Smoked Meatloaf Recipe

Ingredients

Meatloaf

16 strips of bacon, about 450 g 900 g ground beef
1 egg
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup milk
1 cup breadcrumbs
½ cup barbecue sauce
2 jalapeño peppers, diced
225 g shredded cheddar cheese
handful hickory, oak or pecan wood chunks

Preparation

1. Preheat your smoker to 120°C.
2. Combine ground beef, egg, chopped onions, milk, breadcrumbs and ¼ cup of barbecue sauce in a large bowl. Using your hands, mix the ingredients together until well combined.
3. Lay 8 strips of bacon side-by-side vertically. Pull back every other strip of bacon from the top. Place a bacon strip horizontally across the vertical strips. Lay the strips you pulled back over the horizontal strip and pull back the other 4 strips. Repeat to interlace all 16 bacon strips together until it forms a square of 8 vertical and 8 horizontal weaved bacon strips.
   HOT TIP – To weave, the bacon, ensure you have a flat surface.
4. Press the ground beef mixture onto the bacon weave, covering the weave completely. Spread the shredded cheddar cheese and diced jalapeños in the centre of the meat lengthwise. Then, carefully roll into a log to secure the cheese and jalapeños inside the meatloaf.
5. Place the bacon-wrapped stuffed meatloaf into your smoker with 3 to 4 wood chunks on top of the hot coals. Cook until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 70°C, or about 2½ hours.
   HOT TIP – Use an instant read thermometer to determine the internal temperature of the meat.
6. Once the meatloaf has reached its targeted temperature, slightly open the dampers on your smoker to raise the temperature to around 160°C. Brush the meatloaf with the remaining ¼ cup of barbecue sauce and cook for another 30 minutes so the sauce will caramelize.
7. Remove the meatloaf from your smoker and let rest at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.