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When it comes to easy homemade dinners, it doesn’t get any better than this easy Sloppy Joe Recipe, a longtime family favorite. This 30-minute meal is perfect for busy weeknights, backyard barbecues, and birthday parties. Of all the sloppy joes I’ve had, this one is the best.
Meggan’s notes
As a classically-trained chef who grew up in the Midwest, I love to reimagine the recipes of my childhood so they taste even better than you imagine. These homemade sloppy joes are no exception. They are packed with flavor yet perfectly balanced, and home cooks just can’t get enough of them.
I hear it time and time again: “This is the best sloppy joe recipe I’ve ever had!” Whether I’m cooking them for my family or just perusing the comments below (feel free to take a look for yourself), the verdict is in. These are the best homemade sloppy joes on the block, and once you make it, your life will never be the same.
If you’ve got 8 basic ingredients and 30 minutes or less, you are winning dinner tonight, and it’s not even close. Make a double batch to feed a crowd or freeze it for later. This is a delicious sloppy joes recipe that everyone will love, and it’s easy on the cook, too!
Table of Contents
Sloppy Joe Ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
- Ground beef: Or substitute ground turkey, ground chicken, or even ground venison in these homemade sloppy joes.
- Onion: Finely chopped celery and a green bell pepper are great too!
- Brown sugar: Even a tablespoon is too much for some people. If you don’t like the sound of brown sugar in your Sloppy Joe, please leave it out!
How to Make the Best Sloppy Joe Recipe
- In a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat, combine beef and chopped onion. Cook until the meat is mostly browned, about 5 minutes. Drain well.
- In a small bowl whisk together tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste (I like ¼ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon pepper).
- Pour sauce ingredients over drained beef and stir until evenly coated.
- Simmer the sloppy joe sauce uncovered 20 minutes, stirring occasionally (cover if you prefer a sloppier Sloppy Joe).
- Spoon the homemade sloppy joes into a hamburger bun and devour. For extra flavor, brush the crown of your bun with butter and toast on a griddle. YUM!
Sloppy Joes Recipe tips and variations
- No Worcestershire sauce: In a pinch, substitute soy sauce.
- Barbecue sauce. Your favorite barbecue sauce (or my favorite barbecue sauce, based on Sweet Baby Ray’s) can be added instead of ketchup for a smoky version of a classic Joe.
- Spices: Dress up your sloppy joes with garlic powder, onion powder, or any other flavors you love. If you want heat, throw in a tbsp of ancho chili powder, a tsp of ground cumin, or a half teaspoon of chipotle powder. Or, splash on your favorite hot sauce. Season with kosher salt to taste.
- Slow cooker: To make the best sloppy joes in a crockpot, brown the ground beef in a skillet first. Drain well and add the bottom of a crock pot. Add all the other ingredients (except the buns), cover, and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours, or HIGH for 3-4 hours.
- Casserole: For a fork-friendly version, try my Sloppy Joe Casserole Recipe.
What goes with Sloppy Joes?
Yield: This Sloppy Joes recipe makes 4 to 6 cups of meat mixture, enough for 8 heaping sandwiches.
Favorite sides for sloppy joes: Try crispy French fries, crunchy potato chips, coleslaw, baked beans, and pickles.
How to store Homemade Sloppy Joes
- Storage: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Freezer: Cool completely, then add to freezer containers (one big batch or individual portions), label and date, and freeze for up to 4 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Manwich is a specific food product that is marked as Sloppy Joe filling sold at the grocery store. However, as many commenters will attest, you needn’t open that can of Manwich ever again. This recipe is easy and delicious and miles ahead of Manwich!
Add a slice of cheese! The cheese melts over the hot meat and helps it all adhere better to the bun, but that’s just a bonus. Raw diced onion, dill pickle slices, and pickle relish are great toppings, too.
Legend has it that Sloppy Joes were invented in Sioux City, Iowa. In the 1920s, a cook named Joe was working at the Ye Old Tavern Inn. He created his sloppy sandwich filling and named it a “Sloppy Joe.”
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Homemade Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 medium onion peeled and finely chopped (see note 1)
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar packed (see note 2)
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon dried mustard or yellow mustard
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 8 Sandwich buns split
Instructions
- In a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, combine beef and onion. Cook until the meat is mostly browned, about 5 minutes. Drain well.
- In a small bowl whisk together tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste (I like ¼ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon pepper).
- Pour sauce ingredients over drained beef and stir until evenly coated. Simmer uncovered 20 minutes, stirring occasionally (cover if you prefer a sloppier Sloppy Joe). Serve in buns.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Onion: Finely chopped celery and green peppers are great too!
- Brown sugar: Even a tablespoon is too much for some people. If you don’t like the sound of brown sugar in your Sloppy Joe, please leave it out!
