Chop up your onion and bacon into small bits. Throw the bacon onto a hot pan with a medium fire and spread it out so that it cooks evenly. Once the bacon is slightly brown and the pan is oiled up from the bacon grease, throw the chopped onion in and cook until it is translucent.
Put a pot of water (just enough to cover your two tomatoes) to boil. Once it starts boiling, throw your tomatoes in and boil them for about 2 minutes or until their skins crack. Then take them out of the water and let them cool.
While your bacon and onion is cooking, make sure your tomatoes have cooled enough to be handled and remove their skins. Crush the tomatoes with your hands into a delicious pulp and squeeze some garlic into them.
When your onions are translucent, throw in your ground beef and start breaking it up into small chunks. You can lower the flame here as we’re going to simmer our sloppy joes slowly and don’t want anything to burn or get overcooked.
Add in your crushed tomato and give it all a good stir.
Now it’s time for the flavors! Add in all the seasonings, ketchup, mustard, sriracha, sugar, vinegar, lemon juice and soy sauce. Stir it all up and let all of this deliciousness simmer while you prepare the rest of the sandwich.
Shred your pepper jack cheese if not already shredded and set it aside. We like to buy blocks of cheese rather than shredded. It just ensures the cheese is fresher.
(Optional high carb addition): Cut your pretzel buns in half. On another pan, melt some butter until just slightly browned. Place the buns flat side down onto the butter to soak some up and get a little hot and toasted. You can also use a toaster oven for this (but probably not a conventional toaster as the pretzel buns are pretty round and wouldn’t fit).
Once a lot of moisture has evaporated from your sloppy joes mixture and it’s gotten thicker, you can turn the fire off and prepare for scooping.
Sprinkle your cheese on the bottom bun and then scoop as much of your sloppy joes as you can fit onto that poor bun! The cheese will melt really nicely between these two hot layers. Add your top bun and squish everything down a little. Serve with some jalapenos slices (if you dare) and enjoy the mess!