Description
My easy onion soup mix meatloaf recipe will become a weeknight dinner staple. 5 ingredients & 5 minutes of prep. Easy, delicious & kid-friendly! Classic meatloaf never tasted so good!
Ingredients
- 2 – 2.5 pounds ground beef, lean-ish (80-85% is perfect)
- 8 oz can tomato sauce
- 2 eggs
- 2 envelopes onion soup mix
- 1 cup rolled oats
- optional: sauce, condiment or topping of your choice
Instructions
- Break apart the ground beef into small chunks, using your hands. Place the pieces into a large mixing bowl.
- Whisk the eggs and tomato sauce together, before pouring them into the ground beef. That brings the meatloaf together easily, without having to overmix.
- Add the onion soup mix to the bowl, as well.
- Gently use your hands or a fork to mix everything together. You want a nicely homogenized mix, without compressing or compacting it. Mix just until everything comes together.
- Loosely shape the ground beef meatloaf mixture into a loaf and place it into the pan. Don’t compress it. It really will firm up in the oven. Just lightly tap and coax it out to the edges of your 10×5 loaf pan. There will be a gap or two. (You can also bake this in an 8×8 or 9×9 baking pan if your loaf pans are too small. Adjust the cooking time, since the loaf will be thinner.)
- Bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes. Cook until a meat thermometer registers an internal temperature of 155°. (If using a square baking pan, start checking for doneness at the 35-40 minute mark. Because it’s thinner, your meatloaf will bake faster than in the loaf pan.)
- Add the sauce suggested in the recipe card, below, during the last 15 minutes of baking. This is an optional step, but enhances the flavor of your scrumptious meatloaf even more.
- Rest the meatloaf on a cooling rack for 15 minutes, before trying to slice it or removing it from the pan. (See how that sauce has caramelized on top and around the edges? Delish!)
- Transfer to a serving platter.
- Slice and enjoy!
Notes
Our family loves a saucy topping on meatloaf. Ketchup or barbecue sauce, both work fine, but if you’d like to try what we use, it’s very simple. I mix 1/2 cup ketchup, 1 Tablespoon yellow mustard and 1/2 cup brown sugar to form a sauce. I pour it over the meatloaf during the last 15 minutes of cooking time to let it become thick and caramelized.
This easy meatloaf recipe can be baked in any size pans you like. I’ve done it in an 8×8 or 9×9 and I’ve also used a 9×13 and cut into squares or baked in muffin tins, for individual meat loaves. The thinner your meatloaf mixture is in the pan, the shorter your baking time. So adjust it accordingly.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Category: Main Dish, Beef
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American