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If I recommended cooking a meatloaf on a grill, you might ask me to “let you sleep on it” or you might run away like a “bat out of hell”, right?

I thought it sounded weird too when I first heard of doing it that way, but I tried it two years ago and it is my favorite way to prepare meatloaf now. You just prepare your favorite meatloaf recipe and instead of cooking it in your oven, turn your grill into a fire roasted oven by cooking with indirect heat (fire or burner on one side, food on other side, lid closed).

“I Would Do Anything For Loaf” Meatloaf recipe
adapted from Underground Deli’s Meatloaf Sandwich

Ingredients
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 1/2 teaspoons Dry mustard
1 teaspoon Black pepper
1 teaspoons Garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic minced
2 tablespoon basil, fresh chopped
1 tablespoon Dried oregano
3 Eggs
3/4 cup Ketchup
1/2 teaspoon Hot pepper sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons Horseradish
1 cup Onion; chopped
2 1/2 pounds Ground beef; 80/20 mix

Instructions
In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, mustard, black pepper, garlic powder, basil and oregano. In a large bowl, combine eggs, ketchup, hot pepper sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard and horseradish. Mix in the onion and ground beef, then add the bread crumb mixture.

TIP: One reason people don’t like meat loaf is because they’ve been served one that is greasy because it cooks in it’s own grease in the loaf pan. Only use the loaf pan for a mold to shape the loaf and let it chill for an hour in the fridge.

Then when ready to cook, invert the loaf pan onto a raised drip pan set up like this and all the grease will drip away from the loaf while cooking in the oven or the grill.

Cook the loaf at 350f.

After 45 minutes, brush with a glaze of your choice.
–Typical meatloaf glaze: 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 oz apple cider vinegar
–Sweet glaze: commercial BBQ sauce like Blues Hog.
–Spicy glaze: 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup Chok On Dis Blaze n’ Glaze, 1/4 cup brown sugar

Cook until the loaf hits an internal temp of 160f. This should be a total cooking time of 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Try that inverted meatloaf technique the next time and I think you’ll like your standard meatloaf a little bit better. The final product is just moist enough but not greasy at all. PERFECT for meatloaf sandwiches, my favorite.

And consider cooking it on the grill too. Since I started cooking it on the grill, anytime I think about cooking one in the oven, I think, “I would do anything for loaf, but I won’t do that!”

(All apologies to Michael Lee Aday)