Mesquite Smoked Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

Bacon wrapped meat - you had me at bacon…

Ingredients

• 3lb ground beef
• 1lb ground country pork (Kroger)
• 1lb Bacon (regular slice)
• 1 medium onion ( I used about hgalf of the onion diced)
• 1 red bell pepper ( I only needed half of the pepper, diced)
• 1 ½ cups ketchup
• ½ cup water
• 1 pack Sloppy Joe mix (Powder) I am sure you could cheat and use a can of sloppy joe 😊
• 1 pack Onion soup powder
• Garlic powder to taste, I think I used about 2 tbl spoons
• ~2 tbl spoon black pepper
• 4 slices provologne Cheese
• 4 slices American Cheese
• Aproximately 2 cups Bread crumbs
• Worcestershire to taste, I think I used about ¼ cup
• Large cookie sheet
• 2 sheets of aluminum foil the size of the cookie sheet
• 4 chunks mesquite for smoking

Instructions

Cheffing:

1. Mix ground beef and country pork together with the worcester sauce
2. Mix bread crumbs into the meat mix until all breadcrumbs are mixed into the meat mixture
3. Place foil on the cookie sheet, shiny side up
4. Spread meat mixture onto foil, flatten it out as even as you can
5. Spinkle the peppers and the onion onto the meat, staying away from the edges all the way around
6. Sprinkle the garlic powder and black pepper across the meat and veggies
7. Sprinkle the pack of onion soup powder across the meat and veggies
8. Place the cheese on the meat sheet, stay away from the edges, I went 2 slices wide, started about 2 inches from one end and slightly overlapped the cheese I did the 4 slices of provolone and then the 4 slices of American. You want to end about 4 inches away from the opposite sides things tend to shift as the meat sheet is rolled up.

Roll the meat:

1. This is the tricky part. Utilizing the foil to keep everything together, start rolling the sheet of meat up..
2. As you roll and the foil starts to go into the roll, stop, pull the foil back about ½ around the roll and continue rolling.
3. Use this technique until the entire thing is rolled into a meat log. Leave the meatloaf wrapped in the foil and remove from the cookie sheet.
4. Pinch and smash the ends of the meat log closed (Otherwise the cheese all melts out) Make sure you have the ends closed up.

Bacon Time:

1. Place second sheet of foil on cookie sheet shiny side up
2. Lay bacon strips out long ways in the cookie sheet
3. Use ½ the back starting at one end of the cookie sheet, use the other half starting at the other end of the cookie sheet over lapping in the middle
4. Take the meat log, gently remove it from the foil and place it about 3 inches from the end of the cookie sheet you place the first strips of bacon (This is important because it keeps all the bacon wrapped tight, the loose ends from the the other half of bacon ends up tucked under the first as you wrap, keeping it all wapped up)
5. Using the same rolling technique we used to make the meat log, gently roll, and pull the foil back, and roll, then pull foil back. Continue until the bacon is all wrapped around the meat log. Verify the ends are still closed up and didn’t open back up. Seriously, all the chees e will melt out.

Cooking time:

1. With the smoker at ~285 degrees, I toss the wood chunks in when I put the meatloaf on to smoke
2. I smoked mine at an average temperature of about 285 degrees* for about 3 hours at about 2 hours, baste the meat loaf with the sloppy joe sauce ( I Mixed the ketchup, water and sloppy Joe mix together after I started the meatloaf cooking)
3. At about 2 ½ I basted the meatloaf again and cooked it until about 3 hours was up. I believe Beef has to have an internal temperature of 165 degrees to meet “safety guidelines”
4. If you half this recipe to make a smaller meatloaf, remember to reduce the cooking time to about 1.5 to 2 hours.
5. *In the oven at 285 will cook the meatloaf the same, it just does not acquire the smoke flavor