Reaching New Heights: Elevating Sloppy Joes to the Next Level

When it comes to comfort food, few dishes are as iconic as the Sloppy Joe. This classic sandwich has been a staple of American cuisine for decades, with its sweet and tangy flavors, tender meat, and crunchy onions. But what if we told you that there's more to Sloppy Joes than meets the eye? With a little creativity and some expert advice, you can take this beloved dish to new heights.

The Secret to Great Flavor

So, where do we start? For starters, let's talk about seasoning. While it may seem obvious, using a high-quality blend of spices and herbs can make all the difference in elevating your Sloppy Joes. In this recipe, we're using a custom blend that includes a half teaspoon of fair trade chili powder (about 5-6 times more than what you find in most pre-mixed seasoning blends) along with some all-purpose seasoning. Feel free to adjust to taste – but be warned: too much spice can throw off the delicate balance of flavors.

A Little Bit of MSG, Please

Now, we know that some of you may be thinking, "But isn't MSG a no-go?" Fear not, friends! A small amount of MSG (about 1/4 teaspoon) actually helps to bring out the natural sweetness in the meat and adds depth to the dish. So don't worry – this won't make your Sloppy Joes taste like they're swimming in MSG syrup. It's just a tiny tweak that takes it from meh to magnificent.

Fried Onions: The Unsung Hero

Now we come to one of my favorite parts: the fried onions! These crunchy, golden little morsels add a delightful texture and flavor contrast to our Sloppy Joes. And let's be real – who doesn't love a good onion? By using a seasoned flour, you can achieve that perfect balance of crispy and savory.

Breading and Frying

With your onions coated in seasoned flour, it's time to get them frying! Using a shallow fryer or a large skillet with about 1/2 inch of oil, heat it up to 350°F (180°C). Once the oil is hot, carefully place the breaded onions into the pan and cook for just 2-3 minutes on each side, until they're golden brown and crispy. Be careful not to splash any excess oil – we want our Sloppy Joes to stay nice and dry.

The Bread: A Game-Changer

Now it's time to talk about the bread. What kind of bread do you use for your Sloppy Joes? In my house, we've always stuck with good old-fashioned white bread. But today, we're using Brioche rolls – a game-changer, folks! The rich, buttery flavor of these rolls perfectly complements the sweetness of the meat and tanginess of the onions.

Garlic Butter: Because Everything is Better with Garlic

Speaking of garlic, have you ever noticed how much better everything tastes when it's infused with garlic? In this recipe, we're using a simple blend of minced garlic, butter, salt, and a pinch of paprika. This little mixture will add an incredible depth to our Sloppy Joes – so don't be shy!

The Assembling Process

Now that we have all the components ready, it's time to assemble our masterpiece! With a dollop of garlic butter on each bun, some pickles for added tanginess, and finally, the star of the show: our tender, juicy Sloppy Joe mixture. Don't be afraid to get creative with your toppings – after all, that's what makes life interesting!

A Taste Test Fit for Royalty

The final step? Taking a bite! The combination of flavors and textures in this Sloppy Joe is absolute perfection. From the crunchy onions to the savory meat and tangy pickles, each component works together in harmony to create a truly unforgettable sandwich.

