This fun southwestern mini meatloaf recipe is a hit with adults and kids alike. Cute, tasty, and healthy — what more could you want in a little loaf of meat?
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: Traditional meatloaf takes a long time to bake. Mini meatloaf muffins bake much more quickly. Everyone loves the “muffin top” on these individual meatloaves.
How long it takes: 10 minutes to prep, 30 minutes in the oven
Equipment you’ll need: mixing bowl, muffin tins
Servings: 12 meatloaves
It seems like time goes faster every single year. I think it’s the kids. I blame everything on the kids. Messy house? Kids. Running late? Kids. Food on my shirt? Kids. I’m just happy I made it out of the house wearing a shirt.
I blame the good stuff on them too. A whole lot of smiles and more joy than I ever knew possible.
How about these fun little meatloaf muffins?! I call them kid food because they’re mini-sized and cute (as cute as meatloaf can be). They are definitely adult food, too, with the hearty flavors of corn, black beans, green onions, barbecue sauce, and more.
A mini meatloaf is a cute little package that is perfect for kids, guests, or for packing in lunches. Everyone loves them!
About this Mini Meatloaf Recipe
This meatloaf recipe helps stretch your meat budget. While this recipe isn’t meatless, it’s a good way to eat less meat. Ground chicken is mixed with black beans, oats, and egg to increase the protein and fiber.
If you like, substitute ground turkey or lean ground beef. Either works well so if you have a preference, or if something is on sale, or if it just happens to be what you have in your fridge, go for it.
Southwest mini meatloaves include veggies, too. With corn, lots of chopped parsley (so good for you!) and sliced green onions, you get extra vitamins and minerals, not to mention great flavor.
Mini meatloaf is easy to make. It takes about 10 minutes to make the meatloaf mixture. Don’t spend a lot of time mixing the ingredients. Overmixing contributes to dry meatloaf. Use a muffin tin to bake 12 little meatloaves.
You’ll love the shorter baking time. Normally, classic meatloaf takes a good hour and a half to bake when you bake it in a loaf pan. The beauty of this mini meatloaf recipe is that these babies are ready in about a half hour!
Each mini meatloaf is topped with a generous sticky sweet layer of your favorite barbecue sauce. If you like homemade, it’s easy to make your own barbecue sauce, or substitute ketchup if you want.
I serve these “meat muffins” with more barbecue sauce. They’re great with salsa and sour cream for more of a taco take on things. In fact, we like them wrapped in a soft flour tortilla for something a little different.
make Changes To This Mini Meatloaf Recipe
- Use a different type of ground meat. As I mentioned above, you can substitute ground turkey or lean ground beef for the ground chicken. The beef should be 90/10, or quite lean. Otherwise, the extra grease might overflow the muffin tins.
- Skip the corn or black beans. If a member of your family is adverse to one of these items, just omit them. Another idea is to add the corn and beans to just half of the mixture, or sub in another vegetable or bean.
- Make this mini meatloaf recipe into a sheet pan dinner. I often form the mixture into 4 mini meatloaves and bake them on a sheet pan with cubed sweet potatoes, onions, and peppers. Refer to this recipe for mini meatloaf sheet pan dinner.
It’s easy to make a double batch of the mini meatloaf recipe for a quick dinner in the future.
Cooked meatloaf can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw the mini meatloaves in the refrigerator. They thaw pretty quickly.
Uncooked meatloaf can be frozen for up to 6 months. Make muffin-sized meat balls (just make sure they’ll fit inside your muffin tins) and freeze them individually on a tray until firm, a couple of hours. Transfer to a freezer safe container or resealable bag. When you’re ready to bake them, put the frozen balls into the muffin tins and bake, increasing the baking time 10 to 15 minutes, or until they test done.
