A Turkey Meatloaf Recipe Better Than Any From Your Childhood
Among the most comforting of all comfort foods, a well-made meatloaf delivers that warm, rib-sticking goodness we all crave. The key to excellent meatloaf is threefold: a well-seasoned base, a generous glaze, and careful cooking. We realize that some people may still bear scars from the bone-dry loaves of their childhoods, but a creation like ours will banish them with a single bite of this turkey meatloaf recipe.
Nutrition: 290 calories, 11 g fat (3 g saturated), 920 mg sodium
Serves 4
You'll Need
For the turkey meatloaf:
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
1⁄2 red bell pepper, stemmed and quartered
1 small carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1⁄2 lb ground turkey
1⁄2 cup bread crumbs
1⁄4 cup low-sodium chicken stock
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp Worcestershire
1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1⁄2 tsp dried thyme
1⁄2 tsp salt
1⁄2 tsp black pepper
For the glaze:
1⁄2 cup ketchup
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- Combine the onion, bell pepper, carrot, and garlic in a food processor and pulse until finely minced. (If you don't have a food processor, you can do this by hand.)
- Combine the vegetables with the turkey, bread crumbs, stock, egg, Worcestershire, soy sauce, thyme, and salt and black pepper in a large mixing bowl.
- Gently mix until all of the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Dump the meatloaf mixture into a 13" x 9" baking dish and use your hands to form a loaf roughly 9" long and 6" wide.
- Mix the glaze ingredients together and spread over the meatloaf.
- Bake for 1 hour, until the glaze has turned a deep shade of red and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf registers 160°F.
Eat This Tip
There are more than a few ways to reinvent meatloaf the next day (topped with a fried egg, covered with sautéed peppers and onions), but for our money, the best bet is still a thick meatloaf sandwich. Gently sauté onions until nicely caramelized while reheating the meatloaf in a 325°F oven with a thin slice of smoked gouda, and serve it all on a toasted bun. It's worth making this recipe for the sandwich alone.
