The Sloppy Joe is one of those American classics you know is unhealthy but they’re so delicious that you can’t stop yourself wanting one and then eating two. Invented by a guy called Joe in Sioux City, Iowa, sometime around the American Depression, Sloppy Joes are a delicious mix of bread, ground meat, onions, Worcestershire sauce and tomato.
The perfect sauce for Sloppy Joes
- 450g beef mince
- 2 minced garlic cloves
- Half an onion, diced
- 225g passata
- 120ml tomato ketchup
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp mustard
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- Black pepper
- Burger buns
How to make it
1. First up, you want to brown your meat. To get flavour into it, start off by gently frying your onion and garlic until the onion is soft – avoid burning the garlic. Now, add your beef, breaking it up with the back of a spoon and cooking everything on a relatively high heat until the meat is browned.
2. Add your sauce ingredients to the pan: the passata, ketchup, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, pepper and mustard. Mix it in well and let the whole lot simmer for about 10 minutes until it’s come together. How much of the sauce flavourings you put in is really down to taste so do keep tasting the sauce, and if you want to add a little more mustard, pepper or Worcestershire sauce, go for it.
3. Finally, toast your burger buns (otherwise they’ll get very soggy very fast), and fill with the sauce – now you’re ready to eat! If you want, you can also add some pickles or some grated cheese to make it extra indulgent.
Getting the right buns
It’s important to buy the right burger buns when you’re making Sloppy Joes. This is a ‘sloppy’ dish, so if you get some that are too doughy or soft, then they will absorb the sauce too quickly and become inedible. You’re best off getting some brioche buns, which will be tasty but retain their shape and won’t absorb too much sauce.
For a delicious and luxurious variation of the Sloppy Joe, head down to the HandBurger, where you can get one of their delicious grass-fed sous vide beef patties topped with Sloppy Joe sauce.
