The Art of Creating a Meatloaf with Bacon, Bell Peppers, and Cornbread

As I stood in my kitchen, surrounded by the aromas of sizzling bacon, sautéed onions, and bell peppers, I knew that this was going to be a special meatloaf. The crazy part? It's now done, and I'm just finishing up these beautiful bell peppers here.

I've taken this bacon and cooked it down, rendering out the fat that will help me cook the red bells. Some diced jalapeno and a third of this garlic have also been added to the dish. Letting all these ingredients work together has created a flavorful mixture that's sure to please. On this side, I'm going to take another third of this garlic and add it to the mix.

Now, let's talk about what sets our meatloaf apart from the standard recipe. Instead of just ground beef, we're using an 80/20 ratio with ground pork added in. This will give us a nice balance of fat and flavor. We'll also be using a little dry mustard, some ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, kosher salt, black pepper, and fresh herbs to tie everything together.

The eggs are where the magic happens. I'm going to crack two eggs – one for the stuffing, and mix them with the remaining ingredients. We don't want to add the peppers and onions too early because they'll cook too quickly. Instead, we'll let them mellow out for a bit before adding everything together.

Before we start mixing, it's essential to debling the meatloaf. This ensures that there are no bits of fat or egg in the mixture. It may seem tedious, but trust me, it makes all the difference. Now, take a look at our ingredients coming together – it's like a party in this bowl!

The cornbread is the foundation of this dish, providing a nice base for the meatloaf to sit on. By baking it in the oven with the meatloaf, we'll be able to soak up all that flavorful juice and moisture. Ah, can you smell the aromas wafting from the cornbread? It's almost ready!

Now that our ingredients are mixed together, it's time to assemble the meatloaf. We'll take a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and create a canoe shape using some of the stuffing. Then, we'll place the remaining meat mixture on top and tie everything together.

The final touch is adding sliced cheddar cheese on top – something I initially overlooked because it would have melted off during baking. Back into the oven for another five minutes, our meatloaf is almost ready to be devoured.

As the timer goes off, the aroma of this meatloaf becomes even more enticing. The combination of flavors and textures is sure to impress anyone who takes a bite. Let's take a look at how it turned out – isn't that beautiful?

