Bacon Wrapped, Boudin Stuffed, Smoked Meatloaf

[John Sp]

Hello All,

Decided to round out the holiday weekend with a final smoke session (did a mess of wings yesterday). The family loves smoked meatloaf so I cook it pretty often. This time around I decided to give them a little surprise and stuff it with some boudin. We have some teenagers over today so I went big with 2 lb of 80/20 ground chuck, 1 lb of bratwurst, and 1/2 lb of chorizo. Here are a few pics of the proceedings:

Laying Down a Bacon Weave

Layer of Meatloaf with Boudin (Meat Mixture, Worcestershire, Egg, Panko, Diced Water Chestnut, Slap Ya' Mama)

Assembled

Hitting the Grill Indirect with Hickory Chunks - Grill Running at 400F

Mid Cook IT of 102F - Grill Damped Down to 350F - Glazing with #5 Sauce

End of Cook - IT of 160F

Carved for Service After Resting (Disappointing Smoke Ring)

Plated with Steamed Veggies​

I wound up removing one of the boudin links to make the loaf easier to close up. My first try did not use the panko (I am doing low carb and usually leave it out) but the mixture was too loose to bind the halves together around the sausage, so I added the bread crumbs and remixed it. The second try worked much better. I got mixed reviews from the family on this one. It turns out what I thought was regular (unsmoked) boudin was actually crawfish boudin. So chorizo/crawfish/bratwurst was not the flavor profile I was going for. My wife said I love, smoked meatloaf and I love crawfish boudin but maybe not in the same bite. I was a bit surprised that the smoke ring was pretty marginal (probably need to go low and slow for a much longer span to get that right. The kids on the other hand thought it was pretty good. All agreed that the chorizo was a nice addition to the mix so I will definitely be using that moving forward...

I decided to leave you with my favorite Quote by Dr. King: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Thanks for looking...

Regards,

John

 

[ChuckO]

Count me in!!!! Looks fantastic

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Several years ago I had made a boxcar load of Chex mix, one New Year’s Day I decided I had had enough Chex to feed a carnival so, I threw a bunch in the processor and used that in place of breadcrumbs. I have never used breadcrumbs since. That was one of those brutal “day after” days. I had a bunch of party stuff left including quarts of whipping cream so, the mashed potatoes that day were glorious! It was about 4degrees and the souls who were wise enough to crash at my house were treated to a whole day of feasting, all done with a little effort as possible and not much noise.
I’ll remember that for years to come!

 

[Robert-R]

I'd give it a try per your suggestions regards the boudin. Looks real good to me.

 

[Barb D]

That looks awesome John, have to give that one a try. Its about time to do another meat loaf for us.

 

[Rich Dahl]

Looks really good John. Barb is the queen of the smoked meatloaf here and we also do it a lot. Always a surprise inside too.

 

[Cliff Bartlett]

Nice addition of the Chorizo John. Love to try a hunk of that. Very creative meatloaf and a wonderful MLK quote!

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

I love boudin but I agree that crawfish with meatloaf combo might be weird. Awesome cook!