Sloppy Joes are one of our favorite quick meals. They are like a burger, but with the meat and all of the fixings rolled into one delicious, tangy, zesty, savory, and sweet saucy spread. This one calls for ground turkey, which we love, but you can substitute any ground meat you like from bison or beef to venison or elk. Not only are they delicious, but they are super easy to make. You sauté the meat along with caramelized onions, garlic, mustard, ketchup, lemon juice, and a dash of soy sauce. What a treat for a busy night when cooking isn’t right at the top of your list! Serve it on rustic Italian or French bread, our savory sourdough waffles (see recent post), or brioche for an extra fancy sandwich, or just use your favorite hamburger buns!
This mixture can also be made well ahead of time and frozen until you’re ready to serve the sloppy joe’s. Then, simply reheat in a pot on the stove before serving. You may need to add a dash of water when you reheat the frozen sloppy joe sauce.
Turkey Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground turkey
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons yellow or Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 3/4 cup ketchup
- 1 teaspoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup water (more or less as needed for consistency of the sauce)
- 4 Hamburger buns, brioche buns or English muffins
- 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
- 4 lettuce leaves
- 4 dill pickle spears
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large skillet.
- Add onion and garlic and saute until golden brown.
- Add ground turkey and cook thoroughly until slightly browned along the edges of the pan.
- Chop the meat as you go with a wooden spoon, or a meat chopper (see link in story above) to break up the larger pieces of ground turkey.
- Once the turkey is cooked through, stir in mustard, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, lemon juice, oregano, salt and pepper.
- Stir well and cook until heated through. If you need to add water for consistency, do that at this time. If the consistency seems good, just ignore the water.
- Spoon sloppy joe mixture over toasted rolls of your choice.
- Sprinkle cheddar cheese over the meat before adding the top bun. Add lettuce leaf if you wish.
- Serve with with dill pickle spears and potato chips.