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These Homemade Sloppy Joes are the perfect quick meal. Elevated flavors and ingredients make these so delicious and not at all like you may remember from your school cafeteria.
If it’s been a while since you’ve had good old sloppy joes, you need to try this Homemade Sloppy Joes Recipe! This recipe is a tasty twist on the classic meal. Perfect meat mixture, a zesty blend of spices and a tomato sauce to die for, all on a soft brioche bun. I promise you’ll ditch the Manwich canned stuff for good once you try this recipe. Serve with a side of potato chips, homemade French fries or coleslaw for a perfect and simple weeknight supper.
Ingredients in Homemade Sloppy Joes
This simple homemade sloppy joe recipe comes together with just a few simple ingredients, usually things you always have on hand. Here’s what you need:
- Ground beef – two pounds of ground sirloin or ground turkey or a mixture of both. Brown the meat, then drain well before adding the sauce ingredients.
- Yellow Onion – chopped
- Green bell pepper – chopped
- Tomato soup – one can of condensed tomato soup gives the sauce a rich flavor that’s better than tomato sauce!
- Ketchup – just a little under one cup ketchup is perfect for this mixture.
- Yellow mustard – stir in one tablespoon of regular yellow mustard. Nothing fancy.
- Brown sugar – one tablespoon is all you need to add the perfect balance of sweetness to the tomato mixture.
- Salt – a quarter teaspoon kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Cayenne pepper
- Hamburger buns – any of your favorite brand will work.
Mother Knows Sloppy Joes Best
For several summers, our parents served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Heber Valley Girls Camp in Northern Utah. They often called us to fill us in on the different recipes they had at their weekly potluck with the other missionaries. This particular recipe for sloppy joes is the one they raved about again and again. Personally I had been fine with my can of Manwich for years. I think the thing that made me most skeptical of my mom’s recipe was the addition of tomato soup. It sounded really weird to put in homemade sloppy joes but once my mom made them for me, I’m happy to report that I was truly amazed at how tasty these were!
Where Did the Name Sloppy Joe Come From?
The origin of sloppy joes is debatable. Three main institutions are credited with the invention: a cafe in Sioux City, Iowa, Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, and another aptly-named restaurant called Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Havana Cuba.
It’s actually a pretty interesting story. This article does a great job of tracing the origins from the three places. It seems like the most accepted theory of origin is the “loose meat sandwich” from Iowa. I’m glad the name has changed, though!
Variations on Sloppy Joes
- For an extra kick, add a pinch of red pepper flakes into the sauce.
- Add a dash of chili powder, garlic powder or a couple of tablespoons Worcestershire sauce for an even richer flavor.
- Dice a couple of cloves garlic and add in with the onion and pepper mixture.
- Want to shake it up a bit? Use this recipe to make Sloppy Joe Cups, and it will take them to a whole new level. Yum!
What Kind of Cheese Tastes Best on a Sloppy Joe?
To be fair, not everyone loves cheese on a sloppy joe, but it is delicious, so give it a try! Provolone is a favorite, but cheddar, American, mozzarella, and Swiss cheese are all delicious on sloppy joes.
How to Store Leftovers
Cover leftover meat mixture and store in the refrigerator for up to three days. You can also place it in a freezer-safe bag and freeze for up to two months. Thaw in the microwave or on the stovetop, pop it on a bun, and serve!
Frequently Asked Questions
Manwich is the marketed version of sloppy joe sauce that you can find in the canned food section of your grocery store. It has a lot of the ingredients in a homemade sauce, but with more preservatives and less fresh ingredients than a sloppy joe sauce made at home.
A lot of sloppy joe recipes call for tomato sauce or a can of tomato paste mixed with two cups water. However with this recipe you just use a can of condensed tomato soup. It’s the perfect consistency and flavor!
Yes! Brown the beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat until no longer pink, then drain fat off the meat, then add sauce ingredients.
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How to Make Homemade Sloppy Joes
Homemade Sloppy Joes
Video
Ingredients
- 2 Lbs. ground beef
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 green bell pepper chopped
- 15 oz condensed tomato soup
- 3/4 c. ketchup
- 1 Tbsp. yellow mustard
- 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. black pepper
- 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 8 hamburger buns
Instructions
- Fry ground beef, onion, and green pepper in a large skillet until onions become clear and beef is browned.
- Add tomato soup, ketchup, mustard, sugar, salt, black pepper, and cayenne.
