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.
Be sure to check out the short how-to video at the end of this post for tips on making Meatloaf Muffins.
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.
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.
What Do You Need to Make Muffin Tin Meatloaf?
Well, for starters you need good muffin tins! I have some like these that are non-stick, but you can use regular muffin pans too.
Beyond that all you need are the regular old meatloaf ingredients:
- Ground chuck or turkey
- Onion
- Green pepper
- Eggs
- Bread crumbs
- Worcestershire sauce
- Ketchup
- Salt and pepper
Sauce
- Ketchup
- Brown Sugar
- Yellow Mustard
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.
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. 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 underfill. I can usually get 18-24 meatloaf muffins out of one recipe batch.
Step 3.
Bake!
Step 4.
Remove and brush with sauce. Then bake a few more minutes before taking the meatloaf muffins out of the oven.
This meatloaf muffin recipe makes more than David and I can eat at one meal so I take the remaining meatloaf muffins and freeze them. Then we have muffin pan meatloaf anytime. Just thaw and reheat. So easy!
Tips for Freezing Muffin Tin Meatloaf
Place the meatloaf muffins on a baking sheet overnight in the freezer. The next day, put the frozen muffins in a bag and back in the freezer. I find 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!
Watch this how-to video of the meatloaf muffin recipe!
Printable recipe for Easy Meatloaf Muffins
- 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
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp yellow mustard
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.
Leftover muffins will freeze nicely in a gallon-sized freezer bag. I freeze them on a baking sheet first, then put the frozen muffins in the bag.
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.