Thursday, March 31, 2011

Family Favorites ~ Sloppy Joes My Way

My kids are a huge fan of the sloppy joe but I never could find a recipe that I totally liked.  It was always too sweet or too bland or just not to my tastes.  And it just went against my grain to buy the Sloppy Joe stuff in the can.  So in a moment of creativity, I threw all caution to the wind and I experimented to make what suited me more, trying to leave out those things that I thought might add the flavors I didn't care for and then tried to balance those things I thought I would like in a sloppy joe.  This is what I came up with.

The browning of the onion and beef to the pan made for a real nice richness that added to the flavor of the spaghetti sauce.  But you have to watch it carefully, because you don't want a burnt onion flavor, just nicely browned.

SUE'S SLOPPY JOES
(serves 6 - 8)
*freezes well

-1 large onion, chopped
-1 Tbsp. oil
-1.5 kg (3 lbs) lean ground beef
-salt and pepper to taste
-1 jar 645 ml Paul Newman's Sockarooni Spaghetti Sauce
-1 green pepper, chopped
-1 generous Tbsp. Dijon mustard
-1 - 2 Tbsp. juice from pickled jalapenos
-soft buns of your choice (hamburger, cheese buns, kaisers, or small sub type bun)

Heat oil in 10 inch saute skillet.  Add onion and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add beef, breaking it up and let cook without stirring until the bottom browns. Watch carefully as you want browned and not burnt onion.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add chopped green pepper.  Stir and break up big chunks. Continue to cook until hamburger is cooked all the way through stirring occasionally.  Drain well.

Add spaghetti sauce, mustard, and jalapeno juice and mix in.  Simmer for 20 - 30 minutes to develop flavors.

Serve on soft buns with your favorite sides.

5 comments:

ellen b. said...

This recipe looks great. Love what she used to put this together...

Faith said...

I MUST try this recipe...it's a bit different from my own...you can look at mine on my faithfixes blog....it's a slow cooker sloppy joe mix found under the label "maindishes/beef"...let me know if you ever try it....almost everyone loves it! I am sooo trying yours next week!!! thanks for sharing....

Christina said...

I am going to copy this one right now. I don't like the canned stuff much but resort to it once in awhile, but now that you have posted this recipe, which sound yummy, I am not going to have to resort to the can any longer. My boys will be thanking you.

Marg said...

Looks fantastic and tastes fantastic.
It was in my mind to make sloppy joes as I have not made them in years and then you came along and posted this recipe. Yea!

Susanne said...

Well, it's timely that I came across your blog. I had a friend's husband act mortified a while back that I used the canned sloppy joe sauce. You can make me respectable - and that Newman's spaghetti sauce has always been a favorite of mine. I hope my friend's husband doesn't think I should be starting with tomatoes!