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Why You’ll Love It
Gochujang paste is a Korean red chili paste that is easy to find at your local grocery store, Trader Joe’s, Asian markets, or Amazon. I buy it at the Asian market because I just love going there. I always walk out with an ingredient or two that I’ve never used before in the kitchen…and always a loaf of Japanese milk bread – egg salad’s best friend.
Adding gochujang paste makes for a really tasty Korean sloppy joes recipe. You can serve the meat mixture as a rice bowl, as lettuce wraps, or on hamburger buns to make a hearty sandwich. To make this recipe even easier, try adding Spiceology Korean BBQ blend instead of the gochujang paste.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here’s what you’ll need to make this gochujang sloppy joe recipe. Find the full recipe plus printable recipe card with exact measurements and instructions below.
- Ground Beef – lean ground beef but you can also use ground turkey, ground chicken, or a mix of ground pork and beef
- Red or Green Bell Pepper – seeded and chopped
- Sweet Onion – a medium onion, chopped
- Gochujang – Korean chile paste. The amount of gochujang you use can be modified by hot spicy you’d like. This recipe has a hint of heat so you could easily add more the next time you make it
- Tomato Sauce – canned or homemade
- Tomato Paste – just a touch to help thicken the sauce and add flavor
- Worcestershire Sauce – adds depth of flavor and umami
- Yellow Mustard – you can use yellow mustard or a grain mustard if you’d like
- Brown Sugar – light or dark brown sugar adds a hint of sweetness and tame the acidity of the tomato sauce
- Garlic – minced whole garlic cloves
- Soy Sauce or Balsamic Vinegar – like Worcestershire, will add depth and umami
- Kosher salt & black pepper – all recipes on Farmgirl Gourmet call for Kosher salt, unless otherwise noted
- Buns or Rolls – whatever you fancy works just fine.
Steps to Make Sloppy Joes
Follow these simple steps to make this simple recipe for Korean beef sloppy joes.
Step 1: sauté the onions & peppers
Sauté the onions and peppers in a tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and allow to cook for 1 minute.
Step 2: brown the meat
Add the beef to the onion mixture and brown all the way through, about 5-6 minutes. Season with Kosher salt & pepper.
Step 3: add sauces
Add the gochujang, ketchup, tomato sauce, tomato paste, Worcestershire, brown sugar, yellow mustard, to the beef mixture and stir well to combine. Turn the heat down to medium-low and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, until thick, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Step 4: serve it up
Spoon meat mixture on buns or rolls and serve with your favorite side dish for sloppy joes.
What Side Dishes Go with Sloppy Joes?
You can serve almost anything as a side to sloppy joes, but here are some of my favorites:
- Potato chips – any kind
- French fries or sweet potato fries – crisp fried or baked fries are great with sloppy joes
- Quick pickles – crunchy quick pickles can be served on sloppy joes or as a side
- Tater tots – one of my favorite sides to serve with sloppy joes
- Onion rings – crisp fried onion rings pair well with sloppy joes
- Cole slaw – cold, crunchy cole slaw is a great side dish to sloppy joes
- Mac & Cheese – mac & cheese goes with anything and is especially good with sloppy joes
- Potato Salad – creamy potato salad is a great accompaniment to sloppy joes
Gochujang Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 8 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 tbsp gochujang paste
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp yellow mustard
- kosher salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- 4 hamburger buns or rolls
Instructions
- Sauté the onions and peppers in a tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and allow to cook for 1 minute.
- Add the ground beef to the onion mixture and brown all the way through, about 5-6 minutes. Season with Kosher salt & pepper.
- Add the gochujang, ketchup, tomato sauce, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, yellow mustard, to the beef mixture and stir well to combine. Turn the heat down to medium-low and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, until thick, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Spoon meat mixture on buns or rolls and serve with your favorite side dish for sloppy joes.
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Nutrition
*Nutritional information is not guaranteed to be accurate.
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Hi! I’m Heather
I’m Heather, a recipe developer and content creator based in Vancouver, Washington. I started Farmgirl Gourmet in 2006 because I believed weeknight dinners shouldn’t be boring and gourmet shouldn’t mean complicated. I’m also the co-founder of Spiceology, so safe to say I think about food for a living. Stick around for recipes that actually make it into your regular rotation.
Such great flavor! I was thinking of a pineapple salsa to smear the bun or top the meat or maybe as a side
I really love this recipe and hope you will too!