A double whammy

Sloppy Hot Wing Joes
Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book Copyright 2008

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds ground chicken
2 carrots, peeled and chopped or grated
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 to 1/3 cup hot sauce I used Crystal
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup chicken stock
8 good quality burger rolls, split and toasted
1 cup blue cheese crumbles
2 large dill pickles, chopped

Heat the EVOO in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the meat and cook for 5-6 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Add the carrots, celery, onions and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 7 to 8 minutes more. Combine the vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire, hot sauce, tomato sauce, and stock in a mixing cup and pour over the contents of the pan. Mix thoroughly, and simmer for a few minutes more.

Split the rolls and toast under the broiler or in a toaster oven. Pile the sloppy Buffalo-style filling onto buns and top with blue cheese crumbles and chopped pickles.
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I can't seem to go wrong with any Rachael Ray recipes and I just can't seem to go wrong when it comes to ground chicken recipes either . I love all my ground chicken recipes.

This recipe was excellent - definitely something I will make again. I like that it has a good amount of vegetables right in there. I love blue cheese and pickles but they were just an added bonus to me. The meat is good enough on it's own without any toppings.

I chopped the vegetables rather finely in my mini-chopper the night before I made this so putting this together after work was a breeze. I only wish that I had purchased better buns but I forgot these were on the menu when I was picking out bread for the week.

I halved the recipe you see here and it was plenty for my husband and I (and he eats about enough for 2-3 people). My son wanted dinosaur chicken nuggets. He didn't ask for the nuggets because he didn't think he would like this - the nuggets were a new item in the house and he was excited about them. They were all-natural and he ate five of them so I don't feel too badly about letting him have them. At least it wasn't SpaghettiOs.

I wish I had made the entire recipe so I had a batch to freeze. I'm doing that more often these days and it's great to have a few things in the freezer ready to go. RR's recipes seem to be good for this - she can't seem to make anything with less than 2 pounds of meat - but thankfully so far every recipe I've tried of hers is something I wouldn't mind eating again.

(Check out all of my ground chicken recipes here.)

Question of the Day: Do you like blue cheese? pickles?