Smoked Meatloaf
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Forget everything you thought you knew about meatloaf, this smoked version takes a classic comfort food to bold new heights. It’s moist, tender, packed with smoky flavor, and easy enough to slide right into your regular dinner rotation. Once you try it, you’ll never go back to oven-baked!
Pellet Grill Meatloaf
Kids these days just don’t get comfort food, at least not until they taste it. Ask if they want BBQ meatloaf for dinner and you’ll probably get a hard no… but one bite of this smoky, tender, flavor-packed meatloaf with its tangy-sweet glaze, and they’ll be hooked.
Seconds? Guaranteed.
This smoked meatloaf is classic comfort food with a twist — just like my smoked hot dogs, smoked burgers, smoked meatballs, or my smoked french onion soup. It’s easy, it’s satisfying, and it might just be your new go-to.
This smoked meatloaf recipe is dedicated to comfort food.
Tips
- Most meatloaf is cooked in a loaf pan, but not this one! This Traeger meatloaf is formed, then placed in a tinfoil boat and placed on a wire rack. This helps to keep your meatloaf intact while transporting it to and from the smoker.
- For the love of all things holy, don’t skip the aluminum foil boat. This will catch all the fat and grease dripping off the smoked meatloaf and keep clean up to the absolute minimum!
- Avoid over-mixing the ingredients. Over-mixed meatloaf is tough meatloaf, and no one wants that.
- Grate your onion. Yes, this may make you cry, but they’ll be tears of joy once you taste your meatloaf! Grating the onions is a trick I learned from Nagy at Recipe Tin Eats, and it helps to hydrate the bread crumbs and impart so much flavor.
- I prefer to use a wood chip/ pellet blend when I’m smoking things like meatloaf. Something with maple, hickory, cherry, usually!
Key Ingredients
Beef:
I am a huge fan of AAA Alberta Beef. Our local beef is the best-tasting beef the world over. For this recipe, I like to use extra lean ground beef or 90% lean beef. If you like, you can substitute some of the ground beef with ground pork.
Spices:
The best part of meatloaf is that it’s actually super easy to make, so the spices in this recipe are really simple but really delicious. We’re using garlic, salt, pepper, and a bit of your favorite BBQ rub. My favorite for this smoked meatloaf recipe is leftover rub from my smoked pork butt.
How To Make Smoked Meatloaf
Make The Meatloaf Mixture:
- Preheat your smoker to 225f and prepare by making a small tinfoil boat – place it on a wire rack and set aside. Then, add 1 cup of fine breadcrumbs to a large bowl.
- Grate 1 large yellow onion over the bowl, and toss to coat. This allows all the delicious onion juice to rehydrate the bread crumbs, making for a moist and tender meatloaf.
- Add in 2lbs lean ground beef, 2 large eggs, 4 cloves of minced garlic, 3 tablespoons your favorite dry BBQ rub, 1 teaspoon coarse ground pepper, and 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt to the bowl. Mix either with a spatula or by hand. I like to use my hands, it’s easier! While mixing it is important to make sure the ingredients are completely incorporated but avoid over-mixing.
- Form the meatloaf mixture into a large loaf. Place the loaf on the prepared aluminum foil boat. Set aside for now.
- In a small bowl, whisk together ½ cup ketchup, 2 tablespoons white vinegar, and 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar until completely combined.
- Use a brush to brush a layer of sauce on the top and sides of the meatloaf. Now is a great time to insert your temperature probe!
Smoke Meatloaf:
- Keep the loaf on the wire rack and place it right on the middle grill grate.
- Smoke meatloaf at 225f for 2 hours, baste again, and continue to smoke for another 2 hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 165f.
- Allow the meatloaf to rest for 10 minutes at room temperature before serving.
Variations + Substitutions
Make Ahead + Leftovers
Make ahead:
If you’re like me and love batch cooking, this is an awesome recipe to make. It’s simple to make and simple to freeze some for later!
To make ahead, simply prepare the meatloaf and stop before smoking. Once the meatloaf is formed, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and freeze on a baking sheet until frozen, or very firm, 2-3 hours. Then either wrap in tin foil and place in an airtight freezer bag or vacuum seal.
Keep the frozen, uncooked meatloaf in the freezer for up to 3 months before cooking.
To cook, remove from the freezer and thaw overnight in the fridge before smoking meatloaf as per the recipe.
