A sandwich is a sandwich, but a Manwich is a meal!
As I have already mentioned, today I share a birthday with my cousin Jason. A week ago he e-mailed me and requested that I create ‘The Ultimate Manwich’ for his birthday and post it on Pinch My Salt. No other instructions or descriptions were given. He just asked for The Ultimate Manwich.
Believe it or not, I love it when I get requests to create something! Remember Ruby’s request for Pumpkin Scones? Jason makes these requests fairly often but they are usually off-the-wall combinations of ingredients that I don’t bother to take seriously. However, I knew I could come up with a good Sloppy Joe recipe so I was excited about this one!
Those of you who aren’t in the United States probably have no idea what a Manwich is. Manwich is the brand name of a seasoned tomato sauce that is mixed with cooked ground beef and put on a hamburger bun or bread to create a sandwich. The sandwich is typically called a Sloppy Joe although I am sure there are other names for it. I’m pretty sure I liked to eat manwiches as a kid, but I am really not a fan of the canned Manwich sauce nowadays. I tried it a couple years ago and swore I would never buy that stuff again. Yuck! But, Sloppy Joes are fun every once in a while so now I just make them from scratch. I’ve even previously written about one of the recipes I tried but I’ve always known that I could come up with a better one.
In order to make a traditional Sloppy Joe into an Ultimate Manwich, I knew I needed to add something extra. Sloppy Joes are often a little sweet (sometimes a lot sweet) and I love the combination of sweet and spicy so I knew I would first have to add some extra heat. I could have just added extra crushed red pepper or thrown in some fresh chilies. But it occurred to me that one more flavor would go perfectly with the spicy and sweet. Smoky! I decided the perfect solution would be to add some canned chipotle peppers in adobo. Chipotles are smoke-dried jalapeño peppers and in grocery stores you will often find them canned in adobo sauce. The chipotle in adobo would add both the spice I was after and a hint of smoke. And the yummy adobo sauce adds even more flavor!
Now I knew I was on to something but I thought I might need one more thing to make this sandwich ‘The Ultimate.’ And what’s one ingredient that makes just about everything better? No, not bacon (although the thought did cross my mind). Cheese! I decided to stir in some extra sharp Wisconsin cheddar at the very end. Just enough to add that extra dimension of flavor and some extra ’sloppiness.’
Yesterday, I started looking through previous sloppy joe recipes I had tried and even some I hadn’t. Before heading to the store, I created a list of ingredients I knew I wanted to use:
red bell pepper
onion
fresh garlic
chipotle chili in adobo
apple cider vinegar
brown sugar
chili powder
cumin
cinnamon
salt
fresh ground pepper
crushed red pepper
ground beef
extra sharp cheddar
Looking at my list, I knew I had a great recipe before I even started making it! I picked up all the ingredients yesterday afternoon and had planned on making these then. But as you might have read yesterday, I lost my momentum and decided to make them first thing this morning instead.
So I got up this morning and gathered my ingredients:
First, I chopped the red bell pepper, onion and two cloves of garlic.
I also chopped up one chipotle chili and set it aside.
I poured a couple tablespoons of olive oil into a large skillet and turned the heat to medium.
Next, I added the onions and red bell peppers (not the garlic yet).
I cooked the onions and peppers over medium heat, stirring regularly. This is what they looked like after five minutes.
But I kept cooking them until the onions were just slightly brown and the peppers were getting soft. After seven minutes, I added the garlic and one chopped chipotle chili and cooked, stirring, for one more minute.
Then I added one 15 oz. can of tomato sauce, one 6 oz. can of tomato paste, one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, one tablespoon of adobo sauce from the canned chilies, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and a dash of cinnamon and I stirred it all together. And I didn’t forget the chili powder, I just ended up not needing it after all.
I was tempted to add more salt at this point but decided that I wanted to season the ground beef as it was cooking so I held off on adjusting the sauce seasonings. Since I wanted the sauce to be somewhat similar in appearance to what comes out of the can, I decided to puree the mixture in a blender. So I let it cool slightly then spooned it into the blender.
I then pureed it until it was fairly smooth.
After it was the consistency I wanted, I just let the sauce hang out in the blender while I prepared the ground beef. I just rinsed and re-used the same skillet I had used for the sauce. I re-heated the skillet over medium heat and crumbled about one pound of ground beef into the pan.
While it was cooking, I seasoned the meat with half a teaspoon salt, some fresh ground black pepper, and a generous pinch of crushed red pepper. I cooked the meat until it was almost fully cooked but still a little pink in some spots.
As you can see, my beef wasn’t very lean! But that’s ok, because I just poured off all the fat.
After draining the fat off the ground beef, I poured in all of the sauce from the blender.
I stirred it all together and set the heat to medium low.