And there you have it – a recipe that will elevate your Sloppy Joes from bland to grand. Whether you're serving them at your next backyard BBQ or just need a quick weeknight dinner, this dish is sure to impress. So go ahead, get creative, and take the leap into the world of gourmet Sloppy Joes!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right people today we're taking a trip down memory lane when I was a kid one of my favorite meals was a sloppy joe but we ate ours out of that nasty little man witch can which still was pretty good but today I'm going to show you the grownup version this recipe is absolutely delicious comes together super quick and it's pretty inexpensive meet me in the kitchen let's make it happen yeah the quality bread onion all come together this definitely junk you close your eyes when you buy it all right guys first things first we go ahead and get our prep work done and out of the way today we're using some onion and some bell pepper I'm using red and green mostly for the color contrast so feel free to use whatever you have on hand my favorite way to peep prep a pepper say that five times fast is to put it face down and slice around the core leaving the seeds intact because the seeds are sticky and they're kind of a pain to clean up so if you do it this way you get all the usable stuff and get rid of the stuff you can't use so repeat that process for your Peppers you can use jalapenos pablanos whatever uh Sano maybe whatever you have if you want to spice it up a little bit there's some good options out there but if you want to keep it simple like we are today just some bell pepper get the job done so again we're going to slice around here I'm also going to do some fried onions to add a little texture and fried onions are delicious so we're going to dress this sloppy joe up a bit and make it an adult version that's still delicious the kids will still love it but you know you don't have to force yourself to eat the Manwich stuff that your kids have been begging for I think the slogan was like make tonight a manwich night or something like that this one of those meals that I had as a kid but we didn't have a lot of it for whatever reason and I wish we would have had that more frequently than some of the other stuff that I ate more of as a kid cuz it was pretty good at least that's how I remember it I haven't had a actual Manwich sloppy joe in quite a while but this grown-up version right here is money you can't go wrong with it all right guys so half of this onion we're going to add to the mixture that's going to ultimately go work its way into the meat mixture that we're going to make for our sloppy joe the other half of the onion we're going to slice and Fry and get some crispy fried onion strings to top our sandwich with which is going to elevate this to the next level it's going to add some texture and a lot of flavor cuz we're using my seasoned flour today if you haven't tried that yet you can get yours at uh mrm maketh happen.com or you can just season your own flour little salt pepper garlic onion powder stuff like that I wouldn't be mad at you so we're going to give a nice rough dice to our onion about the same size as the bell pepper and we're going to mix that together with the ground beef now for the fried onions we're just going to do little slices like this relatively thin we don't want them to be onion rings per se we want them to be more like onion strips that are going get fried up and nice and crispy again add some texture to a otherwise sandwich that doesn't have a whole lot of texture to it so that's going to enhance it quite a bit and then if you season the flour properly it's going to add some flavor as well so there we go just drop these in a little buttermilk or egg wash season flour fry for 2 to 3 minutes max you can add that to a salad or whatever sandwich you want or you eat it as a snack all right people now it's time to get to cooking we're going to go ahead and warm our Skillet over medium heat to that we're going to add about a tablespoon of avocado oil once the skillet gets nice and hot we're going to add 2 lbs of 8020 brown beef try to press down so it makes maximum surface area contact with that Skillet so we can develop some some color some crust and some texture which is also going to help enhance the flavor as well all right guys so I'm really going to give it a good 5 6 minutes to get a nice good searing color on there Meanwhile we're going to go ahead and start seasoning this up I'm going down first and foremost with my allpurpose seasoning which is going to cover our bases on the flavor profile we got salt pepper garlic onion powder things of that nature I'm also going to add a little bit of smoked paprika smoking this pears nicely with beef it's going to enhance the flavor of the Sloppy Joe's as well a little oregano like a teaspoon of that and then for a little bit of spice to offset some of the sweetness that we're going to use I'm going in with my hot allpurpose which has a little cayenne and jalapeno powder now you can use red pepper flakes or just cayenne pepper if you want to but a little bit of that going to help offset the sweetness from the brown sugar and some of the other ingredients we got today next up we're going in with about a half of an onion and the bell pepper that we diced up earlier going to allow that to sweat down and get tender for us as well just going to add some texture a little color and it's going to taste good so we're covering all our bases right now continue to break up the meat with your spatula I don't really mind there to be some chunks there because it actually plates a little bit nicer it's called a sloppy joe though so if it's a little sloppy no big deal but I want to keep it on the sandwich a lot of times we eat a sloppy joe half of it ends up falling off on the plate we got a couple other tricks we're going to