Meatloaf Muffins are so easy to make and they’re topped with a zesty ketchup and brown sugar glaze! These are a kid favorite and they freeze well.
One of the simplest entrees you can make for supper is Classic Meatloaf. And it’s versatile—you can use ground beef or ground turkey, and you can hide vegetables in there too—think spinach or ground carrots.
For these easy meatloaf muffins, I just use my classic meatloaf recipe, and using a muffin tin cuts the baking time in half!
The meatloaf muffins are smaller so they get a little more brown and crispy around the edges. Even though I use the same recipe, my husband prefers the meatloaf cooked this way!
Helpful Tools and Ingredients
- Ground chuck or turkey
- Onion
- Green pepper
- Eggs
- Bread crumbs
- Worcestershire sauce
- Ketchup
- Salt and pepper
Sauce
- Ketchup
- Brown Sugar
- Yellow Mustard
- This is my first choice for muffin pans
- Great mixing bowl with plenty of room
- Favorite freezer pans for storage
How to make easy meatloaf muffins
Step 1. Mix up the meatloaf as you normally would: meat, onion, pepper, egg, bread crumbs, ketchup all in a large bowl.
**Cook’s Tip: Don’t mix too much or the meatloaf will be tough but mix well enough to blend everything.
Step 2. Scoop mixture into muffin pans. My muffin pans are non-stick, but I still spray the pan and then slightly overfill each muffin cup.
**Cook’s Tip: I use an ice-cream scoop and put a heaping scoop in each muffin cup.
The meatloaf mixture will shrink down just a bit so you don’t want to under-fill. I can usually get 18-24 meatloaf muffins out of one recipe batch.
Step 3.Bake!
Step 4. Remove and brush with sauce using a silicone pastry brush. Then bake a few more minutes before taking the meatloaf muffins out of the oven.
**Cook’s Tip:This recipe makes enough to freeze so you can have muffin pan meatloaf anytime. Just thaw and reheat. So easy!
How to freeze meatloaf muffins
- Place the muffins on a baking sheet overnight in the freezer.
- The next day, put the frozen muffins in a bag and store in the freezer. This method keeps most of the sauce on the meatloaf. You’ll lose a little bit to the bag but not much.
- And it’s easy to make a little more sauce when you thaw out your meatloaf muffins anyway!
Serving suggestions:
Southern Green Beans – traditional green beans with bacon
Summer Vegetable Gratin – perfect way to use those fresh summer vegetables
Quick Weeknight Mashed Potatoes – these are so quick and easy!
Fudge Pie – the name says it all — except that you can have it on the table in less than one hour!
Meatloaf Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chuck
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- ½ cup finely chopped green pepper
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- ½ cup ketchup
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Sauce:
- ½ cup ketchup
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp yellow mustard
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly spray two 12-cup muffin pans with cooking oil.
- Mix meats and other ingredients (except for the sauce ingredients) gently in a large bowl. You can saute the onions and green pepper in a little olive oil first if you want them to be completely tender. Place meatloaf mixture in muffin cups, mounding slightly above each cup. This recipe should fill about 18 muffin cups.
- Place meatloaf in oven and bake for 25 minutes. While meatloaf is cooking, mix the sauce ingredients. After 25 minutes, remove muffin pans from oven and spread sauce on the top of each meatloaf muffin.
- Bake for another 10 minutes and then remove from oven and let rest for fifteen minutes.
Video
Notes
- Don’t mix too much or the meatloaf will be tough but mix well enough to blend everything.
- Use an ice-cream scoop and put a heaping scoop in each muffin cup.
- Place the meatloaf muffins on a baking sheet overnight in the freezer.
- The next day, put the frozen muffins in a bag and store in the freezer. This method keeps most of the sauce on the meatloaf. You’ll lose a little bit to the bag but not much.
- And it’s easy to make a little more sauce when you thaw out your meatloaf muffins anyway!
