Recipe: Bison Sloppy Joes

I moved into my first apartment nearly 8 years ago now. Can that really be right?! The point of me bringing this up is to say that in 8 years of living in a home with my own kitchen, providing for myself, and cooking for myself, I can honestly say I never had the urge to make sloppy joes until just a couple months ago.

I've always been of the mindset: "Why would you make a sloppy joe, when it's the same ingredients as a burger... and then you could just have a burger?!"

But for some reason, just a few months ago, I really just wanted a sloppy joe. So I went against all my instincts and started browning up some bison burger instead of forming it into patties and throwing them on the grill. And to tell you the truth... I REALLY liked it!

So, here I am yesterday, going back through old instagram pictures and came across my sloppy joe image and I thought: "Yup... I'm hungry for that again." So, I thawed out another pound of ground bison and got to work.

The truth is Sloppy Joes are soooo easy. So there really isn't a lot to this blog post. It's also one of those meals (kinda like chili) where everyone sort of has their own way of doing things. So this is my way -- adjust it as you like! But I will warn you... this is one of my recipes where you'll see "to taste" more than you'll see actual measurements. I'm sorry if this scares you... you can see my pictures to balance against your own. But really with something like sloppy joes, everyone has their own personal taste preferences... just because I like a certain amount of ketchup or mustard doesn't mean you won't want a different ratio. And besides... I'm not about to sit down and measure out how much ketchup I'm using when I can just squirt it out of the bottle. I really don't think you'll ruin your batch anyways. :)



So, as with many of my recipes, you'll start with a pound of ground bison and a chopped onion. Season the meat with seasoning salt and black pepper.

Cook the onion and the meat over medium heat. You'll want to leave a little bit of pink -- don't cook it all the way through to well done. Drain the grease (if necessary).

Next, you'll add the sauce. I use about half as much mustard as I use of ketchup. I also sprinkle on some garlic and Worcestershire sauce. You can use minced or chopped garlic (if you do this, you may want to cook it with the bison and the onion at the beginning) or you can use garlic powder or garlic salt. I had garlic salt, so that's what I used.

Keep the burner on medium low and stir everything together. You're done! That was super easy, right! :) 

Other things you can add to your sauce if you want: horseradish sauce, pepper, salt, bbq sauce (seriously... I think I'm probably going to try a BBQ Sloppy Joe recipe soon and see how that turns out), probably plenty of other stuff.

Top it with pickles, more onion, cheese or whatever else you like to top a burger with. I'm not here to judge you! Just make sure you put it on a good, sturdy bun. Otherwise it will really become a "sloppy" joe! (And I don't know about you, but I really don't like that part.)

Here's my sloppy joe. I served it up with leftover mashed potatoes and some homemade crockpot creamed corn. Not too shabby for a thrown together meal!

Are you new to bison? Are you just not sure where to get it? Or maybe you just need more... no matter which it is... I can help you out! Purchase ground bison meat now from my online shop.