use to help with that as well right now I'm going in with a tablespoon of garlic about 2 tablespoons of worst word in the world sauce the better quality you can find the better but whatever's in the pantry will get the job done we're going to eyeball this but this going to add some Umami to the flavor next up 1 tbsp of Dijon mustard 3 tbsp of ketchup about 2 or 3 tablespoons of brown sugar save a little bit in case we need it 2 tbsp of tomato paste we give that a mix to combine and we're going to add in a little flour which is going to help hold everything together as I said earlier that's going to help with the consistency of your sandwich a little bit that flour is going to help bind it together just a little bit and then we'll de glaze with some beef stock all right folks to beef up the beef flavor we're going in with one teaspoon of better than buan beef base this packs a punch of flavor but it also has quite a bit of sodium in it so for that reason we're using low or no sodium beef broth so we're going to get that in there and then we're going in with two tablespoons of allpurpose flour give that a mix once the flour is cooked down you don't see any white specks anymore we go ahead and add in that beef broth about 1 cup of beef broth and really let this simmer for a good 10 15 minutes let the flavors constant tra and come together you can see it's already thickened up a bit going to get that beef broth in there bring it to a boil and let it really reduce now as always guys you want to taste as you go adjust the flavor to your preference we're right where we want to be I'm going to add a little bit of a flavor enhancer here in the form of MSG also known as this chicken bullan powder you guys see me reach for fairly often but it just kind of wakes everything up if you're trying to avoid MSG you can leave this part out but about a half a teaspoon of that and then just a little bit more allpurpose seasoning and I think we're going to be right where we want to be let this go another 5 minutes or so if you want to spice it up a little bit more you could but you know traditionally Sloppy Joe's aren't spicy so we're not going to go crazy on the spice you want to have a little hint of Sweetness in there but this is looking good a lot better than that Manwich stuff that we used to eat out of the can and it comes together super quick and easy guys you can make a whole you probably get a good six or eight sandwiches out of this depending on you know how hungry you are all right guys in my opinion any sandwich is better with a little fried onions especially if you useing my seasoned flour Shameless plug there but we're going to knock off any excess buttermilk and just toss these in that seasoned flour try to make sure they get as you know nicely coated and even as possible knock off any excess flour and then we're going to get them on a little rack right here until our oil gets to 350 once the oil gets 350 we're going to go ahead and drop these in that oil fry them up these fry up super fast 2 minutes maybe once they're golden brown and crispy we remove that build our sandwich and got yourself a nice lunch or quick week night dinner all right guys in the spirit of elevating this dish we're using Brios bread and a little garlic butter I don't know about you guys what bread you use for your Sloppy Joe's growing up but in my house it damn sure wasn't Brios but today we're using Brios rolls so we're going to go ahead and hit that with a little bit of garlic butter Little Kim seasoning garlic butter and Herb right into a couple tablespoons of melted butter give that a little mix we're going to brush that on our Brios bread both sides like a professional and then we're going to toast our buns the way the good Lord intended it's summertime got how those buns toasted so once that oil gets to 350° we're going to gently place in our coated onions we're shallow frying these so be careful you don't want to get any splatter up on your forearms it'll be all scarred up like me just get them on in there again they cook super fast guys keep your eyes on these incredible flavor enhancing to a sandwich though all right my friends now it's time to assemble our sloppy joe the grownup adult version so for that we got some pickles if you don't like pickles you should probably grow up they're going to add a little bit of like a vinegar kind of bite to this which is going to be nice if you don't like pickles simply leave them out or say mean things to me about it in the comments section but we're g to load it up don't be shy with the pickles all right pickles first slide you over a little bit so we don't have as much spillage and then we're going to pile our sloppy joe mixture as high as we can there we go all right last but not least fried onions right on top little texture little flavor and then my friends top bun maybe we'll do it like that for a couple flyovers let me know what you think in the comments let me know if you ever had a sloppy joe or when the last time was that you had a sloppy joe for me it's been a while but I'm excited about this this is the part where I say brace yourself for a trademark money shot say it with me guys looking good the only thing left to do is grab a napkin and dig in for the taste test but before we do that please take a quick second to subscribe to the channel make sure you hit that Bell turn notifications as well I really want to dig in for the taste test on this this might be like my most anxiously awaited bite right here I don't know if it's cuz I'm hungry or cuz I miss sloppy jokes but here we go there it is that's that's the trademark right there that's a two biter for sure the pickles are must imagine that drunk at like 2: 3 in the morning oh my goodness I let eat like 2 or three you know what I'm saying like I I need to smooth dozen you can make these minis oh yeah them like white cassle drint the onion