Nutrition
Update Notes: This post was originally published October 6, 2014, and on October 3, 2018, was updated with one or more of the following: step-by-step photos, video, updated recipe, new tips.
Used Quaker Oats and red bell pepper and these were the best mini meatloafs we have ever had! Making them tonight again 😉
I made this tonight but didn’t have all the Ingredients..I am cooking for two and always cut the recipe down. I only had 1 /2 lb of ground chuck,no Worcestershire sauce, yellow pepper not green. Used what I had and made two mini meatloafs in a pan with four loaf spaces. It turned out great and we loved the sauce on top! Don be afraid to substitute ingredients, a good recipe will handle it as long as you don’t get too crazy.
This sounds great!
@Erica, I just made the recipe with ground turkey and halved it, it made 8 mini meat loaves and was perfect! I baked it for less time and temperature checked them to make sure they just got to 165°. So good!
When I make meat loaf i put bread in the bottom of the pan to soak up grease. Is there a way to do that when using a muffin tin?
If you use the recipe as specified, the meatloaf muffins are not that greasy.
This is just like my recipe. But I also add some milk with egg mixture. It adds moisture. And cooking the onions & bell pepper first helps if you indigestion. It’s so good. Even my Mother would ask me to make it for her.
My two young boys LOVE this and ask for seconds! Very easy to have leftovers to send to grandparents! So easy and very yummy. It’s now one of our staples!
My two young boys LOVE this and ask for seconds! Very easy to have leftovers to send to grandparents! So easy and very yummy. It’s now one of our staples!
This works very well for my elderly sister and brother in law, he can pop a few in the microwave for a quick meal, I also bake a few sweet potatoes and potatoes, split those in half and freeze them also. Easy peasy?
This works very well for my elderly sister and brother in law, he can pop a few in the microwave for a quick meal, I also bake a few sweet potatoes and potatoes, split those in half and freeze them also. Easy peasy?
This recipe looks awesome! I’ve never made my own meatloaf before- what would happen if I cut the recipe in half and just use one pound of ground beef or turkey, omitting the ground chuck? Do you think that could work?
This recipe looks awesome! I’ve never made my own meatloaf before- what would happen if I cut the recipe in half and just use one pound of ground beef or turkey, omitting the ground chuck? Do you think that could work?
Will adding additional veggies (trying to sneak more in for my picky 2.5 year old) affect the cooking time? And how long do the cooked muffins keep in the freezer? Thanks!
Hi Hilary,
I don’t think adding vegetables will add much to the cooking time. I would just pull one out and look at it after about 30 minutes.
I usually keep these meatloaf muffins in the freezer for 2-3 months. They don’t last longer than that because we EAT them! 🙂
Meatloaf muffins quickly replaced my usual meatloaf recipe. It is full of flavor, freezes great, ( tastes like you just made it). This is one to try!
Meatloaf muffins quickly replaced my usual meatloaf recipe. It is full of flavor, freezes great, ( tastes like you just made it). This is one to try!
Do you find baking them with the sauce on top makes a mess in the freezer bags? I have been looking to do something similar but wasn’t sure how the freezing part would work.
Hi Angela,
I freeze the muffins on a baking sheet before placing them in the freezer bags so it’s not too much mess but you will lose a little sauce to the bags. You could certainly leave off the sauce and just make it up before reheating them, but I’ve not found it to be that big of a deal.
We make something very similar…a pound of ground beef, a tube of crackers (crushed), one egg, S/P, some chopped onion or onion flakes, and a can of vegetable beef soup…in a sprayed muffin tin with ketchup on top. My favorite as a kid and now my kids’ favorite!
How do you reheat the frozen meatloaf muffins?
Hi Jennifer,
I just thaw them out and reheat for about a minute in the microwave. You could also probably just take them straight from the freezer and heat in the oven for about 30 mins but I haven’t tried that.
How do you reheat the frozen meatloaf muffins?