- Yield: This recipe makes 4 c. of Sloppy Joe meat mixture, enough for 8 heaping sandwiches.
- Storage: Store covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Hi! I’m in England and I really want to make this for my kids but our shops don’t sell cans of tomato sauce.
We call ketchup ‘tomato sauce’, and it only comes in bottles. We have something called Passata which comes in a carton or glass jar which people cook with. Would that be a good substitute? Then there’s tomato purée that comes in tubes but I know that would be way too concentrated. I hope you can help! Thanks!!
Hi Portia! Passata is really close to tomato sauce! We have it here too. I would use that and hopefully you love it. Please report back if you can – I’d love to know what you thought! Thank you so much for trying my recipe. 😀
My husband and I tried this and it was excellent. Definitely a do again.
Thank you so much Nancy, I appreciate your kind words and I’m glad your husband agrees. I could literally eat this every day! Take care and thanks again.
This is now my “go to” recipe for sloppy joes. I made the recipe for my husband and me to try [yum] and then made the recipe x 5 to take to work. I had 32 buns and it’s amazing but it came down to one bun left and just enough mixture to make one sandwich. One suggestion is to use frozen chopped onions. I use them in most recipes and it really saves time and mess. With using frozen onions this recipe is just measure, mix and cook. After cooking the hamburger and onions, I added everything to the skillet without mixing it all separately in a bowl. Thanks!
Gayle, the frozen chopped onions are GENIUS! Such a good idea, it’s the perfect recipe for that. Thank you so much! And I’m glad you like the recipe. Makes my heart sing!
Agreed. My reason for using frozen onions is I buy onions in 2 or 3 lb bags because it’s more economical. But since it’s just the two of us I usually come home and process at 3/4 of the bag and freeze it. Saves me some time in busy weeknights and saves money.
Will use some of these great suggestions Ifound in the comments.
Gonna make these next week.
Made this tonight for a quick pre trick or treating dinner!! It was a huge hit!!
Best recipe ever for sloppy joes!
This looks so good. Do you think you can add celery in the mixture? I’ve made sloppy joes with celery before, and my kids loved it.
Yes! My mom *always* does. The only reason I don’t have it in the recipe is because my husband doesn’t like the texture of celery in it. Or, at one point he did. I feel like if he read this right now he’d be like… what do you mean I don’t like celery?! So yes, please add it. It’s also good with green pepper if that’s your jam. I hope you love it! Thanks Kim!
Can this be made in a crock pot? If so any adjustments?
Hi Cindy, yes to a crockpot! I probably wouldn’t make any adjustments. I’d brown the beef and onion first and combine it with all the other ingredients in the crockpot. Then you just heat it for however long it takes to get hot. If you wanted to speed that process up, combine all the ingredients with the beef and bring it to a boil and then transfer it to the crock – basically just keeping it warm. But then you don’t have to wait for your crockpot to bring everything up in temperature. Depends on your schedule though. I hope this helps! Thanks.
We are going to try this recipe tomorrow night but I think it will make more than we need. Do you just put the filling into a freezer bag and freeze and then reheat and add to buns when needed?
Hi Erin, yes absolutely! My mom always makes this for our up-north adventures and she actually just sticks the whole pot in the freezer and freezes it rock solid – that way it can survive the 6-hour trek up north. But I digress – a freezer safe bag is fine! Great, even. Thank you for your question and take care.
i wanted to try this recipe but the ingredients confused me because here in australia tomato sauce and ketchup are the same thing, so i was wondering if tomato paste here is tomato sauce there? btw it looks amazing
Hi Raf! Tomato paste is a thicker version of tomato sauce. In the US, ketchup has vinegar and sugar in it where as tomato sauce is just plain tomato (like tomato paste but more watered down). If you have tomato paste, you could certainly substitute that and just add some water (maybe 1/2 cup?) to thin out the paste. I hope that makes sense, let me know if it not. It’s REALLY hard to mess up the recipe though, so I think you’ll be okay! I appreciate your kind words and hope you give Sloppy Joes a try! Thank you so much!
Tomato puree would be the equivalent to tomato sauce in Australia.
Hi Raf. I’m from Canada and now live in Australia. What I’ve found to be closest to tomato sauce .. North American style .. is Passata. Recipes with tomato sauce listed really confused me as well when I first moved here 🙂
Okay, I’m never using Manwich again, this recipe is perfection! I had some beef that needed to be cooked but I’d totally forgot to grab a can of Manwich at the store. I googled a recipe and this came right up. I checked my pantry and whatever I didn’t have, I subbed very easily: onion powder, yellow mustard for the ground, and A1 for the worcesterire (even though as I was putting everything away, I saw a bottle of it in fridge lol), and I added garlic powder. Per.fec.tion! My family loved it.