On the first day at my last job, I spent much of my lunch hour getting to know Sheri, the oh-so-lovely Vice President of the company. We chatted about our mutual passion for food, and I told her all about my blog. Hearing the excitement in my voice as I blabbered on about cooking, she naturally followed-up with, “So, what’s your favorite meal to make?”
It wasn’t until I’d replied—until I saw the puzzled look on her face—that I realized she’d been expecting a fancier dish. Something more exciting or even more exotic. More complicated, perhaps.
But no.
“Meatloaf,” I told her in earnest. “It’s kind of my thing.”
Look, cool it is not. But downright delicious? That it is.
Meatloaf is the flavor of my entire adolescence. It’s as much a part of my youth as stretchy stirrup pants, awesomely bad sweater vests, and hair that never quite took to straightening. Rather than growing up and growing away from log-shaped beef concoctions, I’ve just embraced them bearishly. So really, it comes as no surprise that one of the most popular recipes on this here blog is Honey Barbecue Meatloaf. It’s fitting. It makes me smile.
This white meat version, much like its beef brethren, is just fantastic. It’s laced with thyme, oregano, garlic, and Parmesan—making each and every bite interesting and complex. The reason I deem it fool-proof is because this exact combination and the easy preparation never fail to produce a tender, super- flavorful loaf in under an hour. The best part is that by using dried herbs and forgoing the typical turkey meatloaf additions of diced onions, carrots, or peppers, you’re not only shortening prep time, but you’re likely ensuring that you have all of the ingredients on hand already.
Fool-Proof Turkey Meatloaf
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ pounds extra-lean ground turkey breast 93% lean
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 garlic cloves minced (1 tablespoon)
- 1/3 cup plain breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the turkey, ¼ cup of the ketchup, and all remaining ingredients and mix well with your hands. Transfer mixture to an oiled baking dish and form it evenly into a loaf shape.
- Spread the remaining 2 tablespoons of ketchup over the top and sides of the loaf. Bake for 40 minutes.
- Slice and serve immediately.
This looks absolutely delicious. I’ve had turkey meatballs that we’ve made with ground lean turkey and they were very good, so I’m sure this is too. Great recipe!
You are right of course. A simple well-made recipe is a delight. Too often I have drunk much wine making an over complicated recipe with disastrous results. And meatloaf is one of my favorites. And Turkey meatloaf does put a new spin on things. Isn’t it amazing that a dash of Worcestershire sauce makes every recipe come alive? That’s because it has Tamarind in it, which like Cinnamon is widely used in South Asian and Mexican cooking. It’ a sweet and sour fruit. We used to eat it off the tree growing up in Sri Lanka.
Do you favor one meatloaf over the other, or is that like asking which child you like best?
I’ve always had an aversion to meatloaf… I think it’s because my mom didn’t like it so she never made it. This looks delicious though! will have to try :)
I’d like to recreate this entire meal–the sides look fantastic, as does the meatloaf! Is it mashed sweet potatoes? And how do you prepare your broccoli, it looks nice and light and crisp!
I’m not a fan of meatloaf, perhaps because I’ve never had a good one? But it is my husband’s favorite, so I can’t wait to prepare this and surprise him! Thanks for the idea!
How come I can’t pin any of your recipes?
If you go up to the picture, it allows you to pin there.
This looks amazing!! I, too, love meatloaf, though I’ve never made it! Only side dishes while my grandma, the meatloaf expert, makes hers. And hers is SO good. But I need to try this one for sure. It looks wonderfully delicious, easy, and fool proof. Thanks for the recipe. Pinned!
This looks and sounds amazing! I’ve given up red meat for the month so I’ll have to try it! Yum!
It looks really good- and I have never made/had meatloaf before! What’s on the side of it- it looks similar to the squash puff my mom makes.
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Jess
When I first arrived at the US, I was 26 years old and had never had meatloaf. I worked at Stanford and the hospital cafeteria was famous for…. bad food. I tried their meatloaf and fell in love with it. It was served on Thursdays only – the amazing thing is that only years later I managed to have REAL GOOD meatloaf, home made and all… For me, bad meatloaf is still great… go figure! ;-)
It was my first love affair with American cooking, first in a long series… I now do a turkey loaf more often than beef, so your version seems perfect to me
I cook my peppers or whatever veg I want to throw in before cooking my meatloaf and fix a normal recipe in an abnormal pan. I use a bundt shape muffin tin with 6 slots so that when they are turned out of their pan there is a perfect little dent to fill with ketchup. Cooks faster :)
I’ve been teaching my daughters how to cook and when we began, I let each choose their first lesson. Both of them chose meatloaf!
