Ground Pork Is The Secret For Sloppy Joes You Won't Be Able To Get Enough Of

The name "sloppy Joe" might sound like an insult, but this sandwich is anything but. It's made with a fluffy, pillowy bun filled with copious amounts of ground meat (typically beef), along with a sweet tomato sauce. Not only is this sandwich a relatively affordable meal to make, but it's just so darn tasty. Although the classic sloppy Joes recipe sticks to ground beef, there are many other proteins you can try — including ground pork.

Ground pork is the secret ingredient for delicious sloppy Joes because it's really fatty, which will give this sandwich a more luxurious bite and flavor. If you like the classic leanness of an 80/20 ground beef, you can always supplement your sloppy Joes with pork instead of making a full swap. Or, if you want to hit your sandwich with an overwhelming porky flavor, nix the beef entirely in favor of it. Either way, you'll want to cook the meat until it browns before you add the rest of your ingredients to the pan, like that delectable sauce.

You can always pick up a container of regular ground pork from the meat aisle of your grocery store. Or, you can take things a step further by adding a more flavorful ground pork product to your sloppy Joes, like Mexican chorizo. It's not the same as Spanish chorizo because it isn't cured, smoked, or easily sliced. Rather, it crumbles, thanks to the addition of extra pork fat, and it's also brimming with seasonings like chilis, vinegar, and garlic. This flavorful sausage will easily perk up your recipe and bring a tongue-tingling flavor that will have you coming back for seconds, whether you're making saucy sloppy Joe tacos or a sloppy Joe grilled cheese.

If you like the spicy sausage flavor, you may also consider crumbling hot Italian sausage into the pan with the ground beef. The same can be done with sweet sausage for those who want to keep the attention on the sauce. We recommend purchasing actual ground sausage, rather than the stuff already in a casing, to eliminate any extra work. The ground meat product is also easier to measure, so you can achieve the perfect ratio of ground beef to tasty pork.