and the pickles yeah cuz this what make a burger good like a McDonald's double cheeseburg or something the onions and the pickle make the whole sandwich and this right hereall right people today we're taking a trip down memory lane when I was a kid one of my favorite meals was a sloppy joe but we ate ours out of that nasty little man witch can which still was pretty good but today I'm going to show you the grownup version this recipe is absolutely delicious comes together super quick and it's pretty inexpensive meet me in the kitchen let's make it happen yeah the quality bread onion all come together this definitely junk you close your eyes when you buy it all right guys first things first we go ahead and get our prep work done and out of the way today we're using some onion and some bell pepper I'm using red and green mostly for the color contrast so feel free to use whatever you have on hand my favorite way to peep prep a pepper say that five times fast is to put it face down and slice around the core leaving the seeds intact because the seeds are sticky and they're kind of a pain to clean up so if you do it this way you get all the usable stuff and get rid of the stuff you can't use so repeat that process for your Peppers you can use jalapenos pablanos whatever uh Sano maybe whatever you have if you want to spice it up a little bit there's some good options out there but if you want to keep it simple like we are today just some bell pepper get the job done so again we're going to slice around here I'm also going to do some fried onions to add a little texture and fried onions are delicious so we're going to dress this sloppy joe up a bit and make it an adult version that's still delicious the kids will still love it but you know you don't have to force yourself to eat the Manwich stuff that your kids have been begging for I think the slogan was like make tonight a manwich night or something like that this one of those meals that I had as a kid but we didn't have a lot of it for whatever reason and I wish we would have had that more frequently than some of the other stuff that I ate more of as a kid cuz it was pretty good at least that's how I remember it I haven't had a actual Manwich sloppy joe in quite a while but this grown-up version right here is money you can't go wrong with it all right guys so half of this onion we're going to add to the mixture that's going to ultimately go work its way into the meat mixture that we're going to make for our sloppy joe the other half of the onion we're going to slice and Fry and get some crispy fried onion strings to top our sandwich with which is going to elevate this to the next level it's going to add some texture and a lot of flavor cuz we're using my seasoned flour today if you haven't tried that yet you can get yours at uh mrm maketh happen.com or you can just season your own flour little salt pepper garlic onion powder stuff like that I wouldn't be mad at you so we're going to give a nice rough dice to our onion about the same size as the bell pepper and we're going to mix that together with the ground beef now for the fried onions we're just going to do little slices like this relatively thin we don't want them to be onion rings per se we want them to be more like onion strips that are going get fried up and nice and crispy again add some texture to a otherwise sandwich that doesn't have a whole lot of texture to it so that's going to enhance it quite a bit and then if you season the flour properly it's going to add some flavor as well so there we go just drop these in a little buttermilk or egg wash season flour fry for 2 to 3 minutes max you can add that to a salad or whatever sandwich you want or you eat it as a snack all right people now it's time to get to cooking we're going to go ahead and warm our Skillet over medium heat to that we're going to add about a tablespoon of avocado oil once the skillet gets nice and hot we're going to add 2 lbs of 8020 brown beef try to press down so it makes maximum surface area contact with that Skillet so we can develop some some color some crust and some texture which is also going to help enhance the flavor as well all right guys so I'm really going to give it a good 5 6 minutes to get a nice good searing color on there Meanwhile we're going to go ahead and start seasoning this up I'm going down first and foremost with my allpurpose seasoning which is going to cover our bases on the flavor profile we got salt pepper garlic onion powder things of that nature I'm also going to add a little bit of smoked paprika smoking this pears nicely with beef it's going to enhance the flavor of the Sloppy Joe's as well a little oregano like a teaspoon of that and then for a little bit of spice to offset some of the sweetness that we're going to use I'm going in with my hot allpurpose which has a little cayenne and jalapeno powder now you can use red pepper flakes or just cayenne pepper if you want to but a little bit of that going to help offset the sweetness from the brown sugar and some of the other ingredients we got today next up we're going in with about a half of an onion and the bell pepper that we diced up earlier going to allow that to sweat down and get tender for us as well just going to add some texture a little color and it's going to taste good so we're covering all our bases right now continue to break up the meat with your spatula I don't really mind there to be some chunks there because it actually plates a little bit nicer it's called a sloppy joe though so if it's a little sloppy no big deal but I want to keep it on the sandwich a lot of times we eat a sloppy joe half of it ends up falling off on the plate we got a couple other tricks we're going to use to help with that as well right now I'm going in with a tablespoon of garlic about 2 tablespoons of worst word in the world sauce the better quality you can find the better