I knew there was a reason I liked you, Andie. I find meatloaf incredibly comforting and delicious. It’s one of the first foods I remember from my mother’s kitchen!
I want to try it, it looks really simple but looks delicious too! I haven’t tried to make my own meatloaf because I just usually buy but I think this worth a try. Thanks for this recipe :)
I made this tonight and it was delish! Very flavorful. I will definitely make this again.
It’s great to have so many dishes with low calorie based as well as healthy for the body.
I made this tonight and it was excellent! I’ve slowly been cooking my way through your blog and we’ve been loving everything! Keep ’em coming =)
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Andie, I must agree, meatloaf is one of my favorite meals also. My kids and husband love it too, though I have to make half without the ketchup on it because my 17 year old doesn’t eat condiments – especially ketchup. I remembered I had some frozen ground turkey in the freezer when I got this email and knew right away that’s what I was going to do with it. I made 3 pounds of meatloaf and they loved it. We had it for dinner again last night. And to finish it off I might have a cold meatloaf sandwich for lunch today. The meatloaf was so juicy and tasty. Only thing I did different was put chili sauce on it instead of ketchup. Yummy. Thank you.
How long did you cook your meatloaf ?
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I made this for dinner tonight along with your Perfect Mashed Sweet Potato recipe and some fresh green beans, It was delish on a dish! My hubby loved it, the whole time it was cooking he kept commenting on how good it smelled, and if I didn’t tell him he NEVER would have thought it was ground turkey. It was very moist and full of flavor and sliced perfectly, I did however had to add more than 2 tablespoons of ketchup on the top to get it to look like yours in the photo.
I will be trying your Honey Barbecue Meatloaf next, thanks for posting all these fabulous healthy recipes that taste like their fat cousins.
Looks and sounds divine. I’m vegetarian and I’m always looking for great recipes of meat dishes I once loved in hopes of substituting ingredients with plants based alternatives. I love the combo of Parmesan, thyme, and oregano. Not a big bread crumbs fan, though I know it’s a textural thing. I’ve read fresh bread soaked in a bit of milk does the trick better, provided extra moisture at the same time. Not sure how this throws off the precise ratio that achieves the texture I like. Maybe I’ll do a mixture of crumbs and fresh? Any thoughts?
Hey Jackson,
Thanks! I’ve heard the same thing about soaking fresh bread in milk and I’ve tried it with beef in meatballs in the past with good results. However, I think in this case, since you’re not using the meat (turkey), it’s hard to know the amount of moisture that will be needed to act as a good binder. It will really depend on the type of non-meat ingredient you’re using and the texture of it.
In this case, turkey tends to be really wet when raw, so it sticks together well with just the bread crumbs and egg, but I know that if you were using something like soy crumbles or mashed chickpeas, they’d likely be able to stand a bit more moisture. Does that make sense?
Let me know what you end up trying!
Andie
Just made this for my dinner for the week and it’s delicious! Thank you again for such a great recipe!
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DELISH! Moist and flavorful. I made it with 93% lean beef with much success :) I’m looking forward to eating the left overs!
I made your recipe subbing in 93% lean ground beef, and my husband, who has always claimed to “hate” meatloaf, loved it! “I like that it has no chunks” is what he said. I love all meatloaf, so no surprise that I thought it was terrific, too.
Looks great! Are there any substitutes for the bread crumbs? Perhaps oat bran?
Thanks!
M
I made it with crushed pork rinds instead of bread crumbs. Tasted great!
We tried this last night and it was fantastic! Moist, tasty, and low carb! This one will be filed in the “Our Favorite Recipes” notebook.
This meatloaf looks delicious, I will try it for lunch tomorrow! I love your passion for food another great post.
Great recipe! Since I used 1.5 lbs of turkey I stuck a meat thermometer into the meatloaf and cooked it to 160 degrees. I’m usually not into meatloaf but I love this recipe – its very flavorful, not dry at all, and simple to make with ingredients readily on hand.
Can I make this ahead of time? Would you suggest cooking and then reheating? Preparing the day before and cooking on the day? I have time to cook on the weekend but not during the week. Thanks!
Hi Andie, can you freeze this recipe? I do all my cooking on weekends :)
I made this last night and followed the recipe exactly as stated. It was delicious! The only minor changes I would make is reduce the thyme to 1/2 a teaspoon (The flavor was a little to much for me but that’s my personal opinion) and mine needed 45 minutes but other than that is was perfect! This is going to be a weekly go to dinner for me.
