Chicken Taco Meatloaf

The dish I am about to present is seriously delicious. Surprisingly delicious. My husband pretty much just went, excuse my language, ape-sh*t over this dish. And has requested it again.

A lot of times I don't make the same dinner twice very often because I experiment with new tastes. Sure, we have a few standard repeaters - my Cheeseburger Pie, dumplings, fajitas, etc...but it's rare I make a lot of things over again in a short amount of time.

This one, however, will be repeated. We had a lot of ground chicken in the house thanks to a fantastic sale at a local Best Yet. I googled "ground chicken recipes" because usually ground chicken is used in this house for sweet n sour meatballs or something like that and I wanted something different.

That's how I came across THIS recipe. It looked interesting and I also had an idea forming in my mind of how to change it slightly.

I am going to post my version of the recipe first, then the other woman's version at the bottom so you can see it more easily.

The idea that formed in my mind was not using salsa, as the recipe called for, but to use this Mango Habanero fruit spread that my parents gave my husband and I for Hanukkah. It's made by Really Good Foods - a local company out in Eastern Long Island. They have the most AMAZING jams and jellies... a little pricey but seriously delicious. They also give you 50 cents back for every jar you bring back to them so if you save up enough, you get a free jar, essentially!! We can't wait until they are back out at the outlets near us all spring, summer and fall. My parents also discovered this company (on their own) and LOVE the products.


But I digress. Sorry about that - we just love this jam!

OK, so I decided to use that instead of the salsa and it definitely gave my taco meatloaf a kick!

Now, without further delay, here is my recipe: (serves 8, we halved the recipe for 4)

Ingredients

1 pound ground chicken
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
3 tablespoons Mango Habanero jelly
2 tablespoons Ranch-style salad dressing
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
crushed tortilla chips
sour cream


Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the ground chicken, eggs, bread crumbs, salsa, salad dressing, and taco seasoning mix.

Pack into the prepared loaf pan.


Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven.

Top with cheese and crushed tortilla chips - return to oven for 15 minutes.


Serve with sour cream.


We ate our dinner with a side of my creamy mashed cauliflower and it was just the perfect meal.

Enjoy!!


Here are the ingredients for the original recipe... use the same steps to prepare it, except bake for 1 hour and just top with cheese before serving.

Ingredients

* 1 pound ground chicken
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
* 3 tablespoons salsa
* 2 tablespoons Ranch-style salad dressing
* 1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
* 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
* sour cream (optional)