Smoked meatloaf with roasted sweet potatoes

Date: 11/9/2011

Meatloaf recipe: http://www.kickassbbq.com/smoked_meat_loaf.html

Sweet potato recipe: Source: Cook’s Illustrated

Instructions

1. Heat packed light brown sugar, apple juice, butter, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until butter has melted and sugar is dissolved, 2 to 4 minutes. Tosspotatoes in large bowl with oil, salt, and pepper to taste until evenly coated. Line 18- by 13-inch heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange potatoes in single layer on baking sheet and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Adjust oven rack to middle position and placepotatoes in cold oven. Turn oven to 425 degrees and cook potatoes 30 minutes.
2. Remove baking sheet from oven and carefully remove top layer of foil. Return potatoes to oven and cook until bottom edges of potatoes are golden brown, 15 to 25 minutes.
3. Remove baking sheet from oven and brush potatoes with half of glaze, flip slices over with thin metal spatula, and brush with remaining glaze. Continue to roast until bottom edges of potatoes are golden brown, 18 to 22 minutes longer. Remove from oven; let potatoes cool 5 to 10 minutes; transfer to platter and serve.

Time to table: 1.5 hours prep time, 5-6 hours cooking time

Modifications: I added 6 cloves of garlic to the meatloaf. Instead of hamburger we used 1lb ground turkey thigh and 1lb mild pork sausage. I used the pork rub that I used in the pulled pork we’ve made several times.

A note about the sweet potato recipe is that, in our case, it didn’t take nearly as long as they said to cook the potatoes. After the first 25 minutes they were done, but we had to cook them longer to cook the glaze, so you might be able to make the initial cook time shorter to save time.

Servings: 7 adult dinners

Ben: Love Love Love

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: My dad made this meatloaf over the summer when Annie and I were down at their place for dinner one day, and I knew I had to make it. I never really liked meatloaf growing up, but I’d never had meatloaf like this before. The smoky flavor combined with the pork rub and bbq sauce is amazing. I took the leftovers to work and made meatloaf sandwiches with cheese and sriracha and it was heavenly all over again.

We’ve had the sweet potatoes a couple times at Thanksgiving, from my brother-in-law Joe, so Erin whipped those up as a side dish. We had the neighbors over for dinner and there were still 4 slices for me to bring in for lunches.

I put the meatloaf on the smoker at 12:15 and by 5pm I still had 25 degrees to go, so I moved it to the oven to finish it off. The garlic still had a bit of a kick to it 🙂