Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes

I don’t know how this is even possible but I’ve never had Sloppy Joes before making this recipe. It was not in my family’s dinner rotation, my camp never served it, and I  never came across it at a friend’s house when sleeping over.

Well, my wait is finally over! Traditional Sloppy Joes are made with beef but I used a mixture of ground beef and Johnsonville Bratwursts removed from their casings.  The recipe is adapted from one I found on MyRecipes.com.

note: I was sent free coupons for Johnsonville products. Opinions are my own.

Ingredients:

Chop your onion and pepper. Add olive oil to a saute pan over medium high heat and add the onions and peppers, cooking until soft.

Remove from the pan and add to your slow cooker. Wipe out the pan and add in the ground beef and bratwursts cut from their casings.

Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to crumble, until the mixture is no longer pink.

Drain the fat from the cooked meat and discard. Add the drained meat to the slow cooker and mix to combine with the onion pepper mixture.

Add the tomato sauce, water, ketchup, brown sugar, cider vinegar, mustard, chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and flour.

Mix to combine.

Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.

When ready to eat, toast the buns and spoon the Sloppy Joe mixture onto each bun. If you cannot find brioche buns, hamburger buns are a perfect substitute.

The mixture thickens while cooking but still leaves some sauce to make this truly a “sloppy” meal. I added some coleslaw to my bun which added a really nice crunch to the sandwich.

There are a lot of yummy flavors that come through in this sandwich: it’s tangy, sweet, with a touch of spice.

This recipe makes about 10 servings so it’s great for feeding a crowd or to make ahead of time during the weekend so you have meals during the week!