A little back-porch backstory

Around here, dinner ideas come from all kinds of places, and this one came straight off of YouTube. Daniel stumbled across somebody making Sloppy Joe meat tucked inside a biscuit, showed it to me, and we looked at each other and said, “Well, let’s try it.” That’s just what we do — we experiment. Sometimes it’s a flop and sometimes it’s a keeper, and friends, this one was a keeper.

It’s about as simple as supper gets: a skillet of Sloppy Joe meat, a can of Grands butter biscuits, and about ten minutes in the oven. That’s it. No fancy dough, no rolling pin, no measuring anything. You end up with warm little handheld biscuit pockets that are all soft and buttery on the outside and saucy on the inside. The kids love them, they travel well for a busy night, and they feel like a treat without any of the fuss.

And because we can’t ever leave a good thing alone, we went and made a pulled BBQ chicken version too. More on that down below.

What you’ll need

(No measurements here — you know how we do. Eyeball it and trust yourself.)

• A batch of your favorite Sloppy Joe meat (homemade or from a can of sauce — whatever you like)
• A can of Pillsbury Grands butter biscuits
• A little parchment paper for your baking sheet

That’s the whole list. Told you it was easy.

How to make them

1. Get your meat going. Brown up your Sloppy Joe filling and let it cook down until it’s saucy but not soupy. Set it aside while you work on the biscuits.

2. Stretch out your biscuits. Take each biscuit and gently stretch it out bigger and flatter with your fingers. You want a nice wide round with room to hold the filling.

3. Scoop on the meat. Spoon a good scoop of your Sloppy Joe meat right into the middle of each stretched biscuit. Don’t overdo it, or you’ll have a hard time folding them up.

4. Fold them up. Fold each side of the biscuit up and over the filling, overlapping each fold over the last one, until the meat is tucked inside. You don’t have to pinch it into a perfect sealed ball — just fold it snug and let it be rustic.

5. Bake. Set them fold-side down on a parchment-lined sheet and bake at 375°F for about 10 minutes, until they’re puffed and golden brown on top.

Make it your own: pulled BBQ chicken meat biscuits

Once we had the Sloppy Joe version down, we got to thinking — what else could we stuff in there? So we tried pulled BBQ chicken, and it was so good. Same exact method: stretch your biscuit, scoop in the chicken, fold it up, and bake at 375°F for about 10 minutes.

One real tip from our test kitchen (aka my oven): go easy on the sauce with your chicken. Drain it well and let it cook down so it’s not too juicy before you fill your biscuits. When we didn’t, all that extra BBQ juice ran down and made the bottoms a little soggy around the edges. Still delicious — but if you want that pretty golden bottom to hold up, keep the chicken on the drier side and save the extra sauce for dipping.

A few little notes

• These are wonderful fresh and warm, but they reheat just fine too — great for lunchboxes or a quick grab-and-go.
• Play with your fillings! Taco meat, pizza fixings, breakfast sausage and egg… once you’ve got the biscuit trick down, the sky’s the limit.
• If your biscuits tear a little while you’re stretching, don’t fret. Patch it, fold it, and bake it — nobody’s grading you, and they taste the same either way.

If you make these, I’d love to hear which version won at your table — Sloppy Joe or BBQ chicken. Come tell me about it!

Y’all come back now.
— April