Sloppy Joes is a popular American dish, traditionally made with ground beef.

This version of Sloopy Joes is made with chicken or turkey, and was handed down by Ralph’s mother Marion. It’s simple yet bursting with comfort food flavour—a perfect weeknight dinner and great way to use up leftover roast chicken or turkey and gravy. In fact, we often freeze a container of leftover chicken and gravy from a meal specifically for this dish.

Ralph grew up with this served on a bun, but he switched to serving it open-faced on a croissant, to make it less messy and easier to enjoy with a fork and knife. You could also enjoy this without bread as a comforting stew.

Ingredients (3 croissants):

• Butter (enough to sauté the onions)
• 2 large onions, chopped (pretty hard to use too many onions for this recipe)
• ½ cup chicken stock or water
• Leftover chicken, chopped
• Large stalk celery, chopped (optional)
• Gravy
• Salt and pepper (QB)
• Butter croissants
• Grated or sliced Gouda or cheddar cheese (optional)
• Chopped parsley (for extra health and hint of colour)
• Olive oil

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter in a pot.
2. Add the onions (and celery if using) and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes.
3. Add chicken, gravy, and stock. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer until the mixture becomes a thick stew.
4. If you had mainly stock and not much gravy you may need to thicken it a bit with flour.
5. Serve over warmed croissants, either with sliced cheese on the bottom or grated over top, sprinkled with parsley. Drizzle with olive oil.

🥂 Wine pairing: Riesling

Tips:

• If the stew isn’t thickening, mix in 1 Tbsp of flour with enough water to dissolve.
• You can also make this with leftover roast turkey.