Ground turkey or chicken loaf (p. 445)

I had been looking forward to making Ground turkey or chicken loaf (p. 445) since making turkey meatballs. The meatballs were essentially just the loaf rolled up into balls, so if the meatballs were good, the loaf must be too, right? And I like turkey and meatloaf, so turkey meatloaf should be delicious, right?

I sauteed some onion and garlic in a little olive oil.



The recipe was easy--I mixed ground turkey, an egg, some Parmesan, a little milk, some bread crumbs (I have tons and tons of breadcrumbs in the cupboard for some reason), a little tomato paste, some dried basil, and salt and pepper.




I added the onion and garlic to the meat mixture and mixed it with my hands--something I always find both strangely rewarding and rather gross. If you are going to add the onions and garlic while they are hot, make sure not to do it right on top of the egg unless you want the egg to start to cook.

I smashed the meat into a loaf pan--the recipe asks for an 8"x4" loaf pan, which I don't own. So I just left room at the end. I considered using the Alton Brown method of just creating a loaf on a cookie sheet but thought that would be deviating too much from the TJOC.




The meatloaf was cooked for 35 minutes--all the fat pooled at the end, which was nice--I actually recommend leaving the empty space in the loaf pan!




How was it? Really really good. Nice and tender and full of flavor. Josh ate about half of it that night and then took everything left over for lunch the next day. I have to say, I like the meatballs better, but the meatloaf was tasty.