Chili Cheese Sloppy Joes that taste like your favorite bowl of chili meets a delicious and easy sloppy joe recipe in just 20 minutes. Plus it’s not spicy so it’s kid approved!
We’re loving this mashup of my favorite Slow Cooker Beef Chili and Ultimate Sloppy Joes so much we’ve all but replaced chili nights in our house! The kids are ALL over these sloppy joes (they skip the onions though).
Another Monday, another sloppy joe! Today, we’re making a version that tastes like your favorite bowl of chili sweetened up a bit like sloppy joes. We’re sticking with the classic Monday recipe, but we’re actually introducing (and testing) a new idea for the site.
Podcast! I’m not sure exactly how this will turn out, but it should be fun! Most of them will be under 15 minutes. We’ll discuss the recipe and walk through the steps together, so if you want to listen along while you’re in the kitchen, hopefully, I can be an assistant to you.
In fact, if you do listen along (and I’m serious here), please let me know how I can make the podcasts more helpful to you. We’re doing this together, and I want to be sure I’m adding the most value to you guys.
You should be able to find the podcast above the recipe section. If you love it, I would be forever grateful if you would subscribe or rate it on iTunes, Spotify, or any other portal you enjoy it on. If you listen to it here, please leave a comment below!
WHAT TO SERVE WITH Chili cheese SLOPPY JOES?
We love serving side dishes with these sloppy joes that you’d classically serve with your favorite burgers including Crispy Sweet Potato Fries, Beer Battered Onion Rings and Loaded Garlic French Fries.
Cooking Tips:
- Cook the beef with the onions and bell peppers long enough for them to soften.
- You can skip the ketchup in the recipe if you add more tomato puree, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.
- If you are sensitive to how this recipe is made and want it to taste more like chili than sloppy joes, swap the ketchup for tomato puree and use only 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
- Don’t let the sauce reduce until dry. Stop the cooking when it still looks nice and saucy.
- Sauce will continue to reduce even after you turn off the heat.
- You can add chunks of cheddar cheese instead of the shredded variety if you’d like (like in this Bacon, Beer and Cheese Sloppy Joes).

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If you would like to add more vegetables to the recipe I’d recommend:
- red bell pepper, chopped finely
- celery, chopped finely
- zucchini, diced finely or shredded
- carrots, diced finely or shredded
I’d love to know how it turns out for you, so if you do make the recipe, please come back and leave a comment, letting me know how you enjoyed it.
We put a ton of effort into recipe-testing 40 Sloppy Joes for this weekly series, and we’re about halfway through them all! The reason we did this (aside from the fact we LOVE them) is that you all have gone nuts for all the Sloppy Joes on the site!


Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef (85/15)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 white onion chopped and divided
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 cups tomato puree
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- In a large skillet on medium high heat add the beef, salt, pepper, ¾ of the onions and green bell pepper, cooking well, breaking it apart but leaving some chunks for about 5-6 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add in the garlic, chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, tomato puree, ketchup and beef broth, cooking until the sauce starts to evaporate and the mixture becomes "sloppy" (about 5-6 minutes).
- Spoon the mixture onto the brioche buns and top with sour cream, remaining white onion and shredded cheddar cheese.
I was hesitant to try this recipe but was looking for something different from my chili style beef burgers. However, I was happily surprised. I did let them cook on very low for two and half hours. The flavor was a savory while a bit sweet. Thanks for the recipe.
These are SO delicious and easy. My husband and I have had these for lunch 2 days in a row! I also took some to my parents and they loved them too. Thank you for such a tasty twist on Sloppy Joes.
I don’t like green peppers…would a red pepper work instead?
Sure, you can use whatever you prefer. Enjoy!
This is such a wondeful and tasty recipe. Pure comfort food which I love. So easy to make and be sure to read the whole thing because it gives tips if you don’t like ketchup. I added the ketchup because it’s necessary when it comes to sloppy joes! I had some leftover chili I wanted go finish eating but my kids get sick and tired of eating the same food twice in one week. So I just added the ketchup, brown sugar, cheddar cheese, and sour cream go recipe. So tasty and feeda a crowd. Will be adding this to the monthly rotation.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe, Maria.
These look amazing? I’ll be making these for Super Bowl! ?????
Enjoy!
I love all of your sloppy joe recipes – and so do my kids! This one is another star, so easy to make and so delicious !
Yay!! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
Love this twist on the classic sloppy Joe recipe! I also can’t wait to sink my teeth into the buttery bun, it looks so good.
Thanks, Allyson!
Oh wow what a fun flavor for a sloppy joe!! My kids will be begging for more when I make these.
Definitely a family favorite meal!
This is our next gameday dinner and I can’t wait to make it!
It’s so good!! Enjoy!
Huge fan of sloppy joes here…and the flavor profile of these are delicious. Super easy to make too!
Thanks Aimee!