Sloppy joes
Sweet, tangy, saucy beef piled on toasted buns, made from scratch in about the time it takes to open a can.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $2.43 a serving
- 460 calories
- Good the next day
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- ½ green bell pepper, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 1 can tomato sauce
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp yellow mustard
- 4 hamburger buns
- 4 dill pickles, sliced (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 460 calories, 28 g protein, 43 g carbs and 20 g fat, and costs about $2.43 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No green bell peppers? Red bell peppers or yellow bell peppers work.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No tomato sauce? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No yellow mustard? Dijon mustard works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the onion and pepper into small pieces, and the garlic.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Heat a large over medium-high, add the beef, and press it flat. Leave it 3 minutes, until underneath.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 3 min
Break the beef into small , add the onion and pepper, and cook 5 minutes, stirring, until no pink is left and the onion is soft.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: Keep breaking it up as it cooks. Small crumbles are what make it a sloppy joe and not a burger.Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Spoon off any pool of fat, turn the heat to medium, and stir in the garlic for 30 seconds, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heat
Stir in the tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire, mustard, chili powder, salt and pepper.
Medium heat
Turn the heat to low and 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce is thick enough to mound on a spoon.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Low heatTimer: 10 min
Dolly’s tip: Too thick? Stir in a splash of water. Too runny? Give it a few more minutes.While it , toast the buns cut side down in a dry over medium for 1 to 2 minutes, until .
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: A toasted bun holds the sauce instead of going soggy.Pile the beef onto the buns and add pickles if you like.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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