If you like bold Asian flavors AND sloppy joes, this Asian Sloppy Joe is the culinary mashup you need to make.
We’ve seen variations of this recipe floating around the internet, and we always wanted to give it a try. Sloppy Joes are one of our favorite quick weeknight dinners and we love Asian flavors – what wasn’t to like?
It turns out that this recipe is super simple to make and incredibly delicious. Even our 4 year old liked the savory, sweet, and tangy flavors of the Asian Sloppy Joe filling.
We know you may be wondering how this Asian Sloppy Joe recipe works so well, so we are answering a few questions and providing a little background about the recipe in the section below.
If you’re ready to get cooking, just skip to the ingredients and get started!
Why did you use ground pork for the Asian Sloppy Joe?
We used ground pork for our Asian Slopyy Joes for a few reasons:
- Ground pork is super affordable at Lake Geneva Country Meats, which is great when you’re making quick weeknight dinners or feeding a crowd.
- The lighter flavor compared to beef really helps the Asian flavors in this dish pop.
- Since our ground pork at Lake Geneva Country Meats is 80% lean compared to 85% lean ground beef, the little bit more fat helps balance the acidity in sauce we mix into the pork!
If you don’t have ground pork or don’t want to use ground pork, you could substitute ground beef or ground chicken, but we really do recommend using ground pork if you can!
What are all the ingredients in the Asian Sloppy Joe sauce?
We used a combination of ingredients you probably have in your kitchen with some you may not.
Ketchup, soy sauce, and lime juice are typical ingredients in American kitchens, but hoisin sauce and mirin are a little less common.
Hoisin sauce is a thick sauce found in many Chinese recipes as a marinade for meat, sauce for stir-fry or as a dipping sauce. It is simultaneously sweet, salty, garlicky, and savory in taste!
Mirin is a Japanese cooking wine that brings a touch of sweetness to balance out the saltiness of the soy sauce and Hoisin sauce. You could substitute 1 tsp. of white sugar if you don’t have mirin available, but the mirin does bring real Asian flavor that we enjoy.
You could also add a tablespoon or so of an Asian hot sauce like Sriracha to the sauce if you want to spice it up a bit. That’s up to your personal taste!
How do I assemble my Asian Sloppy Joe sandwich?
We like serving our Asian Sloppy Joes with a little broccoli slaw on top. It brings a bit of crunch and bite to the mixture. You can buy premade broccoli slaw and put it on raw top with no fuss, or follow a recipe like this to make a dressed slaw.
We served our Asian Sloppy Joes on plain burger buns and they tasted great, although the sweetness in a Hawaiian roll would taste really good with the mixture as well!
Oh! If you want a spicier version of this salad, you could put sliced pickled jalapeño peppers on top as well!
I want to serve these at a party – any tips?
Sloppy Joes are a staple of Midwestern parties, and you can bring a little extra flavor to your party by serving these Asian Sloppy Joes.
If you’re looking to serve a crowd, we suggest making a triple batch of these sandwiches in a Dutch oven on your stovetop. You can then transfer the cooked mixture to a slow cooker to keep warm for serving.
You could leave the mixture in the Dutch oven over low heat on the stovetop for serving, but it’s likely to scorch or dry out, so we recommend moving the mixture to a slow cooker!
We hope that answered all of the questions you may have about our Asian Sloppy Joe sandwiches are you’re ready to get cooking!
If there are more questions in your head that we haven’t answered, leave us a comment, and we’ll get back to you. Likewise, if you made any changes to the recipe, we’d love to hear them!
Finally, if you enjoy this ground pork recipe, that’s awesome! It’s an affordable cut of meat that’s underutilized. You can find more ground pork recipes here.
Have a great day – we’ll see you soon at Lake Geneva Country Meats!
