Meatloaf with Dr. Pepper Sauce

From Dr. BBQ’s book Slow Fire: The Guide to Lip-Smacking Barbecue

I like a nice meatloaf sandwich. My wife makes a great meatloaf so I was a bit leery about trying this. Would it live up to my wife’s meatloaf? It did. The original recipe mentions nothing about making the meatloaf into sandwiches, but that’s my preference. I added a slice of tomato and a leave of lettuce to mine.

EGGCESSORIES NEEDED

• ConvEGGtor

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 small green bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 pounds ground chuck
• 2 eggs
• Dr. Pepper Barbecue Sauce
• 2 teaspoons Barbecue Rub #67, plus additional for seasoning
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• ½ cup panko bread crumbs

Prepare your cooker to cook indirectly at 235° F using medium pecan wood for smoke flavor.

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is soft.

Transfer the vegetables to a plate and refrigerate for 10 minutes to cool.

In a big bowl, crumble the ground chuck.

When we make meatloaf we usually use something called a “meatloaf mix”. It’s equal parts pork, beef, and veal, and makes for a moist, light meatloaf. Unfortunately I didn’t notice that we only had about a pound of meatloaf mix left, and had to supplement it with ground beef (that’s why you see two different color meats in the bowl). The meatloaf was still moist and light, but I’d like to try it again with it being all meatloaf mix.

Add the eggs, ¼ cup of the barbecue sauce, the rub, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and the cooled onion mixture. Mix very well with your hands. Add the bread crumbs and mix well.

I should really read each instruction twice, because (as you can see in the picture) I added the bread crumbs before mixing the first time. Duh. I don’t know if this made any difference.

Transfer the meat loaf mixture to a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan, pushing down to get rid of any air pockets.

I thought that I sufficiently pushed down on the loaf, but apparently there were still air pockets which only became a noticeable problem when I flipped the loaf out later. Read on!

Place the loaf in the cooker and cook for 45 minutes.

Turn the loaf out of the pan onto the cooking grate. If your cooking grates are widely spaced, you may need to use a grill topper.

Season the top liberally with more of the rub and continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 155° F, about 1 ½ hours.

Transfer the meat loaf to a plate and tent it loosely with foil. Let rest for 15 minutes.

Slice and serve with extra barbecue sauce on the side.