Freshly ground pork mixed with garlic, onion, and poblanos, wrapped in smoky bacon and glazed with a sweet tomato mustard sauce.
This meatloaf is packed with flavor. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and has a touch of smoke. I served this loaf with creamy mashed potatoes. It would also be delicious as sandwiches on some cornmeal rolls.
This meatloaf starts by making a panade. A panada is a starch soaked in a liquid. In this case, it is bread soaked in milk. The panade is used to bind the meat and keep it moist. They can also be used to thicken soup or served as a casserole like stuffing.
I’m not the biggest fan of ground beef. And since the loaf is wrapped in bacon, why not use freshly ground pork for the filling! I made the filling with the panade, pork, spices, and poblanos. Poblanos have a mild heat and a sweet green pepper flavor. This flavor pairs well with the smokiness from the bacon and the paprika. Green bell peppers can be substituted if you do not like spice.
The filling gets wrapped in bacon, glazed, and baked. The bacon on this loaf does cook, but it does not crisp up as if it was fried. It does get somewhat candied from the glaze. Cooking on a rack aids the candying process. It lets the juices drip to the pan below and allows more air circulation, resulting in more even cooking. As you can see from the pictures, I lined my sheet pan with aluminum foil. I do this so that I do not have to scrub the pan!
Bacon Wrapped Pork Meatloaf
Ingredients
Meatloaf
- 2 lbs ground pork or mild sausage
- 1/2 onion diced 1 cup
- 1 poblano diced 1 cup
- 2 tsp garlic minced
- 1/2 tsp dry thyme
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp dry oregano
- 1/4 tsp chili flake
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 can tomato paste 6oz can remove 2 tbsp for glaze
- 1 egg
- 2 slices bread
- 4 tbsp milk
- 8 slices bacon
Glaze
- 2 tbsp tomato paste reserved from above
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/8 tsp chili flake
- 1 tbsp grain mustard
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
Instructions
Meatloaf
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Tear the bread into chunks and soak in the milk. Separate 2 tbsp of paste for the glaze and mix the rest of the can with the pork. Add onion, poblano, garlic, thyme, oregano, chili, paprika, salt, pepper, egg, and bread to the mix.
- On a wire rack. Lay out the strips of bacon, slightly overlapping. Put the pork mixture in the middle of the bacon and form it into a loaf. Wrap the bacon around the loaf. Brush with the glaze and flip over. Brush the top with glaze and place the rack on a sheet pan. Bake in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. Rotate the loaf and brush with more glaze every 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 minutes. Slice and serve.
Glaze
- Mix all ingredients and set aside until needed.