Hi,
I am going to make this for dinner tonight. My family loves meatloaf!! Sounds delish!!
Thanks for sharing.
Michele
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i made this meatloaf yesterday and it was so yummy my family loved it. thanks for sharing .:)
I made this last night for dinner and to my surprise it did not taste good at all. It had no flavor at all and we could not finish it. I did the recipe exactly as you posted. I usually add veggies and marinara sauce but wanted to try this recipe. I tried to wow my boyfriend but he couldn’t even finish it. Epic fail. Not sure what happened?!!
I seriously make this once every two weeks for the family. They LOVE it! I want to post a pic of it but it won’t let me. Anywho know it’s so good!
Ah I’m so happy to hear it! Thank you so much Julia!! xo
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I usually don’t leave comment / reviews on recipes, but had to come back and tell you how much we liked the turkey meatloaf! It was eaten in record time, and all of us wanted more! The mashed sweet potatoes were yummy too. Thank you for those wonderful recipes!
I made this for my son for dinner tonight (I’m vegetarian) and he really liked it. It was so easy to put together, which is a real bonus when you are cooking two mains almost every night. The only change I made, because my son doesn’t eat dairy, was to use an equal amount of nutritional yeast instead of the Parmesan. Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi!
I was wondering if you could tell what what type of baking dish will work best for the meatloaf. Would a typical square deep meatloaf pan work best?
Thank you so much!
Kim
You just need a baking tray :) spray the tray with olive oil and then shape the loaf with your hands to sit on top.
I added diced green bell pepper. It smells delicious , can’t wait to taste
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Made this tonight…..wonderful ! quick, easy I did take the suggestion & used chili sauce instead of ketchup. This is a keeper.
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I’ve had a real craving for some good meatloaf and stumbled upon this recipe- weird craving, I know! I decided to make this today and it did not disappoint! Honestly took a bite and audibly said, “Oh $#!+, this is good!” Will be making this again for sure!
Made this meatloaf for dinner tonight along with Andie’s sweet potato mash and broccoli as shown in the picture. Yum! Will definitely make this again. Healthy, easy meal for midweek dinner. I made the mashed potato and steamed broccoli while the meatloaf was in the oven and they were all ready at the same time :) added a little more sauce on top of the loaf too as I like it a bit saucier :)
Wonderful meatloaf! I added some turkey sausage, and used salsa instead of ketchup. This is definitely one of my new favorites……so good.
It’ a sweet and sour fruit. Great recipes!
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They LOVE it ! I made this last night and followed the recipe exactly as stated. It was delicious ! Thank you !
http://wendydiet.pagedemo.co/
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I love that you listed the nutritional info. But how much sodium is in your meatloaf. I have just recently been diagnosed with Congestive Heart Fsilure and much sodium.
Thank you. Nancy
It was delicious ! Thank you !
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Cooking just for myself… if I half the recipe, will the bake time be less? I don’t want to dry it out by overbaking it.
Made the turkey meatloaf, added pepper, onion,mushrooms, came out really moist good recipe.
I’ve made this recipe every month or two for the last 2 years! It’s a favorite in our house!
I’m using 2pounds of ground turkey, I just double all the ingredients, right?
Hi Andie, I’m using 2pounds of ground turkey, I just double all the ingredients, right?
Hi Pam! Yes you should just double all the ingredients!
I made this today. Doubled the recipe and used Hunts meatloaf sauce vs ketchup (it’s sweet to me). My dad ate two slices right off the bat
I’ve never been able to master it but did today!
Hi! Did you change this recipe? I believe it used to have eggs and Parmesan cheese right? Thank you!
I think something happened to this recipe. I made it a few months ago and I swear it called for an egg and Parmesan but I no longer see that in the ingredients! Am I crazy?!
THANK YOU. I was just about to make it, and I KNOW there was an egg in it (my son’s allergic, so I had tried a few substitutes, but it’s best with egg). Parmesan sounds right, too.
Yes I was just about to make this and I knew the ingredient list seemed off. Usually it’s only 1lb of meat and definitely includes egg and parmesan cheese. What happened? This is typically a staple weeknight dinner at our house.
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Surely this meatloaf has eggs for moisture and binding?
I was at first skeptical because no eggs, but this by far is THE BEST meatloaf I have ever made! My kids gobbled this up, definitely will be a staple in my home!
I love this recipe! I did notice that on Yummly’s page it shows an additional two ingredients not mentioned above, the Parmesan cheese & the egg & it Yummly only shows 1/4c of ketchup & not the other 2tb.