Best Air Fryer Meatloaf with Tangy Sauce
This easy recipe for Best AirFryer Meatloaf is topped with a tangy sauce and makes two small free-form loaves with secret ingredient to prevent them from being dry. It is easily halved if you just need one. If you don't have an air fryer, no worries. I give you oven directions, too!
Servings: 3 servings
Calories: 1eighth
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 2 pounds ground chuck or a combination of ground beef and venison or ground sirloin
- ½ cup quick-cooking oats
- ¾ teaspoon salt or garlic salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Tangy Sauce
- ¾ cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, or red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce or liquid aminos Liquid aminos are gluten-free
Instructions
- To save washing another bowl, start by beating the egg in a large bowl with a fork.
- Breakup the ground meat in the bowl. There's no getting around using your hands here. I usually use a pair of nylon/rubber gloves simply for easily clean up.
- Preheat air fryer 3 minutes at 375 degrees.
- With your hands, gently combine the egg, oats, salt and pepper with the ground meat.
- Shape the mixture into 2 free-form loaves, roughly 3 x 5.5 inches. The size will depend on what will fit into your air fryer. (For conventional oven method, see size in recipe notes) Carefully place the loaves side by side in the preheated, greased air fryer basket or tray.
- Air fry at 375 degrees for about 17 minutes or until meatloaves are ALMOST done in the middle-firm when pressed in the middle or temperature on an instant read thermometer reads 155°. It's a good idea to check at 15 minutes to make sure they aren't getting too brown. All air fryers are not alike.
Prepare Tangy Sauce
- Stir or whisk together ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce.
- When meat loaves are 155F°, evenly spread the Tangy Sauce over both meat loaves. Cook an additional 1 to 2 minutes on Air Fry to set the sauce and until the instant read reaches 160F°.
- Remove the meatloaves with silicone coated tongs or spatula. Let the meat loaf stand on a cutting board or plate 5 minutes before slicing.
- Leftover meatloaf makes yummy sandwiches the next day.
Notes
- Tip: If not using gloves, to clean your hands, start with wiping your hands off
- Tip:Overworking the meat will make it tough. Under mixing may leave patches of oats or egg not evenly incorporated.
- Shape the same meat mixture into one free-form loaf or keep them shaped in two smaller loaves.
- Place the free-form loaf/loaves on a cooling rack in a rimmed baking sheet. (I like to line the pan with foil for easy cleanup.)
- Bake the one larger loaf uncovered in the middle rack of the oven for 40 minutes on 375F. Spread the Tangy Sauce over the loaf and bake an additional 5 minutes or until center of loaf shows no pink.
- Bake the two smaller loaves in the middle rack of the oven for 30 minutes on 375F. Spread the Tangy Sauce over the 2 loaves and bake an additional 5 minutes or until the center of loaves show no pink.