I cooked the mixture, stirring constantly until it was bubbling and had thickened enough to where it was ‘moundable’ enough for a sandwich. Then I turned off the heat.
Now it was time for the cheese! I chose yellow cheddar over white because it matched the color of the sauce 
I shredded about one cup of cheese (3 oz. or so) and added it to the sauce mixture.
I gently stirred it in and my Ultimate Manwich filling was finished!
It was now ready for a bun!
And guess what I ate for my birthday breakfast?
I’m not kidding, I really did eat this at 10:30 a.m. for a late breakfast. I hadn’t eaten yet and believe me, this sandwich was pretty irresistible! I couldn’t finish it all but that’s because I had overloaded it with meat for photographic purposes. But I’m pretty sure that Jason would have eaten the entire thing if he were here!
So, that was Jason’s Ultimate Birthday Manwich. And guess what I have decided to call it?
The Sloppy Jason!
I had to name the sandwich after him because even though he doesn’t have a food blog, Jason was nice enough to create and name a sandwich after me in honor of my birthday. That’s right, Larry David isn’t the only one. There is now a sandwich called The Nicole.
Hope you have enjoyed my saucy beef sandwich experiment. I will have the recipe written out in standard form and added to the end of this post soon!
Happy birthday, Jason!
Oh, and Happy Birthday to me!
Yummy!!! That looks like a wonderful breakfast…
Happy birthday to you both!!!
1:42 pm Nov 30th, 2007I love sloppy joes. I’ve never had the canned kind, but I grew up on these. I haven’t made them in forever - maybe it will be my easy Friday night dinner!
1:43 pm Nov 30th, 2007I love reverse breakfast! Thanks Jason, great idea!
:) 
1:45 pm Nov 30th, 2007Happy Birthday Nicole, can’t wait to try this. Hey I use the same sea salt and pepper grinder from Costco! Man I love Costfco.
Anyhow have a great day!
Excellent Work, now I need somebody to make it for me. Nice touch with the napkin. I prefer to use another piece of bread to clean up.
Happy Birthday to us both indeed.
2:18 pm Nov 30th, 2007Summer: Yes, it was a good breakfast although I don’t think I’ll make a habit of it!
Deborah: It’s good that you’ve never had the canned kind
Ruby: I actually don’t like the costco pepper grinder, I can’t get a fine grind out of it at all. I actually used my own pepper grinder but just stuck the other one in the photo
Same thing with the salt. I ended up using my kosher salt because I didn’t feel like grinding out a full teaspoon 
Jason: Glad it meets your approval. Why don’t you make it?
2:25 pm Nov 30th, 2007Happy birthday Nicole:)
2:47 pm Nov 30th, 2007Happy Birthday to you both!! Thanks to both of you, I’m not very hungry (and I already ate lunch)
My husband loves Manwich (yuck!) and so I think as a special treat I will borrow your recipe and really knock his socks off. Thanks for sharing!
2:55 pm Nov 30th, 2007I meant, “I’m NOW very hungry”…not “not very hungry”.
See I’m so hungry that I can’t type correctly. Heh.
2:56 pm Nov 30th, 2007The Sloppy Jason - nice! Now for my birthday, I want you to drive up to Fresno and make Jason a “Sloppy Jason” so he wont bug me to do it! By the way…..what do I get for my birthday???
2:57 pm Nov 30th, 2007In the coincidence department, we made Sloppy Joes today for a late lunch/early supper. Quinn *loves* them. I must admit that yours look and sound better than mine.
4:18 pm Nov 30th, 2007Happy Birthday Nicole!
5:50 pm Nov 30th, 2007I hope your birthday has been great!
5:56 pm Nov 30th, 2007Interesting… Coming from Australia, I can’t say I’ve heard of the canned Sloppy Joe variety, but I regularly add “Man” to the front of any dish that is of significantly greater proportions than a it should be.
ie: Manwich, Manburger, Man-steak, Man-chop etc…
Come to think of it, there is an inherent implication of meat in any Man dish… a Man-falafel just wouldn’t work at all.
Anyway… here’s one of my past efforts in Man-dish making
http://abstractgourmet.com/2006/10/the-manwich/
Lovely work
I’ll have to give this one a go sometime.
6:08 pm Nov 30th, 2007In honor of your birthday, here’s a little song, Nicole. It’s sung to the tune of Happy Birthday:
8:06 pm Nov 30th, 2007Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, dear Nicole…
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday! What a fun way to celebrate.
8:21 pm Nov 30th, 2007Nicole, the manwich looks great and the chipotles win this guy over.
2:12 am Dec 1st, 2007Hippo Birdy to you!
I have to say that ‘The Nicole’ is a bit feminine of a name for that sandwich.
My wife laughs when I do that type of sandwich, because I have to have potato chips on it, too.. It’s something about the sloppiness going so well with the crunch.
