Chipotle Sloppy Joes

These Sloppy Joes have got some heat behind them!  My mouth was still feeling the heat after I was done.  My husband called it a slow burn!  In any case they were great and a new twist on the traditional family recipe.  I saw this in Cooking Light and knew it had to be added to the menu for a fun Friday meal.  My husband was even home for dinner that night so it was even better.  I did make a small change to the recipe.  I added some water to the mixture at the end to thin it down a little.  I’m always amazed when a recipe tells you how many servings you should be able to get out of it, but when you look at it all cooked up all you can do is laugh!  Wow!  Honestly, this served about 3 people instead of 4 or 6.  You have been warned.  My husband isn’t a huge fan of onions, especially when they are so large and cooked so there were more for me.  I thought the onions gave it a nice touch.  From what my husband reports it was great as leftovers too.

Enjoy!

source: Cooking Light

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 2 1/2  cups  presliced Vidalia or other sweet onion
• 1  (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
• 1  pound  ground sirloin
• 1/2  cup  prechopped green bell pepper
• 2  tablespoons  tomato paste
• 1  teaspoon  kosher salt
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1  (8-ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce
• 5  (1 1/2-ounce) hamburger buns, toasted

Preparation

1. Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion to pan; cover and cook 8 minutes or until golden brown, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; set aside.

2. Remove 1 teaspoon adobo sauce from can; set aside. Remove 1 chipotle chile from can; chop and set aside. Reserve remaining chiles and adobo sauce for another use.

3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add beef to pan; cook 4 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add bell pepper to pan; sauté 2 minutes. Stir in chopped chipotle chile, adobo sauce, tomato paste, and next 3 ingredients (through tomato sauce); cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Spoon 1/2 cup beef mixture over bottom half of each bun, and top evenly with onions and top half of bun.

Plate with pickle chips and a simple slaw. Combine 1/3 cup canola-based mayonnaise, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Add 3 cups packaged cabbage-and-carrot coleslaw, tossing well to combine.

Sophisto Joes

These are not your mama’s Sloppy Joes! These are wonderful! My husband says that I have now cooked “two hot meals in a row.” I had to ask him to clarify that one! He meant that he loved the Chicken Roll-ups from last night and then this recipe! I found this recipe when I was going through my Gourmet magazines. I ended up with a free year subscription by using up some frequent flier miles that were about to expire with a certain airline. I really didn’t like the magazine at first because I thought the recipes were too fancy and contained ingredients were too hard to find. Now I love it! I was ripping out recipes that I liked and came across this one. I saw it and decided that I had to make it for dinner this week. We loved these Sloppy Joes! They are so different but also refined! When I was searching online for a link to the recipe, I found it on Epicurious.com. Quite interesting! Enjoy!

source: Gourmet magazine (Epicurious.com)

Ingredients:

1 (14 1/2-ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice, drained

1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 celery rib, finely chopped
1 1/2 lb ground beef chuck
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
4 kaiser rolls, split

Preparation

Purée tomatoes in a blender.

Cook onion and garlic in butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until onion begins to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add carrot, celery, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, 4 to 5 minutes.

Add beef and brown, stirring to break up lumps, 5 to 6 minutes. Add chili powder, cumin, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Add puréed tomatoes, wine, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar and boil, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened, about 6 minutes. Season with salt and sandwich inside rolls.