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A little Trinity, a few key seasonings and you'll have a homemade sloppy joe that'll beat any canned version hands down. |
Homemade Sloppy Joes
Whenever I serve these, The Cajun says "this is my most favorite food of all."Okay, while he does indeed say that, truly it's a bit of a stretch, because he actually says that about a lot of my cookin'... what can I say? The man just loves to eat and gotta love a man like that... but I admit, a good ole homemade sloppy joe sandwich is one of our favorites for sure. I have nothin' against the canned stuff, cuz it sure can be fast and pretty good too, but like most everything else, of course there is nothin' quite like homemade, I don't care who you are!
Good news is that this freezes great, so next time you stock up on sale ground beef, go ahead and make up a double or triple batch over a weekend, serve one that day and then split up the rest for the freezer and it'll be just about as easy as opening a can on one of those weeknight rushes for dinner. Just delicious - I hope you give it a try!
Be sure to check out the other sloppy joe variations in the "Cook's Notes" at the bottom of the recipe. For more of my ground beef recipes, visit my page on Pinterest!
If you make this or any of my recipes, I'd love to see your results! Just snap a photo and hashtag it #DeepSouthDish on social media or tag me @deepsouthdish on Instagram!
Recipe: Homemade Sloppy Joes
©From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish
Prep time: 10 min |Cook time: 15 min | Yield: About 6 servings
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1/2 tablespoon of canola oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1/2 of a medium green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 stalk of celery, chopped
- 1 large clove of garlic, chopped
- 1 pound of ground beef
- 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon of Tiger Sauce or other hot sauce, or to taste, optional
- 1 (15 ounce) can of tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup of ketchup
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons of butter, melted
- 6 hamburger buns
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add the trinity (onion, bell pepper & celery) and cook until softened but not brown. Add the ground beef and garlic and cook until ground beef is browned, breaking the meat up with a potato masher. Drain off oil if necessary.
Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, Tiger sauce, tomato sauce, and ketchup. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken. Add a large pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper; taste and adjust seasonings as desired.
Brush the bun bottoms with the melted butter and in a separate skillet or on a stove top grill, toast the buns. Serve with baby carrots, or a side of ranch style beans, baked beans, waffle fries or potato chips, a side salad and a pickle.
Cook's Note: Serve these on dinner rolls for Sloppy Sliders on game day. Mix it up by using half ground beef and half ground breakfast sausage. Try adding in a can of drained Rotel tomatoes for an extra kick!
For the Slow Cooker: The beauty of the slow cooker is that you can literally dump everything in and let it go, 6 to 7 hours on low or 3 to 4 hours on high. If you prefer using chuck, brown the meat off as above and drain. Otherwise, as with all ground beef crockpot meals, always use a leaner ground sirloin or round with a 10 to 15% fat ratio. I personally prefer to brown off ground beef just enough to render and drain the fat.
Sloppy Janes: Prepare as above, except substitute ground turkey for the beef. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
Pizza Sloppy Joes: Substitute homemade pizza sauce, or a jar of your favorite commercial brand for the tomato sauce and stir in 3 ounces of chopped pepperoni or turkey pepperoni. Spoon meat mixture on bottom buns and place about 1 tablespoon of shredded Mozzarella on each bun. Pass under the broiler to melt cheese and serve immediately.
Tex-Mex Sloppy Joes: To the meat sauce add 1 or 2 jalapeno peppers (remove seeds and ribs to keep it on the milder side), 2 teaspoons of chili powder and 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin and ground coriander - or all seasonings to taste. Add a couple splashes of a good Mexican beer if you have it.
Deep South Tavern Style "Loose Meat" Sandwiches: Prepare meat as above, except, omit tomato sauce, increase ketchup to 1/3 cup and add 1 tablespoon each apple cider vinegar, light brown sugar and mustard (Creole, brown or yellow).
Source: http://deepsouthdish.com
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Sloppy joes are one of our fav.'s and these look good. I don't know what makes a sloppy joe so good but they are kinda an addictive food. Of course most food is kinda addictive to me!
ReplyDeleteMy mom usually made sloppy joe's on Saturday's. I loved them and make them for my grandkids. It is a very comforting food.
ReplyDeleteI know.... isn't that the truth? SJs are just, well different somehow! I love 'em too.
ReplyDeleteI have to say this looks pretty darn good. Another one I am going to have to try.
ReplyDeleteThese look really great!!! I haven't had sloppy joes in years!
ReplyDeleteI so love sloppy joes!! These sound awesome. My favorite one has bacon in it. Have to admit its a rach Ray recipe, but I like it just the same. I will have to try yours. Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteHi Ladies! Hmmm... bacon! I'll bet this is good with bacon added - I think I'll try that next time too. I know Hubs will love it with bacon even more.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by!
Looks great! What if I can't get the Tiger Sauce? Do you have a substitution?
ReplyDeleteHi Michele. Tiger Sauce is basically a sweet hot sauce. You can find it at most grocery stores and even WalMart, but if you don't have any you can leave it out altogether or substitute a few dashes of regular hot sauce if you still want the spice. The recipe doesn't suffer without it.
ReplyDeleteYum. I make my own, too. They're never the same from time to time, but they're always better than the canned stuff, even though I like the canned stuff fine, too. (About half the time, I make these as a vegetarian version: 1 cup of TVP and slightly less than a cup of water in place of each pound of drained ground beef.)
ReplyDeleteMaking up a batch to keep in the house this week. It's good! I added a little brown sugar to mine. I like it sweet. ;)
ReplyDeleteMmm, brown sugar. I'm gonna have to try that!
ReplyDeleteHey there! I made your recipe tonight and I have to say it was very satisfying! I didnt have a can of tomato sauce so I used tomato paste and added water to that and it worked just fine. Im not familiar with Tiger sauce so i used a store brand of Louisiana hot sauce. Thank for sharing.
ReplyDeletethehappycooker@rogers.com
Of course, those are perfectly acceptable substitutes - glad you enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteThe hubby loves sloppy joes...I googled for a recipe and came to some celebrity chef's recipe. Chris vetoed and said, "I only want a recipe from deep south dish!" Excited to try it out tonight :)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness - what an honor! Please let me know what you think about it.
DeleteThis looks good, I have only had sloppy joes in New Zealand many years ago when I was there. Your recipe calls for tomato sauce well in Australia that is ketchup to us, is your tomato sauce a can of crushed tomatoes with juice or something like that?
ReplyDeleteHi Janet! In the U.S. tomato sauce and ketchup are two different things. Tomato sauce at the least is a stewed down, pureed canned tomato product, and depending on the brand or variety, will often contain a variety of herbs & seasonings - onion, garlic & oregano are most common. Muir Glen, Contadina, Hunts and Del Monte are top brands here. Hope that helps!
DeleteI made this receipe last night for my Bible Study group and it was a big hit!! It was delicious and so easy to make! I will be making this again!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad everybody enjoyed it & thank you for letting me know!
DeleteI made the tex-max version and it was very yummy! Thanks for the recipe!!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Leslie & I'm so glad that you enjoyed it!!
DeleteHi there! So we ate this tonight and it was perfect. The ingredients and amounts of each ingredient was magical. If everyone made sloppy joes this way Manwhich would go bankrupt, ha. Thank you again for another wonderful recipe!! Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteGlad y'all enjoyed the recipe Mellie!
DeleteQuick question- can I make a few batches ahead of time and feeze them? Thank you.
DeleteAbsolutely!
Delete