The inspiration for this receipe came mainly from two things. The first being I've been on the hunt for quick & great tasting recipes and came across Sloppy Joes in my cookbook du jour; The Best 30-Minute Recipes by the Editors of Cook's Illustrated.
Secondly, incorporating cornbread, which I both love and was stolen from another recipe, Skillet Tamale Pie which was on the page before. After I read the Skillet Tamale recipe, I knew it wasn't for me but I liked that it was topped and baked with cornbread. And so the journey begins...
The Sloppy Joe's: I use the recipe from America's Test Kitchan as a base but modified it by using ground turkey. I also added more of slightly heaping 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder, because I wasn't adding in the Tabasco. Additionally I added a tad more garlic & brown sugar. Just make sure the sloppy joes aren't too dry as you'll want some good moisture to go with the cornbread.
The Cornbread: I've made tons of cornbread from scratch and quite frankly, I still find myself going back to the Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix. It's cheap, fast and I love the flavor as it's a sweeter mix and goes well with the robust sloppy joe's.
The recipe is simple.
1) Make your favorite sloppy joes.
2) Put the hot sloppy joe mixture into a 9x9 baking pan
3) Make your favorite cornbread mix.
(A box of Jiffy Cornbread Mix works well).
4) Bake according to cornbread directions
(usually takes a little less time so watch it carefully)
5) Enjoy!
It turned out AWESOME! We liked it so much I'm going to make it in bulk and freeze some 2-portion containers for weeknight meals.