6:33 am Dec 1st, 2007Happy Birthday Nicole and Jason! I hope it was a great one! ; )
8:37 am Dec 1st, 2007Happy Birthday! My fiance eats like a 10 year old, so he might actually try this. Thanks for a spiced up version of a classic kid favorite!
9:02 am Dec 1st, 2007I’ve never made a manwich, but I think I’ll be making A Nicole. Happy Birthday!
10:20 am Dec 1st, 2007Oh…I can almost smell that sandwich…Sloppy Joe Manwiches are on my list of guilty pleasures.
Is there any way to relay this information without sounding dirty?
11:50 am Dec 1st, 2007I never thought of naming my creations. But I guess I would have to come up with my own creation first. I love that you just whipped that sandwich together, no big deal. I have to follow a recipe, except with maybe pasta. The Sloppy Jason looks great. And so does the Nicole.
Happy Birthday!!
12:01 pm Dec 1st, 2007Thanks for this recipe! I like the idea of putting Chipotles con Adobo in with it. I wouldn’t have thought of that. I made tortilla soup yesterday and was going to have that for dinner again, but I think I’ll make this instead. I think I have all the ingredients (except the buns) in the kitchen! Including grass fed ground beef.
Great idea, that just hits the spot!
1:17 pm Dec 1st, 2007That’s one dang good sangwich you got there! Over the years, when researching the Sloppy Joe sandwich I leaned that Ssme folks claim that the Sloppy Joe sandwich was first created in a cafe in Sioux City, Iowa in 1930 by a cook named Joe. At that time it was called a “loose meat sandwich”. Other accounts suggest that the Sloppy Joe sandwich was created in Cuba and that it was named after “Sloppy Joe’s Bar” in Havana. The earliest versions of this sandwich consisted of spiced ground meat and nothing more. Later on, cooks began to add other ingredients such as tomato paste. Today, in northeastern Pennsylvania, this sandwich is known as a “wimpie” and in parts of southwestern Illinois it’s referred to as a “yip yip” sandwich. In New Jersey, a Sloppy Joe sandwich is unlike all others as it contains sliced deli meats such as turkey or ham, coleslaw, some sort of sliced cheese, Russian dressing and is served on sliced rye bread. Ooby dooby, it’s all good eatin!
1:27 pm Dec 1st, 2007Happy Birthday Nicole!!!
Haven’t heard Manwich for awhile. I’m going to have to try this recipe. Also, it’s good to know another November person - my birthday is on the 26th.
1:48 pm Dec 1st, 2007Happy Birthday! Hope your day was Mantastic! get it…manwich, mantastic…anyways, it’s Extra Sloppy here in Everett, we have about 2 inches of snow, can’t want to go boardin’. Happy Birthday, and have a great weekend!
3:43 pm Dec 1st, 2007Nicole I just made up your sloppy Joe recipe. YAY! It’s quite good. I didn’t put in quite as much Brown sugar, but everything else is the same . Thanks!
7:08 pm Dec 1st, 2007That brings back childhood memory. A manwich was a real treat.
7:31 am Dec 2nd, 2007Good thing I bought a bucket last week. Now I’m placing it under my chin to hold the excessive amount of drool that floweth. And I just ate!
By the way, loving the new theme and the rotating headers!
1:56 pm Dec 2nd, 2007Happy Birthday, Nicole!
I don’t like Sloppy Joes…or Jasons…by any other name, I’d still dislike them, but your DAMN photos of this caloric delight looked fabulous. I’ll have to try it.
Hope you celebrated big time!
LK
8:26 pm Dec 2nd, 2007Happy Birthday Nicole, You are a saggiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii……
6:06 am Dec 3rd, 2007I haven’t had a sloppy Joe is years, but this recipe is making me CRAVE one. Wowza. I think it’s safe to assume I will be putting this into my “how to get a guy” recipe box (if I had one)!
10:38 am Dec 3rd, 2007I would have eaten the whole thing…maybe not in one sitting!
12:50 pm Dec 3rd, 2007And look at all those food labels in English - does that seem strange?
Oh, my mother always made Sloppy Joes with tomato soup…yeah, they were good!
Happy belated!
3:34 pm Dec 3rd, 2007I just wanted you to know that I used your onion cutting technique that you talked about a while back to make some pasta sauce last night, and it’s the first time ever for me that I’ve gotten through cutting an entire onion without having to stop and rinse out my eyes or take a break. I’m extra susceptible to the onion demons, and this worked really well for me. Thanks!
4:36 pm Dec 3rd, 2007I love sloppy joes, the Manwich looks devine!
Happy Belated Birthday!