Finally, let's not forget about the cornbread! It's perfect, with just the right amount of crunchiness. Our meatloaf has come together beautifully, thanks to the addition of bacon, bell peppers, and cornbread. The best part? Each bite is filled with flavor and moisture from the savory meatloaf, complemented by the crispy, crumbly cornbread. It's a match made in heaven!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: encornbread stuffed meatloaf and i'm working on two things right now one pan's gonna be working for the stuffing the other pan is gonna be working for the meatloaf on the bacon center cut bacon whatever you like this is about a pound i'm gonna take about half of it give it a nice little dice and don't go too fast on this i've got the pan down on low because i don't want to burn the bacon i just want to let it slowly render down because i'm going to use some of the fat from this bacon when i actually go ahead and cook some of the other ingredients for the stuffing okay next piece corn muffins well you know you probably have a big thing of corn muffins that you've made you got a couple that are sitting on the counter and haven't been used yet the muffin is actually going to work like our kind of like the stuffing in a thanksgiving turkey so the oven's been preheated to about 275 250 and we'll let these dry out in here for a bit now after i pop this in the oven we're going to start on some of the key ingredients and one of those is going to be this red onion and some of these jalapenos now half of the jalapenos are going to go into my meatloaf and the other half are going to work into this cornbread stuffing oh you can smell that bacon just working over here the bacon in the cornbread could be a meal in itself but we're gonna put it inside of a meatloaf that's the crazy part of it now that's in and i'm just finishing up these beautiful bell peppers here and i've got some garlic done and a little bit of jalapeno now what i've used is i've taken this bacon and cooked it down and i've got some of the rendered fat from that that's going to help me actually cook the red bells some of this diced jalapeno and i need to take about a third of this garlic and add this to the dish as well there we go and we'll let that all work together now on this side here i'm going to take about another third of this garlic that i worked and we're going to get that in there we're not going to do the standard same old meatloaf with just ground beef ours is actually going to have a real nice incorporation of some ground pork into this bowl here's what we're going to work with first first we get in the ground beef this is an 80 20 meaning 20 fat and a lot of times you'll see people that are going 90 10 on something like this with the meatloaf we do want to have that fat in there got two pounds of the ground beef one pound of the pork well now we go in with a little bit of dry mustard some ketchup about a quarter cup of that worcestershire sauce kosher salt a little fresh cracked black pepper those fresh herbs that i did and here's where the eggs come in i'm gonna crack two eggs one i'm going to save for the stuffing and mix these up that in and remember we were letting the veg the peppers and the onions and the garlic take a little time to mellow out over here we don't want to put them in too hot because if they go in too hot they can actually start to cook some of that egg and some of the meat before we even get started now you won't see it often but you're going to see it now when we go to meatloaf we have to de-bling okay because we're getting our hands all the way down into this and we don't need it there later here we go you can smell those peppers and onions right off the bat there we go nice and light just want to make sure that we incorporate all these ingredients together it's just how it should look okay get a view on that one now this cornbread's been in here about 200 275 degrees and it's gonna be the basis and the foundation that's gonna soak up all this great flavor and moisture out of the meatloaf great those are done now working to my side i've got the bacon i've got the peppers the garlic that's gonna all come together and i've got one more egg here that i'm going to add into this mixture that spoon oh and the crunchiness you can hear the corn muffins kind of starting to absorb some of the moisture and you can smell it all tying together i mean just a spoonful right now would probably do me good all right and that's mixed nice look at that okay now i put them all together how do i put them together well i've got a sheet tray here lined with a little parchment paper because we're gonna have enough moisture this is not gonna stick but we don't want it sticking to the pan and the parchment paper will be a nice barrier about two-thirds of the meatloaf comes out and this is where we're going to make our foundation okay so we run it a long ways like that maybe a little bit more there we go and we're going to make a little canoe here because we're going to actually take some of that stuffing put it inside of the canoe take the rest of the meatloaf put a little roof on it tie it all together and then we're going to go ahead and bake this right around 350 degrees ah look at that you wouldn't even know that it's got stuffing cornbread in it i'm gonna pop this in the oven for about an hour and a half at 350 degrees we want to check the temperature make sure we're going in the right direction and then also top it so let's see where we're at not all the way to the bottom right into the middle yep right about 140 145 perfect now on top of this we're going to hit it with a little sliced cheddar cheese now we didn't do this right at the beginning because the cheese would have all melted off great back into the oven for about another five minutes there we are okay oh it smells incredible and i've got a great plate picked out for it oh it's a big one oh look at that look at that it smells even better than it looks so let's see how this is gonna look separate oh my gosh i tell you and take a look at that how beautifulcornbread stuffed meatloaf and i'm working on two things right now one pan's gonna be working for the stuffing the other pan is gonna be working for the meatloaf on the bacon center cut bacon whatever you like this is about a pound i'm gonna take about half of it give it a nice little dice and don't go too fast on this i've got the pan down on low because i don't want to burn the bacon i just want to let it slowly render down because i'm going to use some of the fat from this bacon when i actually go ahead and cook some of the other ingredients for the stuffing okay next piece corn muffins well you know you probably have a big thing of corn muffins that you've made you got a couple that are sitting on the counter and haven't been used yet the muffin is actually going to work like our kind of like the stuffing in a thanksgiving turkey so the oven's been preheated to about 275 250 and we'll let these dry out in here for a bit now after i pop this in the oven we're going to start on some of the key ingredients and one of those is going to be this red onion and some of these jalapenos now half of the jalapenos are going to go into my meatloaf and the other half are going to work into this cornbread stuffing oh you can smell that bacon just working over here the bacon in the cornbread could be a meal in itself but we're gonna put it inside of a meatloaf that's the crazy part of it now that's in and i'm just finishing up these beautiful bell peppers here and i've got some garlic done and a little bit of jalapeno now what i've used is i've taken this bacon and cooked it down and i've got some of the rendered fat from that that's going to help me actually cook the red bells some of this diced jalapeno and i need to take about a third of this garlic and add this to the dish as well there we go and we'll let that all work together now on this side here i'm going to take about another third of this garlic that i worked and we're going to get that in there we're not going to do the standard same old meatloaf with just ground beef ours is actually going to have a real nice incorporation of some ground pork into this bowl here's what we're going to work with first first we get in the ground beef this is an 80 20 meaning 20 fat and a lot of times you'll see people that are going 90 10 on something like this with the meatloaf we do want to have that fat in there got two pounds of the ground beef one pound of the pork well now we go in with a little bit of dry mustard some ketchup about a quarter cup of that worcestershire sauce kosher salt a little fresh cracked black pepper those fresh herbs that i did and here's where the eggs come in i'm gonna crack two eggs one i'm going to save for the stuffing and mix these up that in and remember we were letting the veg the peppers and the onions and the garlic take a little time to mellow out over here we don't want to put them in too hot because if they go in too hot they can actually start to cook some of that egg and some of the meat before we even get started now you won't see it often but you're going to see it now when we go to meatloaf we have to de-bling okay because we're getting our hands all the way down into this and we don't need it there later here we go you can smell those peppers and onions right off the bat there we go nice and light just want to make sure that we incorporate all these ingredients together it's just how it should look okay get a view on that one now this cornbread's been in here about 200 275 degrees and it's gonna be the basis and the foundation that's gonna soak up all this great flavor and moisture out of the meatloaf great those are done now working to my side i've got the bacon i've got the peppers the garlic that's gonna all come together and i've got one more egg here that i'm going to add into this mixture that spoon oh and the crunchiness you can hear the corn muffins kind of starting to absorb some of the moisture and you can smell it all tying together i mean just a spoonful right now would probably do me good all right and that's mixed nice look at that okay now i put them all together how do i put them together well i've got a sheet tray here lined with a little parchment paper because we're gonna have enough moisture this is not gonna stick but we don't want it sticking to the pan and the parchment paper will be a nice barrier about two-thirds of the meatloaf comes out and this is where we're going to make our foundation okay so we run it a long ways like that maybe a little bit more there we go and we're going to make a little canoe here because we're going to actually take some of that stuffing put it inside of the canoe take the rest of the meatloaf put a little roof on it tie it all together and then we're going to go ahead and bake this right around 350 degrees ah look at that you wouldn't even know that it's got stuffing cornbread in it i'm gonna pop this in the oven for about an hour and a half at 350 degrees we want to check the temperature make sure we're going in the right direction and then also top it so let's see where we're at not all the way to the bottom right into the middle yep right about 140 145 perfect now on top of this we're going to hit it with a little sliced cheddar cheese now we didn't do this right at the beginning because the cheese would have all melted off great back into the oven for about another five minutes there we are okay oh it smells incredible and i've got a great plate picked out for it oh it's a big one oh look at that look at that it smells even better than it looks so let's see how this is gonna look separate oh my gosh i tell you and take a look at that how beautiful\n"