Instant Pot Meatloaf

8 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Broil 3 minutes
Total Time 38 minutes

Instant Pot Meatloaf is the ultimate quick and easy weeknight dinner. Made with ground beef, breadcrumbs, mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar.

Homemade Meatloaf is classic comfort food for a simple and delicious Dinner Recipe. This Instant Pot Meatloaf brings the cook time down from over an hour to just about a half-hour.

Instant Pot Meatloaf finished with glaze and garnish sliced on tray

This Instant Pot Meatloaf recipe is a life-saver for busy weeknights. Instead of cooking for an hour, the pressure cooker has the Meatloaf cooked in just 25 minutes. The quicker cooking doesn’t sacrifice any of the tenderness or juicy flavor you’d expect from Meatloaf dinner.

Assembling this Meatloaf takes minimal effort and it’s made with simple ingredients you probably already have on hand. Ground beef, bread crumbs, onion, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar are some of the easy ingredients that make this unbelievably flavorful Meatloaf.

Instant Pot Meatloaf mixture collage

Meatloaves are one of those classic dishes that have plenty of variations to try. The juicy, tender meat makes a good base for lots of other delicious ingredients. For some new ideas, check out these recipes for Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf, Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf, and Loaded Mashed Potato Meatloaf Casserole.

If you want to add some delicious sides for the family meal, you’ll probably want to start prepping them first, since the Meatloaf will probably be done quicker. While the meatloaf cooks, finish up sides like Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Green Beans, or Sweet Potatoes au Gratin. This is a rare case where the main dish will be the easiest thing you’re serving!

Instant Pot Meatloaf glaze in bowl and meatloaf glazed in dish collage

More Comforting Dinner Recipes

How to Make Meatloaf in the Instant Pot

  • Mixture: Start the Meatloaf recipe by whisking together the milk and breadcrumbs. Continue mixing until the bread crumbs have absorbed the milk. Then whisk in the eggs, onion, salt, thyme, and pepper into the mixture. Add the ground beef and use your hands to combine the ingredients. Put on plastic gloves if you don’t want to touch the meat. Form mixture into a loaf shape for cooking that will fit in your pressure cooker.
  • Pressure cooker: Put a steam rack in 6-quart electric pressure cooker. Make sure the handles are facing up. Place the meatloaf on the steamer rack. Put the pressure cooker valve in its sealing position and secure lid. Press the manual button or high pressure on the electric pressure cooker. Set the cook time for 25 minutes.
  • Pressure release: Instead of a natural release, carefully turn the pressure valve for a quick release. The steam released will be extremely hot so use an oven mitt and do not put your face near valve.
  • Bake: To finish the recipe, carefully move the meatloaf to a baking sheet and broil for a couple of minutes. If you’re concerned the meat isn’t done, check that the internal temperature is 160 degrees.
  • Glaze: While the meatloaf is in the oven, mix together the ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard. Brush over meatloaf, then pop it in the oven for another 1-2 minutes to caramelize the glaze before serving.

Instant Pot Meatloaf finished with glaze and garnish sliced on tray

Variations and Substitutions

  • Meat: You can swap out the ground beef in Instant Pot Meatloaf for other ground meats like ground pork or turkey.
  • Gluten-free: To make gluten-free Meatloaf, simply replace the breadcrumbs in the recipe. Almond flour makes a good breadcrumb substitute in meatloaf ingredients.
  • Add-ins: For some add-ins try mixing different ingredients into the meatloaf recipe before cooking. You can chop up some bell pepper, red onion, or bacon bits to mix in. You could also add toppings right before serving like sour cream, mozzarella, or parmesan cheese.
  • Glaze: You can whisk different flavors into the meatloaf glaze with ingredients like chili sauce, tomato sauce, soy sauce, honey, or barbecue sauce. Whisk them in along with the other sauce ingredients before topping the recipe off with the glaze.
  • Seasonings: You can also add simple seasonings like onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, rosemary, chili powder, or Italian seasoning.

Instant Pot Meatloaf portion on metal tray with garnish

More Flavorful Meatloaf Recipes

How to Store

  • Serve: After pressure cooking meatloaf, it can be kept at room temperature for up to 2 hours or on warm in the pressure cooker for up to 4 hours.
  • Store: Store leftover meatloaf sealed in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
  • Freeze: To freeze meatloaf, cool completely and wrap tightly in tin foil, then put it in a freezer-safe bag. Freeze meatloaf for up to 4 months and thaw overnight in the refrigerator before warming in oven to serve.

Instant Pot Meatloaf finished with glaze and garnish sliced on tray

Pin this recipe now to remember it later

Pin Recipe

Instant Pot Meatloaf

Instant Pot Meatloaf is the ultimate quick and easy weeknight dinner. Made with ground beef, breadcrumbs, mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar.
Yield 8 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 38 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 yellow onion , minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 1/2 pounds ground beef , 85/15
  • 1/4 cup ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar , packed
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon yellow mustard

Instructions

  • In a large bowl whisk together the milk and breadcrumbs together until the milk is absorbed.
  • Whisk in the eggs, onion, salt, thyme, and pepper.
  • Add in the beef and mix with your hands until the ingredients are combined.
  • Form the meatloaf into a loaf shape.
  • Add the steam rack to your instant pot with the handles facing up.
  • Put the meatloaf onto the rack.
  • Close, lock lid, and seal vent.
  • Cook on high for 25 minutes, then quick release the pressure.
  • Turn oven to broil on high.
  • Add meatloaf to a baking sheet and broil for 2-3 minutes until browned.
  • Mix ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard and spread it over the meatloaf.
  • Broil for 1-2 minutes until caramelized.

Nutrition

Calories: 284kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 83mg | Sodium: 416mg | Potassium: 367mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 109IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 73mg | Iron: 3mg
Keyword: Instant Pot Meatloaf

Instant Pot Meatloaf recipe steps collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

Categories

Leave a comment & rating

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.