If Philadelphia Philly Cheesesteaks and Sloppy Joes were to make a baby, they would name it Sloppy Will after The Fresh Prince of Bellaire. Because they are fresh. A little bougie, a little hood.
Keto Sloppy Wills – Philly Cheesesteak
Ingredients
- 2.25 lbs of lean ground beef
- 1 onion sliced
- 1 green pepper sliced
- 16 oz of fresh sliced mushrooms
- 8 oz or 2 cups of mozzarella cheese / shredded
- 4 – 6 TBSP of Mayonnaise
- 1 Brown Gravy Packet powder
- Weber Chicago Seasoning
Instructions
- In an electric skillet or stovetop skillet, medium high heat, brown the beef / cook it thorough to almost thorough. Season with Chicago Seasoning while its raw.
- While that’s cooking, slice the onion and green pepper.
- When the beef is done, add the packet of brown gravy and mix. If you have enough grease in the pan, you probably don’t need to add water, but if you don’t have much grease in the pan, you can add a couple TBSP of water to help the gravy spread to all the meat.
- Add onion and green pepper and mushroom. Cover with lid.
- Cook about 5 more minutes until the veggies get a little tender. Maybe 10 minutes. Whatever is your preference on veggie tenderness.
- Turn off heat. Add the mozzarella cheese and mayonnaise, and mix it into one big pile of sloppy slop.
- If you want the carbs, you can serve this in hot dog buns (they are the easiest) or hamburger buns. If you don’t want the carbs, this is fine on a plate and eat it with a fork. You can sprinkle a little extra mozzarella on top for aesthetic reasons.
Where did I get this Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes Recipe?
Originally, I saw a recipe on Facebook for Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes, where they make this similarly to how I make it, but it was much more plain, and they used hamburger buns. So it’s similar to a Sloppy Joe. Once I started making it, I made some enhancements.
I have never had an actual Philadelphia Cheesesteak from Philadelphia, despite my brother being a huge Eagles fan. But there are two Philly Cheesesteaks I’ve had in the past that were awesome. One was a small sub shop in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and from what I understand, the owners were from Philadelphia. The other was my friend Joy’s. Best sub I ever had. She said the secret to her subs being awesome is to use extra cheese and extra mayo.
So of course, I had to add mayo to this wonderful thing, and extra cheese, and I needed to give it a name. That was the hard part.
Sloppy Joes are named after Joe. So I was thinking Sloppy <Name>. But who? Sloppy Sly? after Rocky. or Sloppy Will? after Will Smith. For a second, I thought about going football and do a Sloppy Ricky after Ricky Waters. That’s probably the best name for it. But I decided to go Will because he was Fresh. He is a Prince you know.
I have noticed other people’s recipes for Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes, and they are drawn out. Lots of prep. Lots of extra steps. I needed to adjust mine to mom life. Minimal effort but worth getting fat over.
Substitute Ingredients for the Sloppy Will
I like the ground beef. I hate Steak-umms. Definitely, never attempt this with freezer burnt Steak-umms. It’s almost traumatizing. But I have tried this with fajita style steak, and other various cuts of beef, and I still prefer the ground beef.
Now what kind of ground beef? If you are aiming for healthier despite the mayo, I’d go with the leanest meat you can find. Just know, it doesn’t produce much grease. Some of them produce a lot of water. I do find the 80/20 beef to work the best.
Skip Slicing Veggies and get a bag of frozen green pepper and onion. Some stores carry that. If you can’t find that, you usually can find a green pepper, a red pepper, and an onion variety, and that works just fine too.
I also prefer the mozzarella over provolone. I don’t know why, but Provolone doesn’t taste as well to me, and it sometimes makes me sick. So I stick to Mozzarella. But you might like it with Provolone.
The gravy– I usually use a brown gravy packet, but it’s also good with Mushroom Gravy.
The Chicago Seasoning – that just adds a little extra flavor and spice to it. If you don’t have that, the gravy packet suffices for seasoning for the most part. You may add salt and pepper. Or you could use whatever seasoning you usually use on beef whether it’s Lowry’s or maybe just some garlic salt.
