I’ve mentioned before on the blog that we celebrate birthdays with the birthday person choosing their meals for the day. Typically, when the girls were younger, breakfast and dinner were made at home and lunch was out at their favorite restaurant. These days, it varies as they are both adults but we still stick to at least dinner out with family and friends. My husband and I have our favorites for these at home birthday meals – I enjoy someone cooking me breakfast (I love all breakfast foods so it’s easy) and then dinner I definitely choose to go out! My husband is very easy – his favorite dinner to have on his birthday is Sloppy Joes and Tator Tots. He’s a simple man. Over the years, I’ve migrated him from the canned Sloppy Joe sauces to my own slow cooked recipe for his favorite sandwich.
It’s not his birthday, but I wanted to make the sandwiches as a surprise for him plus it also served as a new blog post! He was elated that we were having his favorite from his childhood and didn’t even ask where the Tator Tots were!
These Slow Cooker Sloppy Joe sandwiches are scrumptious, tangy, sweet, hearty, and satisfying and will take you back to your childhood. One thing I like is that I always have every ingredient on hand for the meat filling. Another is it makes enough for our dinner and then lunch or dinner the next day. I think the BEST feature of these retro sandwiches is that you make them in crockpot! Yes, you do have brown the ground beef and saute the onion on the stove, but it’s not the oven! You can top the sandwich with a slice of cheese or pickles, if you prefer.
Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- 2 lbs lean ground beef I use Laura's Lean Ground Beef
- 1 small onion finely diced
- 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 tbsp yellow mustard
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1/4 cup flour
- salt & pepper to taste
- Sandwich Buns
Instructions
- Spray your crockpot with non-stick spray. This will help with clean-up.
- In a large pan, brown the ground beef and when it's nearly done, add the finely diced onion. Cook a few minutes more, until the onion is softened. Drain excess grease. I find when I use Laura's Lean Ground Beef, I don't need to drain the meat, but it's your choice.
- In your crockpot, add the tomato sauce, minced garlic, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, mustard, Worchestershire sauce, water, brown sugar, chili powder, and flour. Whisk till smooth. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
- Add the cooked ground beef mixture to the crockpot and give it all a good stir.
- Cover and let it cook for 4 - 5 hours on low.
- Spoon filling onto sandwich buns and serve!
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