Leftovers:
Smoked meatloaf makes great leftovers. Not only can it be enjoyed as meatloaf again, it can also be used in a number of different ways;
- slice it up and make meatloaf sandwiches
- chop it up and use it as the meat in your Instant Pot spaghetti and meatballs
- Sub the smoked brisket for smoked meatloaf chunks in your smoked chili
Batch + Storage
Batch:
I find one batch of this smoked meatloaf is enough to serve 8 people! This recipe can easily be doubled or halved based on your desired quantities. If halving the recipe, the cook time will likely be shorter as the loaf is smaller.
Storage:
Leftover Traeger smoked meatloaf can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
It can be reheated in a small, covered baking dish with 1-2 tablespoons of beef broth. Bake at 300f for 15-20 minutes or until heated through.
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📖 Printable Recipe
Smoked Meatloaf
Ingredients
For the meatloaf:
- 1 cup fine bread crumbs or panko
- 1 large yellow onion
- 2 lbs lean ground beef
- 2 large eggs
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons BBQ dry rub
For the glaze:
- ½ cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar packed
Instructions
- Preheat your smoker to 225f and prepare a tinfoil boat and place it on a wire mesh cooling rack.
- Meanwhile, add the 1 cup fine bread crumbs or panko to a large bowl. Grate 1 large yellow onion over the bowl, and toss to coat.
- Add in the 2 lbs lean ground beef, 2 large eggs, 4 cloves garlic, 1 teaspoon coarse black pepper, 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt, and 3 tablespoons BBQ dry rub and avoid over-mixing.
- Form the meat mixture into a large loaf. Place the loaf on the prepared boat. Set aside for now.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the ½ cup ketchup, 2 tablespoons white vinegar, and 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar.
- Use a brush to baste a layer of sauce on the top and sides of the meatloaf.
- When ready to smoke, place the wire mesh rack right on the middle grill grate.
- Smoke the meatloaf at 225f for 2 hours, baste again, and continue to smoke for another 2 hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 165f.
- Allow the meatloaf to rest for 10 minutes at room temperature before serving.
Notes
Make ahead:
Leftovers:
Batch:
Storage:
Leftover Traeger smoked meatloaf can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. It can be reheated in a small, covered baking dish with 1-2 tablespoons of beef broth. Bake at 300f for 15-20 minutes or until heated through.variations + substitutions
- Smash the easy button and swap out the glaze for your favorite barbecue sauce!
- Like it hot? toss in some FROZEN or DEHYDRATED JALAPENOS! Or add some SRIRACHA POWDER to the glaze!
- Can't live without bacon? Wrap your meatloaf with HOME SMOKED BACON or BEEF BACON!
Recommended Equipment + Ingredients
Nutrition
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This recipe was awful. I followed directions exactly. It was over powering with onion flavor. Enough it ruined the entire meatloaf
I made this yesterday with a few slight variations:
I used approximately 3 pounds of 80/20 ground beef.
I subbed a package of instant mashed potato flakes for the breadcrumbs. Instead of BBQ dry rub I used https://www.alaskaseasoningcompany.com/product-page/smokehouse-mesquite-seasoning-blend and a couple dashes of mustard powder.
I also used dehydrated garlic since I didn’t have fresh. About two tablespoons.
For the glaze, I used sweet baby rays original bbq sauce. I put a thin coating of the bbq sauce on the meatloaf and then wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and put in the fridge overnight.
During the cook, I basted with bbq sauce twice, about an hour-hour and a half apart.
Instead of a metal grate and baking sheet I used a tin restaurant prep pan to transport and smoke in. It makes for easy cleanup.
I used Traeger mesquite pellets for smoking.
I used the MEATER + probe to keep track of the temperature. Total cook time was about 4 1/2 hours with the cold temp outside (about 35 degrees) having the MEATER probe took the guesswork out of the cooking process.
Will definitely be sharing this and making it again.
Don’t have a smoker. Receipe look terrific – any other way of getting the same flavors
Judy, thats a great question! I haven’t tested it outside of the smoker, so I’m not sure how adding liquid smoke or something similar would affect the flavor? Sorry!
Make a container out of heavy duty foil, add chips to that and get them smoking on your grill. Put the ice you are smoking beside the chip container and close the lid of your grill. That is how I did it before I got a smoker.
This is a great work around! There are inexpensive smoke tubes on Amazon specifically for this purpose – I actually use mine to make smoked cheese!
My first smoked meatloaf. Great recipe.
When I will do this, I will leave the glaze off while smoking then use a cranberry sauce glaze for the final 10 minutes of cooking. Thanks for the idea to smoke meatloaf!
That sounds so good! Hope you enjoy your meatloaf 🙂
I substituted a pound of pork sausage for the meat. Instead of two pounds of hamburger.
I used applewood bbq powder
And squeezed some of the liquid out of the onions
That sounds so flavorful!