This looked like a fun dish to do and looked tasty. They’re a lot of muffin pan recipes out there. I liked this one, just a pizza flavored meat loaf topped with cheese, with no crust. I followed Susan Wollin’s recipe from Taste of Home for a guide but made up my own recipe for doing on my Traeger.
I have done several chicken stack recipes in a muffin pan that turned out good. For those I would lay two slices of bacon in each muffin hole, build the stack and fold bacon over the top. The last part of the cook I took them out of the muffin pan to help crisp up the bacon and render out some fat. At first I had a muffin pan with holes in the bottom, but found the chicken cooked better in one without holes and then finished as above.
For the meat loaves I would use the one with holes in the bottom, I had drilled 4 small holes in each muffin hole. I had some Spanish dry aged chorizo I put in the bottom of two muffin holes; for the other four I cut bacon just to cover the bottom.
After lunch I mixed up my meat loaf, made with a pound of ground chuck and a pound of Italian sausage. I made balls about the size of a baseball for each muffin. I pressed the hole in each one using a shot glass; it came out better when I twisted back and forth when removing. I placed two slices of pepperoni in each one, about 1 teaspoon of pizza sauce and topped with shredded cheese. I used some 5 cheese Italian blend for the cheese. I placed them in the fridge until ready to cook.
I had planned on doing on smoke mode 170 deg. About 40 minutes and then going to 300 deg. For 30 to 45 minutes and would look for and IT of 150 to 160 deg. After they had been at 300 deg. for 25 minutes they were above desired temp. I had not added the cheese yet, I figured on adding it the last 15 to 20 minutes, so I added the cheese and turned down the heat long enough to melt the cheese. I suppose being surrounded by metal in the muffin pan they cooked faster than I thought. I corrected this in my printable recipe.
The meat loaves were a little over done but pretty tasty. I liked the one with chorizo. I had leftovers for sides; potato fennel gratin and some frozen peas I made creamed peas with. To the peas I added some butter, half & half and wonder flour to thicken. I think mac & cheese would be a better side; but I had leftovers to use up. If I make these again I would add the cheese when going to the higher temp. and maybe dropping back to 275 deg.
Meat loaf ingredients
Stages of making the meat loaves
Making the hole with a shot glass
Meat loaves are done
My Plate
Smokin Don
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