More Fun Food Ideas
BBQ Mini Meatloaf Sheet Pan Dinner
Ingredients
For the Vegetables
- 1 large sweet potato, cut into ¾-inch cubes (about 15 ounces)
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped into ¾-inch pieces
- ½ large red onion, chopped into ¾-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
For the Meatloaf:
- 16 ounces ground beef, 96/4 (ground turkey works, too)
- ½ cup BBQ sauce, divided
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup thinly sliced green onions
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 large egg, beaten
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a large rimmed sheet pan with cooking spray or olive oil.
- In a large bowl, toss the sweet potatoes, bell pepper, and onions with olive oil, salt, pepper. Spread the veggies on the sheet pan in a single layer.1 large sweet potato, cut into ¾-inch cubes, 1 red bell pepper, chopped into ¾-inch pieces, ½ large red onion, chopped into ¾-inch pieces, 1 tablespoon olive oil, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- In the same large bowl, mix together ground beef, ¼ cup BBQ sauce, panko, onions, chili powder, smoked paprika, salt, and egg. Mix until just combined — don’t overwork the meat.16 ounces ground beef, 96/4, ½ cup BBQ sauce, divided, ½ cup panko breadcrumbs, ¼ cup thinly sliced green onions, 1 teaspoon chili powder, ½ teaspoon smoked paprika, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 large egg, beaten
- Divide the mixture into 4 mini loaves, and place them on the sheet pan, spacing evenly, and moving the vegetables aside to make room.
- Bake for 25 minutes, remove from oven, and brush remaining ¼ cup BBQ sauce on the top of the meatloaves. Return pan to the oven, and bake for 15 minutes more, or until meatloaves reach an internal temp of 165°F, and veggies are tender and slightly golden.
- Cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
- Garnish meatloaves with extra green onions, if desired, and serve with BBQ sauce on the side.
Notes
- Meat: We used a lean ground beef, 96/4. You could also use lean ground turkey. 93/7. If you buy a blend with more fat, it may make your sheet pan dinner more greasy.
- More veggies: If you’d like to increase the amount of veggies, you can use two sheet pans: one for the meatloaves, one for the veggies.
- Recipe note: This recipe was completely revised 7/2025. Previously published as Southwestern Mini Meatloaf recipe.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
What kid friendly sides do you think go best with this meal? I made this last week and one of my five year olds literally said, “this is the best dinner you’ve ever made!” I slacked on the sides and just grabbed whatever we had, but now that I know it’s part of our meal rotation I need to pick up my game! A
Oh my gosh, that is the BEST! My kids are ridiculously picky right now so their sides are basically limited to canned green beans and fresh fruit. These microwave sweet potato chips are always fun! If they like potatoes, you could do some mashed potatoes in the slow cooker. Another fun option might be these zucchini pizzas – the cook super fast so you could do them after you pulled the meatloaves out of the oven.
This is one of our favorites. Thank you!!
So glad you like it! Thank you for taking the time to comment!
This is such a great idea. I can’t wait to make it for my family. My kids will love it! Thanks for sharing!!
What is the website for Taste of Michigan?
Thanks,
Jude
Hi — the website isn’t currently up. Did you have a question I could answer?
These look amazing! I love a southwestern take on just about anything, and the mini size might make these more appealing to my kids. My son is going through a picky eating phase, so I appreciate any ideas to make food more interesting to him. Thanks!
I’m kinda sorta in love with chicken and turkey meatloaf. I’ve never met a version I didn’t love. I want yours!
I have been making mini meat-loafs for quite a while. (I’m old) I put two or three croutons or a few squares of stuffing mix bread in the bottom of the muffin tins. It soaks up any grease and you just
scrape off the bread before serving.
That’s a fantastic idea! It isn’t needed with these because I used very lean ground chicken but I can see how that would be super helpful with beef. Thanks for sharing!
How you managed to make meatloaf look pretty and adorable at the same time is beyond me! These look and sound SO good, I don’t have any kids, but I’d gobble these up all myself — love the flavors!
Such a fun way to change up meatloaf. Love the mini size.