Meatloaf Muffins are easy enough for weeknight dinner! These meatloaf muffins are made with classic meatloaf ingredients and baked in muffin pans for the perfect serving size.
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.
Meatloaf Muffins
Do y’all use your muffin pans for things other than muffins? I sure do. A regular muffin pan is just the right size for a serving of most things.
You can make egg muffins for breakfast, you can freeze oatmeal, or even bake muffin tin meatloaf.
I just use my classic meatloaf recipe, which I happen to think is the best meatloaf recipe, and the great thing is that baking the meatloaf in the muffin pan takes half the time as baking a loaf.
Southern Butter Beans
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!
Did you eat meatloaf as a kid? For some reason, my boys were never big fans of it. Brian still won’t eat it, but Casey loves these meatloaf muffins.
My mother probably made meatloaf 2-3 times a month because it was cheap and easy, so I didn’t have much choice about eating it.
Ingredients for Meatloaf Muffins
Want the printable recipe? Just scroll down!
- Ground chuck or turkey
- Onion
- Green pepper
- Eggs
- Bread crumbs
- Worcestershire sauce
- Ketchup
- Salt and pepper
Sauce
- Ketchup
- Brown Sugar
- Yellow Mustard
Helpful tools and ingredients:
- This is my first choice for muffin pans
- Great mixing bowl with plenty of room
- Favorite freezer pans for storage
AmazonBasics Nonstick Carbon Steel Muffin
Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum CommercialPyrex Glass Mixing Bowl SetVollrath 47934 4-Quart Economy Mixing4C 46 Oz. Plain BreadMichelle Farms Gluten Free OriginalVollrath (47139) Stainless Steel DisherBasting Brush Silicone Heat Resistant
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!
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Tips for Freezing Muffin Tin Meatloaf
- 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!
What to Serve with Meatloaf Muffins:
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!
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Meatloaf Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chuck
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Sauce:
- 1/2 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.
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DJ says
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.
Kristen says
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!
Diana harrington says
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😊
Erica says
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?
Hilary says
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!
Lucy says
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! 🙂
Karen Mitchell says
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!
Angela says
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.
Lucy says
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.
Alicia says
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!
Jennifer says
How do you reheat the frozen meatloaf muffins?
Lucy says
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.