A delightful orange marmalade-mustard sauce is baked on chicken thighs for a quick and simple dinner. Excellent with rice.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- ½ onion, chopped
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 cup dry bread crumbs
- 1 (1.25 ounce) packet meatloaf seasoning mix
- 1 cup cubed Cheddar cheese
- 3 (10 ounce) cans tomato sauce
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 ounce uncooked spaghetti, broken into fourths
- ½ carrot, cut into 1/8-inch thick slices
- 1 tablespoon frozen green peas
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, onion, egg, bread crumbs, and meatloaf seasoning. Use your hands to mix until well blended. Measure out 1/3 cupfuls of the meat mixture and mold around a cube of cheese like a meatball. Shape into a point at one end and lengthen the body a bit by rolling between your hands. Place your ”rat” into a shallow baking dish, and continue with the remaining meat. Insert pieces of uncooked spaghetti into the rounded end of the rats to make tails.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the tomato sauce, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the rats in the dish and cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil.
- Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven. Uncover the dish and continue to bake for another 20 to 30 minutes, basting occasionally with the sauce to glaze the rats.
- While the rats finish baking, heat the peas and carrots in a small bowl in the microwave for about 15 seconds.
- Carefully transfer the rats to a serving platter so that their delicate tails don’t fall off. Press peas into the pointy end to make eyes, and insert carrot slices to make ears. Spoon some of the tomato sauce around them and serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 966 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 94 g |
| Cholesterol | 219 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 57 g |
| Saturated Fat | 18 g |
| Sodium | 2516 mg |
| Sugars | 64 g |
| Fat | 41 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
They are definitely creeping looking . Although I am not a big fan of meatloaf these were pretty good. I used capers for the eyes and bacon piece for nose and added the cooked spaghetti tail after baking.
I made these on Halloween and they were a big hit with my family. The only thing I did different was put shredded cheese over them and then I put the sauce over all. They really turned out cute and were fun to make. Thanks for the suggestion.
I didn’t have any meatloaf mix so I used fajita mix, they tasted great! They were definitely done at the end of 65 minutes. I put the eyes and ears on before I cooked them and they got a little mushy but when I tried to replace them after the rats were cooked I couldn’t penetrate the meat.
Loved it myself!! Really spooky and cool and the meatloaf was super! Halved the recipe because only a few people at my home, would probably reduce the cooking time to 30 minutes in that case.. seemed a tad overcooked but still good. I think I will try ketchup diluted with either tomato sauce or water for the sauce .. sugar was a bit Much . Now.. for psychological eaters forget it.. the rats look so real.. 2 people in my family wouldn’t eat it.. too “creepy and bloody”!! there are only 3 of us.. more for me!!!
on nov. 11 2018 I made this awesome recipe it was soo much fun making and baking I will certainly make this again I made it for some of my family and they thought it was awesome as well and it was easy to make too
They were much better than I thought they’d be! You can cut the cheese down to 1/5. Although what little cheese I did put in melted out, I think it’s just more of a need to pack the meat tighter.
HAHAHA Mice are welcome in my house. Thanks so much for a fun recipe.
I made this for Halloween, but with a couple of changes. I didn’t include the cheese, b/c knew my family wouldn’t care for cheese inside meatloaf. I would recommend if you want to get the cute rat shape, be sure to form the loaves into distinct ovals; the meat will shrink a bit as it cooks. You may end up with more of a blob or a circle shape, so try to elongate them. I didn’t do this enough and my rats were kind of rounder than I wanted. Three cans of tomato sauce seemed like a lot; I used 2 and it was plenty. I also only used 2 T of sugar, and it was still pretty sweet. I added garlic powder, onion flakes, oregano and a few dashes of hot sauce to my tomato sauce and that gave it a better flavor. Served this over mashed potatoes and it was a fun dish for the family dinner.
I made this as an appetizer instead of an entree and it came out great! I did leave out the cheese in the middle because I made them two-bite size, and I used black olives cut in half for the ears. By adding the uncooked spaghetti noodle tails after cooking, it made a great no mess skewer for my guests to pick up the mice and dip them into the extra sauce for more flavor. It was a huge hit!
Have a blast making these for my granddaughters. Halloween in January was a nice change.
Used Quaker Oatmeal Meatloaf recipe and tomato sauce and let up for blood! GrandKids love it with bloody brains!
it is great for Halloween and i cant wait to make this for my friend
Made this last Halloween, BIG hit! Pretty much followed the recipe except, used my own homemade sauce, wrapped a cooked spaghetti noodle around the cube of cheese that I put in the middle so it would be ooze and guts! Used peas for eyes and pepper piece cut into a nose . Served over mashed potatoes, super cute and fun.
My review is positive. I didn’t make these and I know I won’t… BUT.. I had to make this review based on your great creativity, because I think your Rats are a VERY COOL idea for the Halloween enthusiast. Great!
Made this recipe for a last-minute Halloween dinner. I just shaped my own meatloaf recipe into large rats. Covered generously with sauce and saved a little for after they baked. I applied all decorations after baking. I used black olives halved for ear,the star end of a black olive as a nose, slices of green olives for eyes, orzo as whiskers, and the rib of a kale leaf as a tail. My husband had no idea what we were having for dinner. When I put them on the table, he said “GROSS!” Guess that means they looked good! Served with twice-baked potatoes that I had piped into the shape of ghosts.
This sauce was awesome! Second time I have done Bloody Rats. Always a hit.
Good, but very sweet!
It was really good! The sauce is a little too sweet for me but my family loved it! At first my boys didn’t want to eat them but after a little convincing that they were in fact not rats, they ate them.
So cute/funny. Came out great!
Alot of fun, although I froze the cheese cubes, they still seeped out. Tasty and fun!
fun to make, got lots of EEWWWWW comments!