Best Damn Instant Pot Meatloaf

Name: Best Damn Instant Pot Meatloaf
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 35 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1.5lbs ground beef (97% lean); 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs; 3/4 cup ketchup (divided); 1 egg; 1/2 tsp season salt; 1 tsp onion powder; 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder; 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

September 14, 2019 by RecipeTeacher 38 Comments

Not only is this the best damn Instant Pot meatloaf, it’s my absolute favorite all around meatloaf recipe. It uses just a few simple ingredients to make a tender, juicy and flavorful meatloaf that everyone will love – kids too!

There’s so many meatloaf recipes out there but most involve a lot of ingredients, a lot of preparation, and take a long time to cook in the oven. That’s why I love making this meatloaf recipe in the Instant Pot. It’s a very simple recipe and the results are always excellent. Never dried out, always savory and always delicious.

Make Two Meatloafs at Once

For this recipe we use two aluminum mini loaf pans in a 6qt Instant Pot. They are the perfect size to fit in the pot and can be purchased at almost all supermarkets and even at discount dollar stores. Because we’re making 2 meatloafs, we can add additional ingredients to either one if we want. That works out perfectly because if you have picky eaters like I do, you can make one meatloaf exactly as the recipe calls for, and the other with some extras added in. More on that in a minute…

Use Lean Ground Beef for the Best Instant Pot Meatloaf

While developing this recipe for meatloaf in the Instant Pot, I used several different mixtures of ground beef. All the way from 73% lean up to 97% lean. What I found was, when it comes to pressure cooking meatloaf, the leaner the better. And by that I mean all the way up to the 97% lean ground beef. That was, by far, the best results.

Simple Ingredients for Perfect Taste and Texture

For the seasonings it’s real simple too – a little Worcestershire, some onion powder, garlic powder, seasoned salt and ketchup. And an egg of course. I don’t like the meatloaf to be overpowered by any particular ingredient. Rather, I love the ingredients to come together and create a nice savory taste that accentuates the ingredients, while not being dominated by a single one. The texture is important too. I like to use panko breadcrumbs. The mixture of ground beef, panko and the ketchup creates a perfect texture that’s soft and juicy, while still maintaining a hearty feel.

How to make Meatloaf in an Instant Pot

It really couldn’t be easier. We mix all the ingredients as we would for a normal meatloaf recipe, fill the mini loaf pans with the mixture, then place the pans on the trivet in the Instant Pot with 1 ½ cups of water. 25 minutes on high pressure, a quick release, and you’re good to go! When mixing the meatloaf ingredients, you don’t want to overmix. By that I mean gently use both hands to mix all the ingredients for about a minute, or until all the ingredients are well incorporated together. You don’t need to keep mushing it into a paste. Once the mixture is all mixed together, you can separate it into two parts. This is the part too, where we would add any additional ingredients if we wanted to one of the meatloaf mixtures. Personally, I always love a little chopped onion, carrot and celery. Then gently shape each one by hand into the approximate size of the mini loaf pans, and place them in. Once in the pans, you can gently tap the pans on the counter to get the meatloaf mixture to settle in, and also gently use your hands to get it to fill out the pans.

Finish the meatloaf under the broiler

One thing we really like to do for this recipe is to add ketchup to the top of the meatloaf after it’s done in the Instant Pot, and place it under the broiler in the oven for about 5 minutes. The sugars in the ketchup will begin to caramelize and bring out a delicious flavor that is so perfect as the finishing touch.

Serving Suggestions

The potatoes pictured are my Air Fryer Roasted Ranch Potatoes. These are so awesome and super simple to make!