Do your kids hate veggies or mushrooms?
I was super blessed to give birth to 3 kids who love fresh vegetables. Often, in their earlier years, they would steal veggies from my mother’s garden and clean it out. Like little Hobbitses. We had to make it a rule, no picking fresh vegetables without permission.
But I do cook for picky eaters on occasion who hate all vegetables. Normally, I can talk a kid into trying it when they aren’t my kid because they don’t know how I cook and they aren’t comfortable enough to tell me no. Kids always listen to strangers better than their parents. But even then, some kids are just weirded out by certain foods and refuse. In an eat it or starve scenario, they will choose starvation to avoid certain foods.
So if you’re positive they don’t have allergies (as I do theorize kids will hate foods they are allergic to because it tastes spicy – like it makes the tongue and taste buds react in the same way spicy foods do), then you can sneak in the veggies or the flavor.
Option 1 – mince the veggies. In this recipe, this is easy to do with mushrooms because it’s the same color as the beef. The kids will just think it’s beef. You could probably use a veggie chopper or a cheese grater.
Option 2 – you can replace the onion with onion salt or onion powder. It’s not the same, but it’s not THAT different.
Option 3 – you can do as much as you can replacing vegetables with powdered flavoring, but save the veggies you want that your kids don’t want as a topping for your dish. So cook without those veggies, and serve from that to the kids. Then just add some of those veggies uncooked to your plate, OR set aside veggie free meat in a container for if the kids want more, and then add your veggies, cook a little longer, and serve yourself.
Step 1 – Brown the Beef
You basically brown the ground beef. I like to season with Chicago Seasoning while it’s raw.
Step 2 – Slice the Veggies
I usually slice my veggies while the beef is cooking. You can do that beforehand if you want, but at some point, you want to slice the peppers and onion, and rinse the mushrooms.
I really do a simple slice, almost fajita style. Really just cut the pepper in half (from top to bottom), gut out the innards, and slice. Maybe do a cut across the slices so they are more bite-sized. Then the onion, I cut at both ends, peel the crap layers off, and then just cut in halves (from top to bottom), and slice.
Step 3: Add Gravy + Veggies to the Beef
Then once the beef is browned and cooked almost enough, I add a packet of gravy. Usually between the grease from the meat and the water from the veggies, I don’t have to add water. But if you do all that and the gravy seems to not be covering all the meat (and instead blotches of meat), you can probably add 1 – 2 TBSP of water. The idea is that the gravy cover the meat no thinner than a mayonnaise. It’s there for flavor.
Then add veggies, cook until veggies are done to your liking. It helps to cover the dish at this point.
If it’s too watery, you can drain some. You can add another gravy packet.
Step 4: Add the Cheese and Mayo
Once the veggies are cooked to your liking, remove from heat. Add the Mozzarella Cheese and Mayonnaise. Mix. And it’s ready.
Hamburger Buns or No? Keto?
When I first made this sandwich, I used Hamburger Buns. That was a messy option for young children. I guess that’s why they are Sloppy. The sub buns were ok, but the best holder was actually Hot Dog buns, especially for small children. It was also the easiest to stuff.
But over time, I started to eat it straight out of the pan nevermind a bun. Mainly because the kids would eat so much of it, I wanted to save the buns for them.
Then one night, my niece wanted to do a huge sleepover with my kids, so my sister’s estranged husband, a good friend and I just stayed up all night drinking on the porch. I made this dish as dinner for all the kids, and they enjoyed it, and went to bed. My friend and brother-in-law, however, weren’t interested until about 4AM, and next thing you know, we are all 3 eating it straight from the pot.
It’s just better that way.
And low carb.
Side Dish Ideas
I find my favorite side dish is to cook some mushrooms with a couple TBSP of butter and Chicago Seasoning. It’s a great side dish with any steak / beef dinner. And easy.
But you know, that drunken night, while not keto, Sloppy Wills were really good with Doritos dipped into it.
Hope you enjoy this recipe. Don’t forget to find me on Instagram.
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