This smokey meatloaf will definitely be popular! My husband has never been a lover of meatloaf, like most men, but this recipe ensures that he will come back for more owing to a few unique ingredients.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds ground beef
- 2 eggs
- 1 onion, chopped
- ½ cup barbecue sauce
- ¾ cup crushed crackers
- 1 cup crushed potato chips
- ¾ teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
- ¾ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- 6 slices bacon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, combine the beef, eggs, onion, barbecue sauce, cracker crumbs, potato chips, liquid smoke, ground black pepper, salt, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper; mix well.
- On a lightly greased cookie sheet, shape the mixture into a loaf. Lay the bacon slices across the width of the loaf so that the entire surface is covered. Cover the loaf loosely with foil.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 430 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 22 g |
| Cholesterol | 143 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 27 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 1082 mg |
| Sugars | 7 g |
| Fat | 26 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I’ve been making this recipe for many years. It is the only meatloaf that I make for my family. They all love it. I usually make two loaves. And it always gets eaten.
Very tasty! This was the first meatloaf my husband and I ever attempted to make. As a child, I really hated meatloaf night. My mom made the “traditional” style recipe. Yuck! We chose this recipe because I wanted to try something different and my husband loves bbq sauce. We followed the recipe almost exactly except we slightly cooked the bacon first and sauteed the onions in the bacon grease. We used lean meat, bbq ruffles and added extra bbq sauce on top of the meatloaf before topping it with the bacon. I really enjoyed it, although I’m still not a big meatloaf fan. However, my husband LOVED it. We both really liked the addition of bacon. The meatloaf smelled great and the leftovers were good too.
I did not have any smoke and I added 1/2 cup whole milk that I borrowed from another recipe. My two sons asked for this meatloaf twice this week.
Used bacon crumbles in with mixture instead of on top and used onion powder instead of chopped.
I found this meatloaf everything BUT traditional. I followed recipe using Original Sweet Baby Ray BBQ sauce. I put it on a foil covered rack that was in another pan to keep it from sitting in any grease. I found the texture to be different and I believe the next time I will omit the potato chips & crackers and use oatmeal. I turned on the broiler the last couple of minutes to make bacon crispier. I thought it had great flavor but was not to my boring husband’s liking.
Ever since I tried this recipe in 2008 it has been an instant “keeper” and definitely on the “Favorites” list. Originally, I was making it according to the recipe, but I ended up omitting the bacon on top because it would get too cooked and pretty much not edible, as well as creating A LOT of grease.. I substituted it with real bacon bits/chunks mixed in the meat. I also omitted the liquid smoke because it was a little too smoky for us with the BBQ sauce. I add more garlic powder also. It is a favorite for anyone who has tried this. We make it with garlic mashed potatoes.
I love meatloaf but sadly my 12yo doesn’t. I thought he might like this, but it didn’t win him over. I used the servings tool to reduce dry ingredients for 1lb of ground beef (4 servings). I kept the seasonings the same though. Mine was very loose and crumbly, but I think that was my fault. I didn’t want it tough, and I think I just UNDER-handled it and didn’t pack it quite tight enough. I would definitely make it again for me.
I used 1 lbs pork sausage and 1 lbs ground beef. My boyfriend absolutely loved it. And his son said it’s the best meatloaf he’s ever had.
awesome!! the whole family loved it
Followed the recipe, but with 3 changes. Left out the liquid smoke, precooked the bacon and then cooked the meatloaf in an electric smoker for 4 hrs at 200F. Outstanding. Had to precook the bacon as past experiences with uncooked bacon in the smoker is it cooks, but not crispy, just sort of flat and soft.
This is the best meatloaf ever! I just crumble the bacon and mix it in with everything else.
My meatloaf recipe is very similar to this one minus the chips. One meatloaf night several years ago ( we were in the middle of a move hence being out of staples) I realized I was out of anything to use as a binder. No bread, no oatmeal, bread crumbs or crackers. The only thing I had on hand was a bag of Nacho cheese Doritos. What to do?? Crush the Doritos and use those of course! It was one of the most spectacular flavorful meatloafs I’ve ever made. To this day it’s one of my 3 primary meatloaf recipes I make.
So, my mom and I love meatloaf, but my dad hates it. Oddly, he still loves meatballs, and meatloaf is basically a large meatball, but that’s besides the point. Anyways, I ran out of BBQ sauce while making it, so I made my own, and it turned out pretty well. I used club crackers and cape cod potato chips. This meatloaf had raised my appreciation to a whole other level, but my dad still hates it. Oh well. While the meatloaf didn’t live true to it’s name, I love it, and will definitely make in again (When my dad isn’t here =])
This meatloaf was great. Like others, I used Lays BBQ chips. My husband ate almost the entire loaf in one sitting!
juicy and flavorful
I’ve made this a couple of times now. The first time I used ground venison instead of beef – definitely something I’ll do again the next time I have a chance to get my hands on ground venison. As a lean meat, this preparation with the bacon wrapped around it made the whole meatloaf nice and juicy and flavourful. The second time I made it with a ground beef & pork mixture, and since I was planning to use it for work lunchboxes, I portioned it into balls, wrapped each ball in a slice of bacon, and baked it in a muffin tin (baking time was about 40-45 minutes this way). Other than the substitutions on type of ground meat above, the only changes I made to the recipe were that I brushed additional barbecue sauce over the bacon layer and used kettle-style potato chips because I happen to prefer those over regular potato chips. Both preparations yielded nice results. This recipe is a keeper!
Great recipe idea thank you for sharing! I used 2 pounds of meat. Eliminated the bacon. Reduced the BBQ sauce to 1/3 cup. Added a teaspoon of adobo seasoning, 1 teaspoon of mustard, 1 more teaspoon of garlic.
Great recipe, approved by this guy. I used half-85% and half-93% ground beef for a bit less fat and spread some Jack Daniel’s original bbq sauce on top. Cooked the bacon partially before baking meat loaf. And, after making a special trip to the store for Liquid Smoke, pulled a typical duh-hh and forgot to add it to the mixture. The meat loaf still came out great.
I’ve made this for the BBQ and it was so good. I didn’t have liquid smoke so I used a smokey BBQ seasoning and I also lined the foil with BBQ sauce and a sprinkle of smokey BBQ seasoning over sauce before laying down bacon and meatloaf roll on top. This created a yummy BBQ glaze over it. Was devoured at dinner and leftovers went missing thru the night-no one will own up to eating it.. Making two next time:)
Great flavor, can’t go wrong with bacon and barbeque sauce. Next time I’m smoking it.
We liked it there have been others with more flavor but my husband enjoyed it. I made no changes.