Muffaletta Stuffed Meatloaf

Lately, I’ve been having some fun developing every manner of stuffed meatloaf recipe that crosses my mind, and have been having a blast doing it.

Today’s post might just be the best meatloaf recipe I’ve ever come up with.

This homemade meatloaf goes well beyond your basic cheese-stuffed meatloaf. This well seasoned, tender meatloaf is based on my Muffaletta Sandwich Recipe — just much lower in carbs!

A ground chicken mixture is rolled around several types of incredibly flavorful meat, as well as cheese. There’s even a gooey cheese layer that’s loosely based on my Olive Salad Recipe - a key component of Muffaletta sandwiches.

Finally, the top of the meatloaf is brushed with a garlic butter mixture, rather than ketchup or tomato sauce.

Also? It reheats - and freezes! - very well. Leftovers make a perfect easy weeknight dinner

Nutritional Information

Much like my Muffaletta Skewers, this stuffed Muffaletta Meatloaf is a great way to enjoy the flavours of a muffuletta, without all the carbs.

A good sized serving - ⅛ of the loaf - comes out to 579 calories, 9 grams of total carbs, and 1 gram of fiber - so 8 net grams of carbs.

There’s also 41 grams of protein, which helps make this an incredibly satisfying stuffed meatloaf recipe.

So give this delicious cheesy meatloaf a try - it may just end up to become YOUR favorite meatloaf recipe, too!

Ingredients

This recipe uses relatively simple ingredients that should be available in almost any larger grocery store.

There’s a lot of room for customizing, in case you can’t find a particular ingredient - here’s what you need to know!

Ground Chicken

This meatloaf has a LOT going on in it - flavour AND nutrient wise - so I like to use ground chicken as a nice, relatively neutral base.

You can use ground turkey, if you’d prefer.

Lean ground beef would also work, but would definitely give the meatloaf a completely different texture, flavour, and character.

Sliced Meats

I use 3 fairly standard meats in this recipe: Thinly Sliced Mortadella, Thinly Sliced Genoa Salami, and Thinly Sliced Ham.

There is definitely some room to mess with this, so long as you keep the amounts / weights about the same.

You can think of them in terms of categories - in a traditional muffaletta, you’d want one of each:

1. “Bologna-Adjacent”: Mortadella is basically fancy Italian bologna, IMHO. If you can’t find some actual mortadella, really thinly sliced bologna works.

2. “Salami-ish”: I generally stick to Genoa salami when I can, or use soppressata, but in a pinch. Really though, pretty much any salami will work - you just want it sliced as thinly as possible!

3. Ham: Capicola ham is basically the gold standard when it comes to making the actual sandwich.

Can’t find it? Use regular ham - I do! Honey baked ham, usually... black forest ham if it’s all I can find.

Cheeses

As with the source material, I use two cheeses in this recipe: Mozzarella and Provolone.

At least one of the two cheeses needs to be shredded, to mix in with the olive filling.

It doesn’t really matter which goes where - I generally use slices of provolone, as they’re the easiest to find. It’s also really easy to find shredded mozzarella, so that saves me a little effort.

That said, feel free to use shredded style for both cheeses. You’d just scatter the second cheese evenly, rather than lay out slices.

Note: You can swap Fontina in for either of the cheese, if you prefer.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you’ll need the following ingredients:

Green Olives & Black Olives
Giardiniera
Pepperoncini
Fresh Italian Parsley
1 Large egg
Garlic Cloves
Butter
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Dried Oregano
Salt and Ground Black Pepper

These are mostly just some pantry and fridge staples, and I don’t really have anything to add for any of these ingredients.

How to Make a Muffaletta Stuffed Meatloaf

The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walk through.

Make Your Olive Filling:

Place Mozzarella into a small bowl.

Chop olives and giardiniera (I like to use a mini food processor), add to the bowl.

Trim the stem ends off the pepperoncini, allow any trapped brine to drain. Chop, add to the bowl along with the parsley, oregano, and garlic.

Stir well to combine, then season with ground pepper, to taste. Set aside.

Make the Meatloaf

Preheat oven to 350 F, generously grease a meatloaf pan with cooking spray, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together chicken, parsley, egg, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, pepper, and salt.

Spread chicken mixture out onto a sheet of parchment paper that’s been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

I like to aim for the length of my loaf pan (8"), by however long it ends up, when the meatloaf mix is spread to about ¾" thick.

Top with even layers of salami, and ham. Layer the provolone cheese slices on top of the meat.

Finally, evenly spread the olive and mozzarella mixture over the whole thing.

Be sure to pick up the paper on the end you’re rolling, going kind of up and over, rather than a straight roll. You want to keep the filling in, not push it across.

Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour 20 minutes - 1 hour 30 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer measures the internal temperature at 165 F.

Carefully drain excess water from the pan, before removing the meatloaf and serving.

Leftover Muffaletta Meatloaf

Once cooled to almost room temperature, leftover meatloaf can be wrapped in plastic wrap or transferred to an airtight container and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Best served reheated.

More Meatballs - and Meatloaf! - Recipes

Meatballs and meatloaf can be really great comfort food. Here are a few low carb variations I’ve come up with:

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf
Breakfast Meatloaf
Scotch Egg Meatloaf Recipe
Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatloaf
Stromboli Meatloaf
Easy Keto Swedish Meatballs
Jalapeno Popper Meatloaf
Reuben Stuffed Meatloaf
Chicken Meatballs in Mushroom Sauce
Keto Turkey Meatballs with Cranberry Glaze

Thanksgiving Turkey Meatloaf