Recipe: Turkey sloppy Joes

With all of our fancy feasts lately, I was craving something completely on the other end of the spectrum. I brought it back old school with a variation of the school lunch favorite: sloppy joes. Everyone has memories of their elementary school experience when the hefty, hair-netted cafeteria lady would slop the meat mixture onto their open-faced bun. (Pass on the white milk...chocolate milk, please.)

To make it a little healthier, I used ground turkey instead of the usual ground beef. The original recipe came from ChoppedOnions on All Recipes. It was very simple to make and ready to eat in a jiffy. We ended up leaving the sandwich open-faced and eating it with a fork because, like its name, it was incredibly sloppy.

Also, I'm trying out this recipe plugin John installed for me. Let me know what you think. Should I continue to use the recipe template plugin, or should I stick to my rudimentary HTML skills and just list ingredients and directions the way I did in the Vietnamese chicken curry recipe?

Recipe: Turkey Sloppy Joes

Summary: Original recipe from ChoppedOnions on All Recipes

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 lb. ground turkey
• 1 (8 oz.) can pureed tomatoes
• 1/4 c. barbecue sauce
• 2 tbsp. ketchup
• 2 tbsp. white vinegar
• 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp. brown mustard
• 1 tbsp. chili garlic sauce (optional)
• 4 burger buns

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and cook onion and bell pepper until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and ground turkey, and cook until meat is well done, about another 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Stir in the pureed tomatoes, barbecue sauce, ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and chili garlic sauce. Simmer until heated through, about 7 to 10 minutes. Serve on burger buns.

Quick Notes

Try using Stubb's barbecue sauce instead of, say, KC Masterpiece--it's got a more robust flavor.

For the chili garlic sauce, use Sriracha brand. It comes with a green lid and has a rooster on the jar. You can find it in Asian supermarkets or in the international food aisle.

Serve with potato salad or chips, and slices of raw onion or pickles.

Variations

The sloppy joe mixture was very runny (hence the name "sloppy). I think I'd prefer a heartier meat filling in my sandwich, so next time, I'll try using 1.5 to 2 lbs. ground turkey instead of just 1 lb.

Since I used spicy barbecue sauce and spicy brown mustard, I decided to omit the chili garlic sauce. It had enough of a kick as is.

Cooking time (duration): 30

Meal type: lunch

Culinary tradition: USA (General)

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