Brown Sugar Bourbon Beef Meatloaves
with Apple, Mashed Potatoes & Roasted Broccoli
- Milk
- Wheat
Finding yourself in a meatloaf rut? Enter: this sweet and savory version. First, we blend ground pork with a not-so-secret ingredient—grated apple—for subtle sweetness and added moisture. Next, we form the mixture into mini loaves so everyone gets their own. The pièce de résistance? We infuse the BBQ sauce glaze with a brown sugar bourbon seasoning to amp up the smoky, caramelized notes. Add sides of mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli, and your routine meat-and-potatoes dinner doesn’t stand a chance.
Ingredients
12 ounce
Potatoes
1 unit
Apple
1 unit
Lemon
2 unit
Scallions
4 tablespoon
BBQ Sauce
10.8 g
Brown Sugar Bourbon Seasoning
10 ounce
Ground Beef
8 ounce
Broccoli Florets
¼ cup
Panko Breadcrumbs
(Contains: Wheat)
1.5 tablespoon
Sour Cream
(Contains: Milk)
Not included in your delivery
Salt
Pepper
2 teaspoon
Cooking Oil
2 tablespoon
Butter
(Contains: Milk)
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Adjust rack to top position (middle and top positions for 4 servings) and preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash and dry produce. • Dice potatoes into ½-inch pieces. Zest and quarter lemon. Halve and core apple; grate one half on the largest holes of a box grater (use whole apple for 4). Trim and thinly slice scallions, separating whites from greens; mince whites.
• Place potatoes in a medium pot with enough salted water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, 15-20 minutes. • Reserve ½ cup potato cooking liquid, then drain and return potatoes to pot. Keep covered off heat until ready to mash.
• While potatoes cook, in a small bowl, combine BBQ sauce, 1 tsp Brown Sugar Bourbon Seasoning (2 tsp for 4 servings), and a squeeze of lemon juice. (You’ll use the remaining Brown Sugar Bourbon Seasoning in the next step.) Taste and season with pepper and more lemon juice if desired.
• In a large bowl, combine pork, grated apple, scallion whites, panko, remaining Brown Sugar Bourbon Seasoning, ½ tsp salt (1 tsp for 4 servings), and pepper. Form into two 1-inch-tall loaves (four loaves for 4). • Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly oil. Place meatloaves on one side of prepared sheet; top with half the glaze (you’ll use the rest in the next step). (For 4, spread meatloaves out across entire sheet; roast on middle rack.) • Roast on top rack for 10 minutes (they’ll finish cooking in the next step).
Simply cook through this step as instructed, swapping in beef or organic beef for pork.
• Meanwhile, cut broccoli into bite-size pieces if necessary. Toss in a medium bowl with a drizzle of oil, salt, and pepper. • Once meatloaves have roasted 10 minutes, remove sheet from oven; carefully add broccoli to empty side. (For 4 servings, add broccoli to a second sheet; roast on top rack.) • Roast for 12 minutes, then remove from oven once more. Carefully brush meatloaves with remaining glaze. Return to oven until meatloaves are cooked through, glaze is tacky, and broccoli is tender, 4-5 minutes more.
• Meanwhile, mash potatoes with sour cream and 2 TBSP butter (4 TBSP for 4 servings) until smooth and creamy, adding splashes of reserved potato cooking liquid as needed. Season with salt and pepper.
• Slice meatloaves crosswise. • Carefully toss broccoli with lemon zest. • Divide meatloaves, mashed potatoes, and broccoli between plates. Sprinkle with scallion greens and serve.
Ground Beef is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 160º.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Sep 2026- Flavor: The brown sugar bourbon glaze and grated apple are crowd favorites, delivering a sweet-and-savory depth that sets this meatloaf apart. Some found the glaze too sweet or the bourbon flavor too strong — scale back the BBQ sauce or seasoning to taste.
- Ease of prep: Most found the recipe manageable, though it has more steps than a typical weeknight meal and can take close to an hour start to finish.
- Suggestions: Add extra BBQ sauce at the end if you want more glaze; some reviewers also had great results shaping the mixture into meatballs for faster cooking and more surface coverage. If grating the apple feels tedious, one reviewer suggested applesauce as an easier swap for moisture.
- Leftovers: Mashed potatoes often yield enough for a second meal, and a few reviewers noted the meatloaf made a great sandwich the next day.
- Apple tip: The grated apple keeps the loaves moist and tender — skip it if you prefer a firmer texture, but most who tried it were pleasantly surprised. Some found too much apple made the loaves hard to hold together, so grate only what the recipe calls for.
- Salt: A few reviewers found the meatloaf quite salty without adding any extra — taste the mixture before forming the loaves and adjust accordingly.
Reviews from our home cooks
Loved this meal so much that I went out and purchased brown sugar bourbon spice. It was unique and tasty. Would like to try this with turkey chop meat
The recipe was easy and very tasty. We enjoyed the brown sugar bourbon flavor.
The pork meatloaf was delicious. The shredded apple gave it such a nice flavor, and I love the bourbon brown sugar seasoning.
Roast broccoli was loved (didn't expect that). Mashed potatoes were good; I did peel them even though instructions said not to as on another recipe I didn't like brown peels in them. Meatloaf was ok; a bit of an odd flavor that wasn't terrible but not something we'd have to get again. Also was a harder recipe to make and was getting overwhelming and time consuming to make. For how much we like it, it's not with it and not a weeknight option for us.
The brown sugar bbq topping was way too sweet for our taste. We had to scrape off what we could from the top but was still a little sweet. The vegetables were very good and cooked to perfection. The vegetables/ fruits were also very fresh when the package arrived.
This was so flavorful and delicious. We omitted the apple inside the loaf since we used beef instead of pork and just made a simple apple, lemon, sugar and oil salad to serve on the side. This was one of our favorites for sure!
The meatloaves were absolutely delicious, the glaze was so flavorful. The only very minor complaint would be the substitution (not our choice) of green beans for broccoli. The quality of the green beans wasn't as good as in previous shipment. Carrots might have been a better choice.
This was so juicy, moist and delicious! Sadly my box didn't come with the bbq sauce but thank God I had some on hand. I'm forever making meat loaf this way forever! Everything was great. I recommend including crème fraîche for the mashed potatoes to give it an extra rich flavor.
Meat loaf is a fall staple. It just makes a person feel good. The honey and bourbon was a nice combination of flavor which allowed the meatloaves to pop. Maybe the chefs could try putting the maple syrup/bourbon mixture in the mashed potatoes as well! Overall, it was a fabulous dinner. My husband has really enjoyed cooking these meals, and I have enjoyed eating them!
Incredibly delicious meal! Loved the apple and pork for the meatloaves. Not something I would have tried without HelloFresh and we loved every bite.
