Jeff McInnis is executive chef at Yardbird in Miami Beach, Florida.
Recipe: Chicken Meatloaf Bites
Because I've spent so much of my career doing high-end dining, when I started Yardbird I was really excited to have fun with comfort food again. One of my specialties is a short rib meatloaf -- it's been on our menu since the beginning and now people demand it, so we can never take it off! Short ribs give a meatloaf richness but the recipe is so easy you can make it with almost anything--chicken, turkey, pork--certainly not just ground meat. And you can play with ways to serve it too--plain, or on toast points, or over mashed potatoes.
Serve with: Plain ketchup is classic, but it's also really simple to make your own "tomato jam". Just blanche a few tomatoes until their skin wilts. Then peel and chop them and simmer them slowly, for a long time, until they are thick and super concentrated. Along the way you can add onions and garlic and a splash of vinegar or sugar for flavor. But the key is to cook it real slow until it all melts together.
Pro tip: If you want to take a little something extra over to a friends house with your snacks, you can't go wrong with a bottle of something. But, why not make it bourbon--since everyone else always brings bringing beer!
