I put this up for our family’s unique Halloween celebration. The boys adored it to pieces! This will probably become a yearly custom in our home from now on.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 50 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 1 meat loaf |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds ground beef
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- ¾ cup buttery round crackers, crushed
- ⅔ cup milk
- ½ cup finely shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt (such as Morton® Nature’s Seasons® Seasoning Blend), or to taste
- 1 hard-boiled egg, cut in half
- ½ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons barbeque sauce (such as Stubb’s®)
- 5 cloves garlic, cut into small pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and grease the foil.
- Mix ground beef, onion, crackers, milk, Cheddar cheese, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, and seasoned salt together in a bowl. Transfer beef mixture to the prepared baking sheet and form into a skull-shape, leaving holes for “eye sockets” and a “mouth”. Place hard boiled egg halves into the “eye sockets”, shaping the beef mixture around them to hold in place.
- Mix ketchup, brown sugar, and barbeque sauce together in a bowl until sauce is smooth. Spread 1/2 of the sauce onto the entire beef mixture, including the “eyes” and “mouth”.
- Bake in preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, about 50 to 60. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).
- Arrange the garlic pieces in the mouth for the “teeth”. Brush the remaining sauce over the meatloaf or serve on the side.
- Can be molded into any desired shape. Juices from ground beef may collect in the holes while baking and can be spread with a basting brush over the head after cooking contribute to the effect of “rotting flesh”.
- Dehydrated garlic chips can be found in health food stores in the bulk section. You may substitute sliced almonds or anything else that resembles teeth.
- You can do just one hard-boiled egg “eye”, if desired.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 531 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 37 g |
| Cholesterol | 177 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 27 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 872 mg |
| Sugars | 19 g |
| Fat | 31 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I make this year-round, I just make it scary looking at Halloween, but it’s a really good meatloaf recipe.
Came out great! Went for more of an evil alien look. I skipped the glaze and used sliced up whites from hard boiled egg as the teeth. They shrank a bit. Baked in a cast iron pan, poured of some oil before serving.
Thank you so much for sharing. This was just so fun to make and tastes very good. I added some fresh mushrooms and a bit of garlic in the cooking process. It looked soooo gross that at times it was hard to think about eating it.
It was good! I didn’t have any seasoned salt do I think lacked a bit on flavour because of that, but other than that it was really good. I used pistachios for the teeth. Thank you!
The only thing I did differently was i put the garlic in before baking therefore it was edible and made that section taste amazingly different
We loved it. I did use oatmeal instead of crackers and I added a half of a green pepper. Delicious!
I made this with ground turkey. I didn’t have ketchup so I used tomato sauce. It was a huge hit!
the kids loved it! i added a bit more BBQ sauce to the ketchup but then we are in Texas! Also I used Panko instead of crackers
This was easy and delicious! I splattered some of the sauce on the serving platter so it looked bloody.
I used the technique on shaping this with my own meatloaf recipe. Super neat idea. Kidos loved it. Will be making again this year.
I am definitely going to make this for my mother’s birthday cake next week!!!
I followed the recipe and it was so sweet and yummy plus everyone loved the look of it. I made it for samhein
My family loved the recipe, and I even forgot to put in the milk. It turned out fine. Next time, I am going to add raw garlic as the teeth and cook it with the meatloaf to see what happens.
I loved it! Here is my facebook post with picture of meatloaf.
Great Halloween food. Lots of fun, my kids loved it! I used pieces of onion for the teeth and added them before baking so they weren’t raw.
Tasted so good. Enjoyed to made the zombie’s skull. My children love them.
Everyone loved it! Made dinner fun. I am a big fan of the AMC show “Walking Dead” so I served this Zombie meatloaf & then we watched the show. I’ve never put crackers or cheese in my regular meatloaf but after trying this recipe I was surprised how much it made a difference. It tastes great. ???
Made it mostly as written. I sauteed the onions and garlic before adding to meat mixture. And I used 1/3 ground chuck, 1/3 ground lamb, and 1/3 ground pork. Lastly, I added Dijon mustard and dash of Tabasco to meat mixture and a dash of Sriracha to the sauce. It was the best meatloaf we’ve ever had.
Great recipe. I used less brown sugar for the sauce since some were saying it was too sweet. But everyone loved it. Thanks I will be keeping this!
Actually a VERY tasty meatloaf
This was such a fun halloween recipe to make!