Southwestern Mini Meatloaf Recipe

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?

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.

Make Ahead & Storage Ideas

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.