Deep Dish Sloppy Joe Casserole
If this Deep Dish Sloppy Joe Casserole looks a little bit familiar, that probably means you’ve been with me for quite a while. Back when I started this blog, one of my first recipes was a Deep Dish Pizza Casserole that I still get a lot of comments about – its popularity has stood the test of time! Now that the weather is starting to cool down a bit, I’ve been craving hearty, meaty casseroles that fill me up and warm me from the inside out. I’ve also had sloppy joes on the brain, because my fiancé made some recently and he thinks I eat them weird. I guess I do…I’m way more interested in getting straight to all the saucy meat, so the bun really just gets in the way for me. Plus, eating sloppy joes as a sandwich is just so…sloppy. I usually just put half the bun in the bottom of a bowl, cover it with meat and eat it with a fork or just skip the bun altogether. A bowl of meat? I guess I am kind of weird.
Anyway, for some reason the half-bun covered in saucy ground beef reminded me of my original deep dish casserole and gave me the idea to make it again but with sloppy joe flavoring. Not to toot my own horn, but this was a GENIUS idea – it’s so good!! Now this is a meat-to-bread ratio I can get on board with! Plus, since I’m calling it a casserole, it’s not weird for me to eat it with a fork. That’s a casserole given! For all you sloppy joe purists out there, don’t worry, this is still plenty sloppy. The pizza crust is bursting with rich, saucy meat and melty cheese, and the edges of the dough get nice and crusty. These are really nice, filling servings too; perfect comfort food for a chilly day! To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Deep Dish Sloppy Joe Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 lb 95% lean ground beef
- 1 tablespoon McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning, I used the reduced sodium kind
- 8 oz white mushrooms, minced (I used a food processor)
- 1 medium carrot, minced (I used a food processor)
- 1 medium onion, minced (I used a food processor)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced (I used a food processor)
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
- 1 pinch of cayenne pepper
- 15 oz can of tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 (11 oz) can of refrigerated pizza crust dough, (such as Pillsbury thin crust)
- 1 cup shredded 2% Mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly mist a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- Bring a large saute pan or skillet over medium-high heat and add the ground beef. Break the ground beef up with a spoon or spatula while cooking. Sprinkle with steak seasoning and continue to cook until beef is browned. Add the mushrooms, carrot, onion, garlic, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the brown sugar, cayenne pepper, tomato sauce, and tomato paste and stir together. Cover and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
- Unroll your pizza dough and lay it in your prepared baking dish. Push the dough down across the dish and up the sides. Pour the meat mixture from your skillet into the pizza dough. Place in the oven for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle the Mozzarella cheese over the top. Place the casserole back in the oven and cook for 5 additional minutes or until cheese is melted and pizza crust is browned.
Notes
9 per serving (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com) Inspired by my Deep Dish Pizza Casserole, sloppy joe ingredients adapted from Skinnytaste