce thinned on top for last 15 minutes.
First time making a meatloaf and this recipe help me achieve my goal !! The meat was tender and the sauce was definitely on point !!! Will definitely make this again for my family
A no fail recipe
This freezes very well. Makes too much for 2 people so I freeze it raw in mini loaf size wrapped in plastic wrap then in freezer bag. Each mini loaf takes 1-2 days to thaw in fridge then cook as directed; if not thawed all the way, you might have to cook longer but the meat thermometer will let you know when done. Cooking in baking dish really helps it bake and gives more surface area for glaze, also allows more space for burger grease to drain out of loaf so less greasy which really improves the meal to me. I don’t keep corn syrup on hand so I swap in brown sugar same proportion. I don’t care for onions so leave those out. It might freeze better w/o green peppers too. I add 2 tsp or 1 T W sauce and 1/4 tsp pepper. Sorry if multiple posts: I keep trying to separate a paragraph but the return key is the “done” key.
I really liked the sauce I would say to use 85/15 hamburger and dain really well before adding the sauce or it’s too juicy
Great recipe. I added 3/4 lb ground sausage and 2 TBS powdered buttermilk and Increased all other ingredients by 1/3. I substituted honey for corn syrup and added a couple TBS sriracha sauce to the topping. Delicious!! Served with a jar of brown gravy.
I had to make a substitutes: I used molasses instead of the light corn syrup (which gave it a nice smokey flavor). The meatloaf came out nice and juicy.
Delicious meatloaf. If I were to change or add anything I would add a little hot pepper. I only mention this because my family loves spicy food. Great without the extra heat too.
Turned out great. Cooking time had to b increased by 15 minutes. I put whole dill pickles into the hamburger before cooking. Will do it again next time I make this meat loaf
Mom’s Meatloaf – Five Stars. Pretty much says it all!
This meatloaf, while tasty, turned out to be a little dry. If I were to make it again, I would create more sauce.
You can never go wrong with moms meatloaf. My family and I thoroughly loved this recipe!
This was a hit at home. It was super easy to make and even my mom loved it. The only thin I left out was the corn syrup (it seemed like too much sugar and not healthy) and I only glazed one loaf with ketchup.
I use some oatmeal in mine . Gets it a nutty taste. It’s my go to recipe for meatloaf. Family loves it and makes great sandwiches.
It was excellent! I felt like it needed just a bit more tastiness to the meat, but with the glaze I made it was good.