Not your ordinary sloppy joe.
I found myself this morning making biscuits just the way my mother did — make them from scratch, pat them out about 1″ thick, cut with a biscuit cutter and THEN melt some bacon fat on the pan that I’m going to bake the biscuits on; and then if all that bacon fat isn’t enough, you put a biscuit on top of the fat and then flip it over so both surfaces (bottom and top) of the biscuit is coated with the delicious salty fat. Then, and only then, do you bake them in the oven. Now, that is a biscuit.
I think we all have recipes that were family favorites whether it is a simple biscuit, sandwich or something that takes hours or even days to prepare.
Who hasn’t had a Sloppy Joe at some time in their life. No one, I don’t think. I was never a fan of the canned Sloppy Joe mixes that one can buy and mix with some cooked hamburger meat and call it a sandwich or the ones that were served to us in our school cafeterias that were nothing more than cooked hamburger and ketchup.
A while back, we were at my sister’s house and she made a huge pot of OUR favorite cooked sandwich filling and that brought back memories of this little overlooked sandwich that I have not made in years and made the same way our mother and grandmother use to make them. Serve on a soft hamburger bun, a pile of potato chips and some pickles and you will have the best Sloppy Joe you have put in your mouth.
So, here it is in all it’s glory. A pretty simple sandwich with a surprise ingredient which is Chicken Gumbo Soup. I have no idea where this recipe came from as we have been making it this way since the 50’s and with the same Campbell’s Chicken Gumbo Soup. I think the soup adds more texture and taste with the little bits of rice and okra that’s part of the soup.
