This recipe serves a big crowd and is perfect for Church Sunday Dinners! When I was growing up, my Mom served meatloaf fairly regularly. It was cheaper to feed five children, make a good loaf, and serve it up. Over the years, I tried to replicate Mom's meatloaf to no avail. There was a missing ingredient I couldn't identify! But then, one day, I watched one of my favorite cooks, Ina Garten, making a meatloaf. She mentioned an ingredient I hadn't been putting in mine: fresh thyme!
I don't know if Ina knew Mom or not, but I suspect she knew someone who knew how they made a good meatloaf up north, either that or our beloved Ina is an instinctive Minnesotan. But I sure do love her cooking, recipe ideas, and tips, and encourage everyone to get familiar with her recipes!
- 2 1/2 pounds ground chuck (80/20)
- 1/2 cup good dry breadcrumbs
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 3 cups yellow onions, chopped
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp (more if you really love it) thyme leaves, chopped
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp fresh ground or cracked pepper
- 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/3 cups chicken stock
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- Sauté and cool the onions, allow to cool.
- Whisk the eggs.
- In a large bowl, add the chuck, breadcrumbs, eggs, thyme, salt, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, and chicken stock, and mix with a large spoon or by hand.
- Pile onto a baking pan lined with foil and sprayed with oil- you want it to be no more than 3" high and pat it into a rectangle as much as possible.
- Slather with the ketchup and cook, covered for 50 minutes, remove the foil, and set the oven to 425, allow it to crust (around 10 minutes).
- Check the temperature to 155-160 in the middle.
- Allow it to rest for 15 minutes before slicing.