Sloppy JoesI've enjoyed Sloppy Joes since I was a child, and now that I'm "grown up", I like making them as well. I've consistently used a packaged mix that just required me to add meat, tomato paste, and water. It was quite good, but it has recently been taken off the shelves. I found another mix that was a good substitute but now THAT'S gone too! So in desperation, I looked for a recipe that would be easy enough to make, have great taste, and use ingredients that I really have on hand regularly.
Some ingredients were NOT going to be used in my recipe: 1. Ketchup: there's enough corn syrup in my life already... I can season my own tomato paste, thank you. They make ketchup with regular sugar now, but since I've got my own and tomato paste is a cheap food, I chose no ketchup. 2. Dijon Mustard: Really? This is Sloppy Joes! Maybe yellow mustard. 3. BBQ Sauce: See Ketchup Ingredients: 16-20 ounces ground beef or turkey 1 onion, chopped 1- 6 ounce can tomato paste 6 ounces of water (use the can to measure) 2 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 2 tablespoons vinegar (white or apple cider) 1 tablespoon chili powder Directions: 1. Brown the ground turkey and the onion in a skillet. Drain if needed (You know I used a non-stick skillet for this) 2. While the turkey is cooking, mix the sugar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, chili powder, tomato paste, and water in a separate cup or bowl. It's going to be almost 2 cups, so make your container big enough! 3. Add the sauce mixture to the meat and onion. Bring to a low boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered about 10 minutes. Serve on split buns. The sugar and the vinegar play off each other to give this a sweet and sour flavor. It's almost like a BBQ sauce. My gut says to keep the sugar and vinegar one-to-one, but I think I will like it sweeter. Instead of more sugar, I'll drop one tablespoon of vinegar out. I might even add more chili powder to give it some bite. I'll keep you posted. This an ongoing recipe. I wasn't sure if I was going to use Worcestershire sauce in this recipe. I was afraid it would make the dish overpowering. But it complemented the turkey very nicely, and it's something I do keep on hand for the few times that we have nice beef steaks. I think if I were using ground beef, I would eliminate the Worcestershire or cut it to 1 tablespoon. This ingredient has a way of "beefing up" ground turkey. |