In my house, when I announce that we are having Meatloaf for dinner, I am met with a hearty round of “YES!” and “YUM!!!”
Homemade meatloaf is one of those dishes that often gets mixed reviews. People seem to either love it or hate it. But might I suggest, that if you hate it because the meatloaf that you have had is dry and flavorless – give this one a try.
Not only is this meatloaf filled with wonderful flavor, but below you will also find tips for keeping your meatloaf tender and juicy. When I say my family cheers for this dish, I am not exaggerating.
How I Make this Recipe:
How to Make Moist Meatloaf
One of the biggest complaints I have seen is that meatloaf is dry.
First of all, when you are mixing together your ingredients, do not over-mix. Over-mixing any kind of ground meat mixture, whether meatloaf or meatballs, will cause your meatloaf to become tough and dry. You want your ingredients to be just mixed.
Second, if you bake it until it is no longer pink, you are actually overcooking your meatloaf. There is an enzyme in onions that causes meat to stay pink, even when it is fully cooked. After it is exposed to the air, it will gradually become more brown.
Cooking your onions first reduces this effect a little, as well as provides more flavor to the meatloaf. But use a thermometer to check if your meatloaf is done. Trust your meat thermometer! Meatloaf is done when it reaches 160 degrees, but should be no more than 170.
Following these tips, your meatloaf will be tender, juicy, and full of flavor!
After the meatloaf is done, allow it to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing.
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Can I Make this with other Meats?
Yes! I have made this with all ground beef, half turkey/half beef, half beef/half bison, half beef/half caribou, and even all ground moose meat.
You decide.
Enjoy your meatloaf with some Zucchini Corn Fritters
Did you Make this Recipe? I’d love for you to give me a 5 star rating in the recipe card below. If you share it on Instagram, please tag me! You can also post it to my Facebook Page.
Classic Meatloaf
Ingredients
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 Tb butter
- 2 lbs ground beef, or half beef/turkey, beef/pork
- 1 c fresh, not dry bread crumbs
- ¾ c grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- 2 eggs
- ½ c milk
- 2 Tb Worcestershire sauce
For the topping
- ⅓ c ketchup
- ¼ c brown sugar
- 1 Tb Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Begin pre-heating oven to 350 degrees.
- In a skillet, sauté the diced onion in the butter until tender and beginning to get golden in color.
- Put the ground beef, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, oregano, garlic powder, salt & pepper, and the sautéed onions in a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and Worcestershire Sauce.
- Pour the liquid into the larger bowl and combine it all together, mixing with your hands (they’re your best kitchen tool.)
- Scoop the mixture out onto an edged baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat.
- Shape the meat into a loaf that is about 5 inches wide and 2 inches thick.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the topping ingredients.
- Spread the mixture over the top of the loaf.
- Bake for about 1 hour, or until the center reads no more than 170 degrees on a meat thermometer. 160 degrees should be your target temperature.
- Allow it to rest 10 minutes before slicing.
- Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
If nutritional values are provided for this recipe, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands of ingredients you use. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste or for serving. If nutritional values are very important to you, I suggest using your favorite nutritional calculating tool with the brands you use.
Unit Conversions:
Unit Conversion for measurements (if displayed), going from US to Metric is an auto-generated conversion. If you are using the metric measurements, please double-check to confirm that these are accurate with your favorite preferred conversion tool.
I love your recipe. I combined it with another recipe that called for shredded carrots and mustard. It’s amazing. I also added a tablespoon of mustard to the topping. Thanks for the recipe, you are absolutely amazing.
I kept inviting friends over and I would make this receipe. Guess what? Not only They asked for the receipe, but they said Iʻm a really good cook lol. I am a good cook, I just never made a meatloaf before until one day my husband asked me to try it out. .. Thank you for how delicious and moist this meatloaf is❤️❤️🙏🏾🙏🏾
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it!
LOVE this recipe! Only I add chili sauce to topping because I like I lil twang!!!
This is now be my “go to” meatloaf recipe forevermore! So delicious and my husband loved the leftovers for sandwiches. The only change I made was to leave out the brown sugar. The video was so helpful in knowing how to treat the beef so gently. Thank you, Constance!
Of course I realized I was out of Ketsup! I had 3 packets and some spicy bbq sauce. Mixed it all together with some Worcester sauce and brown sugar! I do love this recipe!
Very good meatloaf! I added some garlic salt & dry
Mustard. My husband said to make it again!!! 5 stars at least.
This is my go to recipe when it comes to making meatloaf. Everyone loves it. I add a few more spices then it’s good to go. Thank you for this one.
The first time I made time this I went exactly by the recipe, or so I thought, everyone RAVED about how wonderful and different it was. The second time I made it I notice I added the ingredients for the topping into the actual meatloaf. I even commented to my guest the special ingredient was brown sugar..lol. Now my friends are making meatloaf with brown sugar. It gives it lots of extra flavor and is super moist. Who knew?!
Hey, sounds like something I’d do. I often forget an ingredient or two. Or go to make a recipe and discover I don’t have all the ingredients after all
Made this exactly as posted. DANG! so so good. Hubs said splendid. Thank you very much for sharing your recipe. It’s a definite keeper.
