Cracker Barrel Meatloaf

Meatloaf is cozy, homey, and just plain delicious. While you might prefer your uncle’s recipe or your grandmother’s, lots of Americans really love the version sold at Cracker Barrel restaurants. Made with ground beef, crushed Ritz crackers, a sweet–tangy ketchup glaze, and more, this Cracker Barrel copycat version is well worth making. Here’s how to make their recipe at home, no road trip required.

How To Make Cracker Barrel Meatloaf

INGREDIENTS

• Lean Ground Beef: Leaner meats can result in drier meatloaf. Here, I use 80% lean ground beef for a perfectly moist meatloaf. Crumbling the ground beef over the other ingredients makes it easier to mix all the components together without making the loaf tough.
• Yellow Onion: Yellow onions work particularly well in this recipe, as they have a rich flavor and are able to hold their own against the many strong flavors going into this meatloaf.
• Green Bell Pepper: Another aromatic, green bell pepper adds a nice vegetal touch–along with texture–and just a hint of bitterness that balances well with some of the sweeter ingredients used here.
• Plum Tomato: Often used in making sauces, plum tomatoes are rich in flavor, somewhere between sweet and savory, and their slightly firmer texture means they hold up well during cooking. Here, they add a nice pop of aromatic sweetness.
• Tomato Paste: I find tomato paste is really going to help hold your aromatics together. In a sense, it will act as a glue, helping other flavors to soak into your aromatics.
• Worcestershire Sauce: With several sweet flavors in this dish, Worcestershire sauce is going to give a much needed umami kick. It's rich and savory, and adds a bit of smoke to the meatloaf that creates an extra bit of depth of flavor.
• Yellow Mustard: I am using mustard here in both the meatloaf mixture and the glaze. In both uses, it will help to cut through the acidity of certain ingredients like plum tomatoes and ketchup, while also adding further savory notes.
• Ritz Crackers: Ritz crackers are buttery, flaky, and overall delicious. Here they will act both as a source of added salt, and as a binder to hold the meatloaf mixture together so that the finished product is moist and whole, as opposed to crumbling apart.
• Eggs: Eggs will work along with the Ritz crackers to further bind the meatloaf mixture, while adding extra moisture. We wouldn’t want a dry loaf!
• Cheddar: I like cheddar here. It's sharp, but not overpowering, and helps allow other ingredients to shine.
• Parsley: Parsley is a beautiful herb—earthy, slightly peppery, and just tastes clean. Here it helps to cut through the strong, meaty flavors of the loaf and bring in a touch of freshness.
• Ketchup: Ketchup is sugary and acidic, two flavor profiles that work very well in a glaze. The high sugar content will give the glaze an appetizing shine.
• Dark Brown Sugar: I chose to use dark brown sugar here because of its high molasses content. Think of burnt caramel or gingerbread. That is the flavor profile we are hitting on here.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

The first thing you’ll need to do is preheat your oven to 375°. While the oven is preheating, lightly grease a baking sheet with cooking spray. Then melt some butter in a medium skillet on medium heat, before adding onion, bell pepper, and tomato, and seasoning with salt and pepper. While cooking these, you are really looking for the aroma of each ingredient, stirring occasionally and reducing heat if vegetables brown too quickly, until very soft, for about 10 minutes.

Next you’ll transfer your vegetable mixture to a medium bowl and add tomato paste, Worcestershire, garlic powder, and 2 tablespoons mustard and stir to combine. You’re going to want to see an even distribution of seasoning around the whole of the mixture. Once achieved, set aside to let cool until no longer steaming, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk eggs until an even viscosity is reached. Then stir in Ritz cracker crumbs and let sit for about five minutes, until the crumbs have softened, before adding your vegetable mixture, cheddar, and parsley. Season this mixture with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Once homogenous, crumble your beef over the mixture and stir until just combined, making sure not to overwork.

Then transfer the meatloaf mixture to the prepared baking sheet and firmly pat, shaping into a loaf about 10" long. Next you’ll want to tap the baking sheet a few times on the counter to pop any air bubbles—this will help to ensure the loaf holds together throughout cooking.

In a small bowl, combine ketchup, brown sugar, and the remaining 1 tablespoon mustard, season with salt and pepper, and mix until an even color and thickness is achieved.

Evenly spread this glaze on your prepared meatloaf until desired thickness, then insert your meatloaf into your heated oven and bake until browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 150°. This should take about 40 to 45 minutes.

Finally, remove from the oven and let sit to cool for 15 minutes. This allows time for the meatloaf to cool while the residual heat continues to cook the loaf to an internal temperature of about 160°. Once cool, sprinkle with more parsley, cut, and serve.

Full list of ingredients and directions can be found in the recipe below.

Storage

Wrap any leftovers tightly or place in an airtight container, then pop into the fridge for up to 3 to 4 days. Similarly, cooked meatloaf can be stored in a freezer safe bag and frozen for up to 3 months. If you would like to make this recipe ahead of time, you can store the uncooked loaf in an airtight container in the fridge the day before cooking.