Meatloaf: Mix together all of the ingredients except for the bacon in a large bowl until thoroughly combined.
Next, spray the foil with non-stick spray and evenly place on each bacon strip next to one another on the bottom of the pan.
Add the ground meat mixture to the top of the bacon strips and wrap the bacon around so that it is completely surrounding all sides of the meatloaf.
Place the meatloaf pan on a hot grill for 60 to 75 minutes or until there it reaches 155° internal temperature. Let rest for 10 minutes before draining, topping off with other ingredients slicing and serving
Remove the meatloaf from the grill. Add on to the top of the meatloaf the mashed potatoes, then the caramelized onions, then drizzle on some bbq sauce over the top.
Potatoes: While the meatloaf is cooking, boil the potatoes in a large pot of boiling salted water until the potatoes freely fall off a for once pierced.
Drain the potatoes and mash them along with the buttermilk, butter, olive oil, sour cream, salt, and white pepper until combined and keep warm and set aside.
Onions: While the meatloaf and potatoes are cooking, in a large saute pan on low heat with butter add in the thick-cut sweet onions and caramelize. This may take up to 45 minutes. After 20 minutes add in the sugar to help brown. Keep warm and set aside.
Notes
Chef Notes:
Just like all recipes, this one should be used as a guide with a base, please feel free to get creative and add other ingredients and seasonings to it to customize it to your liking.
The numbers on the ground beef packaging indicate the lean to fat ratio, such as 85/15 which means 85% of the mixture is lean meat and 15% of it is fat. You can also use a combination of ground meats to achieve the perfect ratio.
When instilling the mushroom technique you can use mushrooms such as portabellas, creminis, buttons, shiitakes or oyster mushrooms. Now yow you can take this method and apply it to not only ground beef but to chicken, pork and turkey as well!
Meat in general loves salt and pepper so season generously. For this recipe I seasoned with about 1 1/4 tablespoons of sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper.
The bacon strips should be long enough that they should be hanging over the side of the pan.
I personally like to add the mashed potatoes, caramelized onions and BBQ right on top of the meatloaf, but please feel free to serve it on the side as accompaniments.