Spicy Slow-Cooker Sloppy Joes

A few years ago, I was really into making spicy Sloppy Joes with turkey. I liked to play up a "Southwestern" twist on my Sloppy Joe dinners by serving them with jalapeno cheddar or hot sauce/Tabasco. I even have the mint green cafeteria-style serving trays that I used for my dinner parties to prove it. After recently remaking the recipe I discovered how delightful eating a Sloppy Joe becomes after the filling starts to melt away the integrity of the bun.

From Boston

I adapted my recipe from the PBS Everyday Food series.

Tools to keep your prep to a minimum:

Food processor
Crock-pot

The stuff for a group of four:

1 medium onion, finely chopped/pulsed
½ green bell pepper, finely chopped/pulsed
1 jalapeno or serrano chili pepper, finely chopped/pulsed
1 stalk celery, finely chopped/pulsed
2 garlic cloves, minced/pulsed
1/2 teaspoon red chili flake
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more)
1/2 teaspoon, cumin
1 pound ground turkey
1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
Coarse salt and black ground pepper to taste
8 hamburger buns, split and toasted

Steps to make:

1. pulse the veggies in smaller batches
2. add veggies, meat, seasoning, tomato sauce and ketchup to crock-pot
3. run the crock-pot High a minimum of 3 hours or run it on low for 5 hours to overnight. The longer the crock-pot runs, the more the veggies seem to disappear and cook into the sauce.
4. add salt and pepper to taste
5. Serve on buns for a delicious experience.


Variations: This makes an equally nice taco filling or nacho topper. Or add beans for a chili con carne dinner. Replace the meat completely since the magic is in the tomato sauce/ketchup/onion/garlic/pepper base anyway.

For a crowd: To feed a group of 20, I increased this recipe six times over. I saved some cash by using 80/20 ground beef and eliminated the spices. The batch fit into two large Crock-Pots.