Cheers,
5:50 pm Dec 3rd, 2007Becca
[…] Cuban Sandwich 3 12 2007 Besides a Manwich (or The Sloppy Jason), my favorite sandwich of all time would have to be a Cuban […]
8:22 pm Dec 3rd, 2007wow!!!!
2:51 am Dec 4th, 2007such a great post and yummlicious looking too…….
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE!!
6:06 am Dec 4th, 2007You should have stuck a candle in your b-day breakfast manwhich;).
You’re pictures are gorgeous (as always).
Good job on re-vamping the ‘Manwich’! -Chef Matthew
7:47 am Dec 4th, 2007Happy B-Day!!
Good job!
8:00 am Dec 4th, 2007God you explained every steps
I recently made a baked pasta dish that called for a mix of ground lamb and ground veal. The browned meat was added to a fairly straight forward red sauce before being combined with the pasta. When I sampled the mixture at this point, I knew that I would eventually try a Sloppy Joe or a Manwich with at least a mix of ground lamb and beef, if not ground lamb and ground veal. The taste was fantastic. I think it would add something very nice to the typical sloppy joe.
Your recipe sounds fantastic….particularly the addition of the chipotles, which seems an excellent way to give the sloppy joe a deep and “mannish” quality.
9:48 am Dec 4th, 2007Oooh, I love the addition of chipotle! Happy bday :).
9:56 am Dec 4th, 2007YUM—-my dad used to make Sloppy Joe’s for us when we were kids—but I agree that a “from scratch” version seems FAR better and even a tad more—dare I say—sophisticated! LOVE the chipotles in it—-they have amazing flavor (and color).
7:28 pm Dec 4th, 2007BTW—-love your Trader Joe’s Organic Olive oil in the photos—the same one I use—love it!
Happy Birthday!
wow, this looks like a serious eatster!
2:43 pm Dec 5th, 2007wow, the sandwich looks great!, but i was more caught by the highly-fitting name:)
11:46 am Dec 6th, 2007Wow . . . cheddar in sloppy joes (I mean sloppy nicoles) . . . revolutionary. I’ll have to give it a try.
And hey . . . I’m still waiting on a braise . . .
Happy birthday, Nicole!
2:08 pm Dec 6th, 2007Good idea. And if there was an award for ‘most photos in a blog post to illustrate a recipe’, you’d have it, hands down.
6:46 pm Dec 6th, 2007Happy birthday!
Okay - you made the super manwich. You deserve a huge medal. It looks so good. Yummy! I am going to link up to you in my post — to show how a manwhich SHOULD be made.
7:27 pm Dec 6th, 2007http://christyhulsey.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/sloppy-joe-and-green-beans/
[…] you REALLY want to make a Manwich try Nicole at Pinch My Salt’s recipe.? Her post on the Ultimate Manwich make mine flale in comparison!? She’s cookin’ with gas, compadres.? Compared to her […]
7:39 pm Dec 6th, 2007Wow this is a real ultimate manwich, amazing.
1:26 pm Dec 7th, 2007Happy (late) birthday for you both
Where’s my birthday sammich?
4:29 pm Dec 7th, 2007You might want to try grinding up a little frozen liver or kidney and adding it to the ground beef. The word “manwich” makes me think of something robust and hearty. Organ meats certainly do that on the flavor end of things, and they add nutritional value.
John
3:21 am Dec 8th, 2007Great looking manwich. I like how you have photographed the process step by step. Excellent job.
That is one filling meal for anyone.
9:39 pm Dec 18th, 2007i feel questionable, although it may tickle your timbers, i feel questionable serving a sizeable portion of manwich to anyone with a history of good ole, porking out, therefore this whole thing is unattractive. verily.
8:29 am Jun 23rd, 2008I have a history of “good ole, porking out?”
9:01 am Jun 23rd, 2008Yes, Jason, apparently you do!
9:36 am Jun 23rd, 2008I tried out this recipe with a few minor changes….and it was fabulous! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful dish…I’ll definetly be making this again.
8:57 am Jun 27th, 2008Jen: So glad you liked it! Feel free to share your changes…I’m constantly changing my own recipes and it’s always good to hear suggestions!
11:38 am Jun 27th, 2008hey, same birthday! AND i have a young cousin with the same!
9:23 am Jul 15th, 2008you’re a girl after my own heart, but obviously with a lot more talent!
i love the fresh ingredients, not to mention i can make a double batch and freeze some for later in the month for an easy meal on a busy night! my family will love you for this!
oh, and i added some leftover (brown rice) risotto last week when i made sloppy joes from the can (first time in years, which is why i ended up googling it)… helped to bulk it up with whole grain, reduced the amount of red meat we all ate per sandwich, and the other ingredients didn’t hurt either (mushrooms, spinach) didn’t seem to affect the flavor very much, so the guys didn’t notice.
9:32 am Jul 15th, 2008