One Pan, Spicy, Black Bean, Chipotle Sloppy Joes. Or Maybe Chili.

1 lb ground beef
16 oz can black beans, drained
16 oz can of plain tomato sauce
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced green pepper
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tbls red wine vinegar
1 tsp chipotle powder
sharp cheddar cheese
hot sauce to taste
salt and pepper to taste
oil for browning

Crumble and brown the beef over medium high heat until ~3/4 cooked, then push it to one side of the pan. Add the onions and peppers, saute until the onions are translucent, then add the garlic. Saute for ~30 seconds more then mix everything together. If the beef starts to over brown while you're dealing with the vegetables just give it a little stir. Add the vinegar and stir real quick to deglaze a bit. Turn the heat down to low, add the tomato sauce, beans, chipotle powder, brown sugar and let it simmer for ~15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until it's as sloppy as you want. Add the hot sauce, some salt and pepper if it needs it and serve on a toasty roll with the cheddar. If you put the cheddar underneath it melts when you put the sloppy joe stuff on.

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If you put beans in sloppy joe does it make it chili? Not all chili has beans, but they share most of the same ingredients. I guess my chili recipe is more broth based than tomato based and it's more complex than sloppy joe. Plus I probably wouldn't use canned tomato sauce in chili... hm.

Anyway I think I'm going to call it sloppy joe, since I ate it on a roll. I didn't really get any prep shots, but I did get one that I think shows pretty much what it's like in my new kitchen. Peppers in the dish drainer, can of tomato sauce in the sink. Yeah, that's a paper plate for a cutting board, none of my real boards fit in a safe way and my knives need sharpening anyway. My spices are behind me on top of a big, round, plastic sugar container so I'm afraid you can't see them. Once I get a kitchen table set up (in the bedroom, with the fridge of course) I'll have a lot more prep space and that will be good.

I like doing it all in one pan like this. Not only because it's just one thing to wash, but as the beef sits to one side finishing cooking the fat drips down and kind of auto-greases the pan. At least it does if your stove is slanted like mine, otherwise you can just tip it a bit with the onions and peppers towards you every once in a while so some gets down there. I like 90/10 beef, personally, I find it just the right ratio so I don't need to add more fat or skim any off at the end.

And now here's a gratuitous pan shot to pad out the end of the post since that's really all I've got. Like how I slipped that in real subtle? Heh.

So, what do you guys think, sloppy joe or chili?