Sloppy Joe Grilled Cheese

A Grilled Cheese and Sloppy Joe comes together in Holy Matrimony to make this Sloppy Joe Grilled Cheese - and is on the table in just 30 minutes.

During the busy fall, I travel often for hunting or to follow clients who are hunting. When I’m finally home for a few days with the girls, I prefer slow cooker meals or simple 30-minute meals like this sloppy joe grilled cheese sandwich. If you have ground venison or ground beef thawing in your refrigerator, you're already halfway to dinner.

Ground venison makes a great dinner staple for several reasons. We can easily grind it ourselves from the two front quarters of our deer. It's super versatile and works in countless recipes. Plus, it’s tasty!

However, if you've been cooking the same old meals week after week (Hello Venison Chili), it can get boring.

Ground Venison Recipes

Enter recipes like this Venison Sloppy Joe Grilled Cheese. From weeknight burgers like my Venison Cheeseburger to my Blue Cheese Venison Burgers, this website has a huge mix of classic, simple ground venison recipes. Some innovative ground venison dishes (without pasta) will have your family running, not walking, to the dinner table.

A sloppy joe is not complicated. It has long been a big favorite for family dinners across the country. It’s no surprise that I created a wild game version using ground venison. The messy meat sandwich is a little spicy and a little sweet. When it’s covered in melted cheddar cheese, the only thing you have to worry about is eating too many.

What Is Sloppy Joe?

The Sloppy Joe is a sandwich traditionally made with ground beef and tomato sauce. Pretty simple, right? The Sloppy Joe’s history is more complicated, depending on who you ask. I prefer the following explanation.

Marilyn Brown, Director of the Consumer Test Kitchen at H.K. Heinz in Pittsburgh, researched the origin of the sandwich. Brown says their research at the Carnegie Library suggests the Sloppy Joe began in a Sioux City, Iowa, cafe. In 1930, a cook named Joe created it as a "loose meat sandwich" - The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter: New York] 1997 (p. 349).

If you prefer a "regular" homemade sloppy joe sandwich without cheese, check out my recipe for Venison Sloppy Joes.

Sloppy Joes In Key West

In my early 20s, I lived and worked on Captiva Island near Fort Myers, Florida. A group of us from the restaurant loved taking high-speed catamaran rides to Key West. One of our favorite spots to eat on Duval Street was Sloppy Joe's.

Originally launched under a different name, Ernest Hemingway encouraged rebranding the bar as Sloppy Joe’s. It had nothing to do with a sandwich. The name came from Jose Garcia Rios’ Havana Club, which sold liquor and iced seafood.

“Because the floor was always wet with melted ice, his patrons taunted this Spanish "Joe" for running a “sloppy” place,” said Donna Edwards, Key West's Sloppy Joe’s Brand Manager. “The name stuck.”

“A loose beef sandwich was on the menu at the original Sloppy Joe’s in Havana, Cuba,” confirmed Edwards.

The Key West version of Sloppy Joe’s has served the sandwich since the beginning. Today, the popular bar and grill sells more than 50,000 Sloppy Joes a year.

The Manwich

Manwich, slush burger, yum yums, dynamite, spoonburgers, tavern sandwich—Sloppy Joes have many names. The most well-known is Manwich.

As much as I'd like to think the name refers to the Sloppy Joe being a man’s favorite sandwich, it actually comes from a brand of canned Sloppy Joe sauce. ConAgra Foods and Hunt’s launched it in 1969. I confess, I do like the stuff on occasion. I've made many Mule Deer Manwiches using the Manwich "BOLD" Sloppy Joe Sauce in a can.

Marketed with the slogan “A sandwich is a sandwich, but a Manwich is a meal,” it’s no surprise the one-pan meal became so popular during the 1970s and 80s. For many years, Americans made their Sloppy Joes straight from a can.

How To Make Sloppy Joe Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Sloppy Joe Mix

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil. Add onion and sauté, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add minced garlic and sauté with onions another 1 minutes.

2. Add ground venison and cook, stirring and breaking up meat with wooden spoon until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and paprika and mix well.

3. Stir in ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire, brown sugar, and chili powder. Simmer until thick, about 4 minutes. Transfer mixture to a plate and wipe skillet clean.

Assemble sandwiches

1. Butter one side of each slice of Texas Toast and pile on ¼ cup of shredded cheese on the opposite side. Then spoon some of the sloppy joe mixture on top of the cheese. Then top that with another ¼ cup of shredded cheddar cheese and one more slice bread, buttered-side up.

2. Cook over medium heat until bread is golden brown, and cheese is melted, about 3 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining ingredients to make 4 sandwiches total.

Ground Venison Recipes For Weeknight Dinners

After a long day of work, it's not always easy to face your kitchen and whip up dinner. But I hope this recipe and my other venison recipes will give you inspiration and motivation you need to get excited about cooking every night.

Grab a stack of napkins. If you make this sloppy joe with cheese, it's about to get sloppy!

If you are huge fan of sandwiches like we are, you also might want to try out my Venison Patty Melt and my Venison Cheeseburger Sliders.

Come Deer Hunting in North Dakota

If you are headed our way for North Dakota deer season, check out the North Dakota Game & Fish Department website. And if you want me to come along with you as your camp cook, photographer, or butcher, you can find out more details here.

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DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE

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