This keto smoked meatloaf recipe is a BBQ lover’s dream. Stuffed with Pepper Jack cheese and slathered in sugar-free BBQ sauce, it’s a low carb meal everyone will love.
Hey there! I’d like you to meet Mr. Traeger. I just recently met him myself but I suspect he’s going to be a good friend of mine. We’ve been hanging out a lot for the past few days. We made this awesome stuffed meatloaf together and he was a key player in making it come out so perfectly.
Traeger, as it happens, is a wood pellet grill. It’s also a smoker. It’s a smoker and a grill, and it’s pretty much my new best friend. Which seems kind of sad, I realize, since my new best friend is made of metal and can’t talk back to me. But you won’t think it’s sad when you see all the things a Traeger Grill can do.
Have you heard of these grills? They are pretty famous among the diehard grilling folks and it was my next door neighbour who urged me to get one. He grills and smokes a lot of the time and I kept peeping over his fence, smelling all the good smells emanating from his yard. So when Traeger reached out and offered me one to try, well, you can guess what happened next.
I thought long and hard about what recipe I might want to do to showcase this mighty grilling machine. So many possibilities and ribs were at the top of my list. But I already have an amazing low carb ribs recipe and I wanted to do something a little different. A plethora of ground meat helped me make up my mind. Smoked meatloaf! And not only smoked but stuffed meatloaf too!
How To Make Keto Stuffed Meatloaf
Admittedly, the inspiration was from another blog altogether. If you want to learn about some of the best ways to grill and smoke your favorite foods, you need to check out Hey Grill, Hey by Susie Bulloch. Her blog is fantastic and has steered me in the right direction many times. I spotted her Jack’d Up Smoked Meatloaf and I knew instantly that I wanted to make a low carb version.
But I also consulted some of the many wonderful recipes on the Traeger Grills website. That’s also an amazing reference point for all your grilling and smoking needs. I followed some of the methods outlined for the Not Your Mama’s Meatloaf to make mine, to get an idea of how long to cook it.
To make this a keto meatloaf, I substituted crushed pork rinds for the bread crumbs. And I skipped the onion altogether, but I did add a few cloves of minced garlic to the mix. I stuffed it with plenty of Pepper Jack cheese – I advise using sliced cheese if you can. I used both some sliced cheese and some pre-grated cheese, and the pre-grated didn’t get as melty as I would have liked. When you smoke foods at low temps, the grated cheese doesn’t melt as much.
And then I slathered on some of my Easy Sugar-Free BBQ Sauce in the last 30 minutes of cooking.
Smoking meatloaf takes it to a whole other level, but you can also do this easily on a regular grill or in the oven. I’ve included instructions for both of those methods as well!
If you ever get a chance to try out a Traeger Grill, I highly recommend it. It’s fun to use both as a grill and as a smoker. I had so much success with the meatloaf, I decided to spend a full day grilling other meats, including ribs, a brisket, and a pork roast. This grill/smoker is quickly making an addict out of me!
*Please note: I received a Traeger grill in exchange for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Pepper Jack Stuffed Meatloaf
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 cup crushed pork rinds
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp pepper
- 6 ounces sliced Pepper Jack cheese
- 1/4 cup homemade sugar-free BBQ sauce
Instructions
- Preheat your smoker to 225F. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, pork rinds, garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix well with your hands to thoroughly combine.
- Use half of the mixture to form a rectangle about 5x9 inches on the prepared baking sheet. Layer with the cheese, leaving a border all around. Top with the remaining meat mixture, sealing the cheese inside.
- Place the baking sheet on the smoker and smoke for about 2 hours, until the meatloaf registers 160F with an instant read thermometer. In the last half hour of smoking, brush with the BBQ sauce.
- Remove and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with additional BBQ sauce for drizzling.
Notes
Nutrition
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In the process of making for a second time. It is so good! But each time I’ve made it breaks and nearly all the cheese oozes out the side. I tried my best to make sure it was all sealed this time. Is there something you can recommend to keep this from happening?
Breaks where? Maybe you’re putting a bit too much cheese in for the amount of meat you have?
I used the amount called for in your recipe. I followed the recipe exactly as you have it. The meat splits on the side and the cheese starts oozing out. Which, it still tastes amazing but I lose about half my cheese.
Do you have any idea how well this would reheat later? I have some pork belly that I also need to smoke and I figured this would be a way to save time in the smoker. Obviously I’d want to eat the crispy pork belly the same day, but thought the meatloaf might be able to be saved until the next. What are your thoughts?
It reheats very well. You could easily freeze and thaw, and then bake to warm and make the cheese gooey.
My hubby would like to know what Traeger model you have. He has been looking at them for years, but he has to get our deck built first. ????. Thanks for the info!
I have this one. It’s big, though. You need to be prepared to do a lot of meat at once because otherwise you are heating the whole thing up for just one little item. There is a smaller version of this one. https://www.traegergrills.com/shop/grills/pro-series/34-blue/TFB88PUB.html
I made this shortly after it was posted. We Love it & plan to make it a much repeated family favorite!
This meatloaf sounds amazing! With the recipe not having eggs how will the meatloaf stay together?
Eggs are not necessary to keep ground meat together.
I’m so excited to try this recipe on my Traegar! I’m even more excited for more of your Traegar recipes to come!
Oh my goodness I grew up on my mom’s meatloaf so this recipe has me reminiscing on childhood! Pinning and making asap! Will be so good to kick off Fall comfort food in September ????
This is on my dinner menu this week. We are huge fans of meatloaf and pepperjack. So, off the subject I was reading about a company called Know Better Cookies and saw they’re using a product called Allulose. I read a little on it and from I gathered it seems safe. Do you have a take on it? The article said it was ridiculously expensive to purchase. I probably not going to buy the cookies because they are ridiculously expensive.
I’ve tried the cookies and we don’t like them, to be honest. I wish we did because the company wants to work with me, but I just didn’t really like any of their products. Allulose IS expensive and I read one article about how it may be metabolized in the liver so I am wary of it.
Carolyn this looks amazing and will taste amazing I am sure. I love how you anticipate all the questions and give directions for all possible cooking methods. Thank you.
We bought a Traeger grill for Christmas last year. We have had the very best meatloaves, fish, chicken and steaks we have ever since using it. We bought a large one, but I’ve been trying to convince my husband to buy the smallest one for taking with us on RV trips.
Haha, I suspect I’ve just found another Traeger addict 😉 Hope you try my Jack Stuffed meatloaf!
Carolyn, this looks amazing. I went to check out the Traeger website to look at the grills. Which model grill do you have?
I have the Pro Series 34. It’s on the big side. To be honest, I rather wish I’d gotten the smaller one, the 22, because you have to heat up the whole thing every time and it uses more pellets. So if you think you will just be making one thing at a time, as opposed to smoking a bunch of meats, I’d go smaller rather than larger.
This recipe showed up in my inbox this morning and sounds delicious! I even have all the ingredients, so I know what we’re having for dinner tonight!