Meat Muffins! Meat Muffins! Everyone’s Crazy ’bout my Meat Muffins! Muffin Weekend Pt 1

Did I catch you with my headline? Meat Muffins? Is this some twisted Sweeney Todd scenario involving a barber and Helena Bonham Carter? No no no. Absolutely not. Meat Muffins came about in our household as pure laziness and the need to make a meatloaf quick and under an hour. As it turns out, Tim requests them now, ALL THE TIME, and to quote him directly with this batch, “These are the best meat muffins ever!”

So what is a meat muffin, you might ask? It is a take on a meatloaf, using a muffin/cupcake tray, and instead of lining each cup with a piece of paper, like a normal muffin/cupcake, I, in grand Bakin With Brian tradition, use a slice of bacon to “symbolize” the paper lining.

I will be honest. These are so friggin easy to make. But there is something just so delicious about them.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of lean ground turkey
• 3/4 cup of organic breadcrumbs. Make sure there is no HFCS in it!
• 2/3 cup of salsa, your choice of salsa. I used a chipotle infused hot salsa
• 2 tablespoons of Toluca gourmet hot sauce (my addiction, but only necessary if you have it in your house)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 12 strips of bacon
• 9 tablespoons of diced green chilies

Directions
Remember, this is VERY easy to do. Literally a handful of steps.

1. Preheat the oven to 420 degrees.
2. First you need to lightly precook the bacon. Do not overcook and make crispy, just lightly cooked as to get about 75% of the excess fat out.
3. In a mixing bowl, dump the turkey, breadcrumbs, salsa, hot sauce, eggs and oregano. Thoroughly mix all ingredients together.
4. Take the muffin tray and spray it with a non-stick coating. Now line each of the cups with a piece of bacon. This recipe should make about 9 muffins so do 9 of the cups (see photo)
5. Using a spatula, scoop the turkey mixture evenly into all 9 cups.
6. Put a tablespoon of the chopped green chilies on to of each muffin.
7. Taking your last three pieces of bacon, cut them into thirds. Put one-third from each piece on top of each muffin as a garnish.
8. Now back in the oven for approximately, 20-25 minutes until turkey seems completely cooked. Core temperature should be at 165 degrees.
9. Cool for about 10 minutes then eat.