but whatever's in the pantry will get the job done we're going to eyeball this but this going to add some Umami to the flavor next up 1 tbsp of Dijon mustard 3 tbsp of ketchup about 2 or 3 tablespoons of brown sugar save a little bit in case we need it 2 tbsp of tomato paste we give that a mix to combine and we're going to add in a little flour which is going to help hold everything together as I said earlier that's going to help with the consistency of your sandwich a little bit that flour is going to help bind it together just a little bit and then we'll de glaze with some beef stock all right folks to beef up the beef flavor we're going in with one teaspoon of better than buan beef base this packs a punch of flavor but it also has quite a bit of sodium in it so for that reason we're using low or no sodium beef broth so we're going to get that in there and then we're going in with two tablespoons of allpurpose flour give that a mix once the flour is cooked down you don't see any white specks anymore we go ahead and add in that beef broth about 1 cup of beef broth and really let this simmer for a good 10 15 minutes let the flavors constant tra and come together you can see it's already thickened up a bit going to get that beef broth in there bring it to a boil and let it really reduce now as always guys you want to taste as you go adjust the flavor to your preference we're right where we want to be I'm going to add a little bit of a flavor enhancer here in the form of MSG also known as this chicken bullan powder you guys see me reach for fairly often but it just kind of wakes everything up if you're trying to avoid MSG you can leave this part out but about a half a teaspoon of that and then just a little bit more allpurpose seasoning and I think we're going to be right where we want to be let this go another 5 minutes or so if you want to spice it up a little bit more you could but you know traditionally Sloppy Joe's aren't spicy so we're not going to go crazy on the spice you want to have a little hint of Sweetness in there but this is looking good a lot better than that Manwich stuff that we used to eat out of the can and it comes together super quick and easy guys you can make a whole you probably get a good six or eight sandwiches out of this depending on you know how hungry you are all right guys in my opinion any sandwich is better with a little fried onions especially if you useing my seasoned flour Shameless plug there but we're going to knock off any excess buttermilk and just toss these in that seasoned flour try to make sure they get as you know nicely coated and even as possible knock off any excess flour and then we're going to get them on a little rack right here until our oil gets to 350 once the oil gets 350 we're going to go ahead and drop these in that oil fry them up these fry up super fast 2 minutes maybe once they're golden brown and crispy we remove that build our sandwich and got yourself a nice lunch or quick week night dinner all right guys in the spirit of elevating this dish we're using Brios bread and a little garlic butter I don't know about you guys what bread you use for your Sloppy Joe's growing up but in my house it damn sure wasn't Brios but today we're using Brios rolls so we're going to go ahead and hit that with a little bit of garlic butter Little Kim seasoning garlic butter and Herb right into a couple tablespoons of melted butter give that a little mix we're going to brush that on our Brios bread both sides like a professional and then we're going to toast our buns the way the good Lord intended it's summertime got how those buns toasted so once that oil gets to 350° we're going to gently place in our coated onions we're shallow frying these so be careful you don't want to get any splatter up on your forearms it'll be all scarred up like me just get them on in there again they cook super fast guys keep your eyes on these incredible flavor enhancing to a sandwich though all right my friends now it's time to assemble our sloppy joe the grownup adult version so for that we got some pickles if you don't like pickles you should probably grow up they're going to add a little bit of like a vinegar kind of bite to this which is going to be nice if you don't like pickles simply leave them out or say mean things to me about it in the comments section but we're g to load it up don't be shy with the pickles all right pickles first slide you over a little bit so we don't have as much spillage and then we're going to pile our sloppy joe mixture as high as we can there we go all right last but not least fried onions right on top little texture little flavor and then my friends top bun maybe we'll do it like that for a couple flyovers let me know what you think in the comments let me know if you ever had a sloppy joe or when the last time was that you had a sloppy joe for me it's been a while but I'm excited about this this is the part where I say brace yourself for a trademark money shot say it with me guys looking good the only thing left to do is grab a napkin and dig in for the taste test but before we do that please take a quick second to subscribe to the channel make sure you hit that Bell turn notifications as well I really want to dig in for the taste test on this this might be like my most anxiously awaited bite right here I don't know if it's cuz I'm hungry or cuz I miss sloppy jokes but here we go there it is that's that's the trademark right there that's a two biter for sure the pickles are must imagine that drunk at like 2: 3 in the morning oh my goodness I let eat like 2 or three you know what I'm saying like I I need to smooth dozen you can make these minis oh yeah them like white cassle drint the onion and the pickles yeah cuz this what make a burger good like a McDonald's double cheeseburg or something the onions and the pickle make the whole sandwich and this right here\n"