On your blog you say if your meatloaf is pink in the inside it still consider done and the onion is making it have a off color pink and over mixing cause the meatloaf tough, keep in mind (and I know) two things will make your meatloaf hard too.first if you slice the meatloaf and the inside is still pink then you must cook it a little longer,bake it in the oven or microwave it for a couple minutes until it is brown or heat it in a pan to get to fully brown them you’ll know if it is done it will be soft and flavorful. Second if you want your meatloaf to be soft on the outside,before you bake the meatloaf,cover the pan with a piece of aluminum foil before baking,after you had bake it for about half hour remove the foil,don’t get discouraged by the apearance of lots of water, that will be there but when you cooking the meatloaf that water will be gone and your meatloaf will be soft,moist and full of flavor and no extra cooking will be needed
My family loved this meat loaf…it was super moist and tender..and the flavor was out of this world….
Love your mixing bowls, too!!! Where did you get them???
This meatloaf recipe is one of the best ever. My whole family enjoyed it. The only changes I made was to put only ketchup on the top and I didn’t add brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. I also cut the recipe in half but used a whole chopped sautéed onion. Baked an hour and was delicious.
I have been trying to duplicate my Granny’s meatloaf for over 30 years…I found it! Thank you best ever !!!
The recipe calls for 1 onion diced. How much diced onion does that translate to — 3/4 cup? 1/2 cup? 1 cup? Not all onions are the same size. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
It is flexible, but I would go with about 3/4 cup.
Love the meatloaf, so did my son and he is very particular about food.
I’ve tried so many meat loaf recipes and think I’ve found the keeper! It is absolutely delicious! I followed recipe except I used sugar-free ketchup in the glaze because I’m diabetic. I also like that the servings are generous! My lunch tomorrow will be a meat loaf sandwich on a low-carb wheat tortilla. Thanks for an easy-to-fix great recipe!
Is there a reason it calls for fresh brumb crumbs over dried/store bought? I’ve never used fresh bread crumbs so am unsure what the benefit is.
The moisture in the bread crumbs adds to the moisture in the meatloaf.
I have never had success with meatloaf; it never holds together and ends up a crumbly mess. But, this was so good! I made it for my son & daughter-in-law when we went to meet our new grandson and everyone loved it! I followed the directions to a tee and it held together and was so flavorful and moist. Thank you! This will be on my menu rotation!
Can I make this in a loaf pan? and if so would the cooking time be altered?
Yes, it is possible to do that. I would set the timer to 1 hour, then check it with the meat thermometer to see if you need more time.
Easy to follow recipe and delicious meatloaf! Highly recommend! Thank you
Family enjoyed! I add a little ground mustard; very good. Thanks for sharing.
I’m going to make this recipe but often put bell peppers, chopped fine. I wonder if I put this in with my onions and sautee them as well. I top meatloaf with thin slices of bell pepper.
What do you think Constance
I think that would be fantastic!
Can you make in crockpot?
I would not recommend making this in a slow cooker.
I made this today for supper and it was delicious! Will make again!
Hi Constance,
This is, almost exactly how I’ve made my meatloaf for years. Love it! I never added oregano nor the worcestershire to the catsup and brown sugar. I will try both next time I make it. A little extra spice will be great~!~ Thank you.
This recipes looks so yummy I’m making it tonight. One question, do you bake covered or uncovered?
Thank you for sharing!!!
Uncovered! :)
Thank you 😀
I made this for dinner tonight. I did not use onions because my husband does not like them. I also had to use Italian bread crumbs.
But, the meatloaf was awesome. The best recipe I’ve made so far in my 51 years. I highly recommend making this. Again thank you for sharing !!!
Thank you Sheri!
Can you fix the print function on the recipe so that the banner doesn’t write over the ingredients.
(Do not sell my personal information ) prints right over the amounts for the ingredients so useless.
Hi Shirley, did this happen when you printed it out on paper? If so, I will let the software developer know so that they can see what is going on. It should not be doing that.
Hi Constance. This banner on the printed copy is still occurring. Thought I would let you know. I’m trying to make this for tonight. :)
Lisa, I have no idea what is causing that. I have tried to recreate it on my end, and have never seen it. I’ve even looked into the code for my site and can’t find it anywhere.
My guess is which web browser folks are using…
Looks delish!!
Thank you!
When do you add the onions to the mixture? They seem to be sauteed then never spoken of again.
They are mixed into the meat mixture.
Step 3. Everything is added to the sauteed onions. It’s at the very end of step 3. Adding it all to the meat mixture. 😉
This is the best looking as well as most delicious looking meatloaf I’ve seen. I will be testing this out on my family.
Hi!
What kind of bread do you use for the “fresh bread crumbs”? And do you add anything to it? Or is it really just tiny pieces of the bread?
Thanks!
I use whatever kind of bread I have on hand – sandwich bread normally, white or wheat. I pulse some bread in my food processor to a crumb consistency.
Sourdough is fantastic in this spectacular recipe!
And I like to add some diced celery along with the onion. And a couple of dashes of Worcestershire Sauce.
Wow I never thought of adding milk although Julia Child added milk to her hamburgers. Next time I will try it with the milk I made one today, I added barbecue sauce.
Looks easy and yummy!
Looks yummy to me! I sneak in veggies like carrot and zucchini to stretch those abundant army dollars.