Smoked Meatloaf with Chicken thighs for backup

[flash]

well, everyone is doing them. Gotta say I am not a big meatloaf fan and neither is my wife although she has had some good ones before. First off we had no idea how much burger we were using as some were made into patties for hamburgers, some just repackaged an vacuum sealed for later. At any rate, into a bowl it went with some fresh pulled from the garden red onions and jalapeno. Some fresh eggs from the hen house and a bevy of other spices including Jeff's rub.



Cher separated them into two loaves. One with bacon, one with an extra coating of Jeff's rub.





Also had some chicken thighs as an extra treat. Spiced with Memphis Rub



Onto the smoker at 275º to start. Just before I added the chicken thighs, I upped it to 300º





I used a mixture of Oak and Nectarine wood.

The smaller loaf, probably 3 lbs or so ended up taking 3 hours. Around the last 45 minutes I added a nice coating of Jeffs Sauce



Gotta say, it looked mighty tasty and the wife agreed.



Chicken was done around 2 1/2 hours and was wrapped in foil for its trip to the Gasser Grill.



Here the skin was crisp up

 

[flash]

About the time the chicken was done, I headed back out to the smoker and pulled the second loaf.





they looked good, although a little dry looking when compared to the way I like my burgers.







Gotta say, they were not bad, but well......they tasted like meatloaf.

I and the wife would have like them to be alittle moister. But we both liked Jeff's Loaf the best. Alittle more of his sauce and I still ate a healthy portion. Still something is missing for us.

Abelman, we may need Grandma's recipe

 

[seboke]

Flash, been tossing the idea around, but after seeing your meatloaf and all the other recent ones, I'll be jumping on that meatloaf wagon Monday or Tuesday!

 

[seaham358]

They look good..
Nice smoke..

 

[flash]

Well, looking back at the recipe we used and figuring out that we had atleast 6 lbs of meat; I would guess we undercut some things. That might have dried it out. Recipe called for 4 eggs and 2 1/2 lbs of meat. We used 5. Maybe 3 more would have helped.
Well another thing we wondered was why 160º for finished product?
Even medium cooked beef is 140º to 145º
160º is considered well done. I don't eat my hamburgers well done, so why meatloaf?
Next time I will make sure our proportions are more actuate and go lower on the cooking temp so it takes more time and more smoke.

 

[richtee]

The extra eggs would have helped a bit, both with moisture and binding of the loaf.

The reason ground meat is brought to a higher temp is simply BECAUSE it's ground. Any bacteria etc. on the surface of a steak/whole cut is vaporized very fast as the surface of the meat heats quickly. When ground, you are mixing the possible surface contaminants into the interior of the meat, so you want a higher internal temp to be sure of their destruction. Rare burgers are risky... rare steak MUCH less so due to this.

 

[flash]

Yeah I thought of that Rich, but even the hamburger joints are back to medium rare burgers again. I do my burgers to 140º internal. Next time I will watch proportions more. Extra eggs and ketchup probably would have helped this time, but I still may back off to 150 to 155º internal.

 

[bbq bubba]

What......no mojo???

 

[richtee]

I guess...if it's 140° internal... or <NOT VERIFIED> 135° and kept there for a few min... it SHOULD be good to go. I like medium, no blood and pink. Difficult..that's a fine line, but I grind alot of my own, and wash surface gently before, so I have a few less worries I guess.

 

[flash]

Believe me, I thought about it

 

[flash]

Well, something positive about this smoke. The sammie's made from these meatloafs are quite good.

 

[seaham358]

And if you have enough left over you can chop up and toss in tomato sauce for a nice meat sauce for pasta..