- Simmer for at LEAST 30 mintues. The longer you simmer, the better it will be!
- Spoon mixture onto a bun (we like using a kaiser rolls or ciabatta bun because it doesn't get as soggy). Optional: add a little cheese on top of the hot mix.
Notes
- For an extra kick, add a pinch of red pepper flakes into the sauce.
- Add a dash of chili powder, garlic powder or a couple of tablespoons Worcestershire sauce for an even richer flavor.
- Dice a couple of cloves garlic and add in with the onion and pepper mixture.
- Want to shake it up a bit? Use this recipe to make Sloppy Joe Cups, and it will take them to a whole new level. Yum!
This Sloppy Recipe is the best, I only make this one. Absolutely delicious!!
I did the recipe just the way it’s in here it was great didn’t change it …….I did 6 pounds of hamburger fed 25 people had some left for lunch the next day ..
How can people give a comment if you don’t do the recipe the way it is I’m gonna do it the way it is and report back ..
Can you put this in crockpot and for how long haven’t made this yet but I will give it 4 stars it sounds good
Yes! Still brown the beef in a skillet, but then you can put everything in the crockpot for 2 hours on high or 4 hours on low!
Made this last night, with a couple of changes, I used a homemade BBQ sauce from the farmers market so I nixed the brown sugar and ketchup. I also accidentally used a 23oz can of tomato soup instead, so I let it simmer for about an hour and it got nice and thick, it was crazy good!! My kids may have eaten to whole pan if I would have let them.
Thank you for this recipe. I have made these many times and it is delicious. The mixture also freezes beautifully, if any of your readers freezer cook.
Easiest and best Sloppy Joes:
1 lb. ground beef
Chopped onion to taste
1 c. Ketchup
1 T. Sugar
1 T. mustard
1 T. vinegar (I use red wine vinegar)
Brown burger and onion. Add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for 30 min. Serve.
I made these for my family while we were out camping and there was nothing left, they scraped the pan clean! The only thing I altered was using a orange bell pepper instead of the green. We put the sloppy joe mixture on sweet Hawaiin rolls. Delicious!
So glad you liked it! So much better than anything canned, right?!
My first Sloppy Joes, and it was heaven on a bun! Thank you so much for this recipe. I added 250 g blended mushrooms to thickwn the sauce, and used 300 grams ground beef. Sorry for not converting these quantities, I’m not a cup lady . Greetings from Amsterdam, Holland.
Thank you Niki! I’m so glad you liked the recipe. Thank you for your suggestion of adding blended mushrooms – what a great idea!
This just tastes how a sloppy Joe should! Hands down the best recipe. It’s the only one I will ever use!
What is the white sauce on top , that is showing in picture?
The white that you see in the picture is just cheese 🙂
So can I ask what kind of tomato soup you use that comes in a 15oz can?
Can’t wait to try it, sounds yummy!
Sorry, that was a typo on my part! It is the regular 10-11oz. can. (We use Campbells)
I find it comical people have to be told to drain fat off the hamburger. 🙂
Can you salt and pepper the meat during the browning process? And maybe a little minced garlic while browning.
of course!
Do we drain the meat?
Yes, if needed.
I tried these as well .. I changed it a little and used a small yellow and a small orange pepper instead of green one . Then i used tomato bisque soup . I also used the dried onions from a packet of beefy onion soup mix that i had sifted out the powdered beef from and kept the onion part and used it in the browning of the meat and peppers.. Also i used a couple dashes of worcestershire sauce .. I also added to the sauce a TBSP and a half of brown sugar and a packet of splenda. Yummy 🙂 Oh and i only used about 1 pounds 7ozs of beef instead of 2lbs made plenty for our family of 4. and some left over..
also wanted to add i didn’t add the pepper or the cayenne pepper
These were very good, thanks for creating this recipe
So basically you made a different recipe?
= ]
Holy cow… these were great!!! Serve our Elders them and I had no left overs..
I suck at sloppy joes. I so need a good recipe like yours
I made these last night from this recipe. Two things: First, the recipe doesn’t tell you but DO drain the hamburger/onion/green pepper fat from the pan before adding the other ingredients. I didn’t since I follow recipes exactly and it was a fatty mess but still yummy. Second thing, I could NOT find a 15 oz. can of condense tomato soup so I used two 10 3/4 oz. cans of Campbells to make 15 ounces. The sandwiches were superb!