Ultimate Sloppy Joes

6 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes

Classic Sloppy Joes in 20 minutes with a homemade tomato gravy and bell peppers on hamburger buns that have won 3 sloppy joe competitions!

Classic Comfort Food recipes like Slow Cooker Pot Roast, Ultimate Beef Stew and Slow Cooker Chili are popular because they’re family favorites that bring back happy food memories!

Saucy Hamburger Bun filled with Sloppy Joes

Ultimate Sloppy Joes are a quick meal made without the canned sauce or the packets of Sloppy Joe seasoning you may have grown up with. With just a few pantry ingredients you’ll have a whole new appreciation for classic American dinner favorite Sloppy Joe.

These are called Ultimate Sloppy Joes (also known as a Loose Meat Sandwich is some parts), but you may also want to refer to them as Award Winning Sloppy Joes because this recipe has been victorious in three separate sandwich contests including one competition where it beat out over 50 other Sloppy Joe recipes!

Plus, it wins the most important contest of all, the kid contest. Kids LOVE this recipe because it is the perfect combination of sweet and savory flavors. You will not see a single kid refuse these Sloppy Joes during any weeknight dinners.

These are the best Sloppy Joes. They’re so good that the base of this recipe made led us to create 25 more Sloppy Joe recipes! There are so many delicious meals, from Philly Cheese Steak, Bacon Cheeseburger, to Pizza too, so if you love these Classic Sloppy Joes you should definitely try out more (another favorite is the Bacon, Beer and Cheese Sloppy Joes)!

Homemade Sloppy Joes on Hamburger Bun

How to Make Ultimate Sloppy Joes

Homemade Sloppy Joes are made with ground beef, onion and green bell peppers that are simmered in a brown sugar and ketchup gravy until thickened and served on a bun.

  • Step One: Cook the beef until it begins to get a yummy brown crust on the edges. To get a good sear on the meat use high heat instead of medium heat or even medium-high heat, this will create a nice crust giving it a texture more like hamburgers.
  • Step Two: After excess oil is drained, add in the butter and chopped onion and green peppers. 
  • Step Three: After a couple of minutes of browning, drop the heat to medium, add the rest of the sauce ingredients to the meat mixture, and cook until ready to eat!
  • Step Four: Spoon beef mixture onto toasted buns. Make sure to toast your bun before adding the filling. If you don’t your bun it may get too soggy, too quickly (psst, you could also butter it to make it even more delicious).

More Sloppy Joe Sandwiches

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I avoid making dry Sloppy Joes?

Make sure not to cook down the sauce too much, sometimes the Sloppy Joes can get dry. You’re looking for a consistency where you can see the individual bits of meat, but not dry enough where they don’t cling to each other in sauce.

Can I make Sloppy Joes ahead of time? 

Sloppy Joes can be served again the next day if you add a bit of liquid to help create a bit more Sloppy Joe sauce. To avoid more sugar being added, start with some tomato sauce and water in ¼ cup increments as you gently reheat and taste.

Is this the same as the store bought cans of Sloppy Joes? 

If you look at the back of the store bought sauce, many of the ingredients are similar, though this recipe is not exactly like a homemade version of the canned Sloppy Joes. This is also not the same as if you grew up eating Sloppy Joes made with tomato sauce, but the ketchup in the recipe acts in a similar way.

Key Ingredients in Ultimate Sloppy Joes

  • Beef: Lean ground beef is the best for this recipe. High fat ground beef will cook down too much so compensate if need be. This recipe calls for one pound ground beef, but you can double everything to make more!
  • Ketchup: Your favorite kind will do. 
  • Mustard: Classic American yellow mustard will do the trick. 
  • Bell Peppers: This recipe calls for green peepers, but you can use the less bitter red, orange, or even yellow bell peppers (also called capsicum). You can also leave it out, but remember you are removing probably a half cup or more of ingredients, so it will be saucier.
  • Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added. You can even raw granulated sugar if preferred. 
  • Garlic: You can mince one or two cloves garlic, or use pre-minced garlic cloves. 
  • Onion: We’re using a medium onion in this recipe. 

Variations on Ultimate Sloppy Joes

  • Meat: Make the Sloppy Joe recipe a little healthier by swapping ground beef for ground turkey.
  • Spicy Joes: You can add a tablespoon of red pepper flakes, or hot sauce to give this yummy recipe a good kick!
  • Smokey Joes: Add a half cup of your favorite BBQ sauce to make this sandwich sizzle with an incredible depth of flavor!
  • Cheese: It’s delicious to add in some American, mozzarella cheese, or cheddar cheese to the filling when it is done. Some people like to top the sandwich with cheese. Either way cheese makes it just a little more awesome.
  • More Flavor: If you want a bit more savory flavor you can also add a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce to the Sloppy Joe meat. A teaspoon onion powder and a dash of chili powder will take it up a notch too!
  • Tomato Sauce: If you would like to swap the ketchup for tomato sauce or tomato paste, just play with the rest of the ingredients to increase the sweetness more as the ketchup adds a definite sweet flavor.
  • Leftovers: If you would like to use leftovers you may have in another recipe, just use the method found in Ground Philly Cheesesteak Grilled Cheese and you’ll be in heaven!
Ultimate Sloppy Joes with ground beef

Alternative Cooking Methods for Ultimate Sloppy Joes

  • Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes: Add the ingredients (minus the buns) to the crock pot and cook on low for 4 hours. Stir before serving and scoop onto your toasted hamburger bun.
  • Instant Pot Sloppy Joes: Brown the ground beef in the instant pot on the sauté setting per the instructions, then add in the rest of the ingredients (except the buns). Add the lid and set the pressure to high for ten minutes. Release the pressure naturally for five minutes, open the top and scooped onto toasted hamburger buns.

How to Serve Sloppy Joes

Homemade Sloppy Joes are all about comfort food flavors so you’ll love serving them with Onion Rings, Potato Wedges, Sweet Potato Fries or Roasted Potatoes along with some healthier Roasted Vegetables.

More Yummy Sandwiches

How to Store Ultimate Sloppy Joes

  • Serve: These sandwiches are best served fresh once they are assembled. You can keep the filling warm in a slow cooker for up to 4 hours or at room temperature for 2 hours.
  • Store: Store the Ultimate Sloppy Joes filling separately in an air tight container and assemble the sandwiches right before you want to serve. The filling can be kept refrigerated for up to 4 days.
  • Freeze: Cool the beef mixture completely and place in a sealed container. Freeze Sloppy Joes filling for up to 3 months and thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.

Pin this recipe now to remember it later

Pin Recipe

Ultimate Sloppy Joes

Classic Sloppy Joes in 20 minutes with a homemade tomato gravy and bell peppers on hamburger buns that have won 3 Sloppy Joe competitions!
Yield 6 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1/2 yellow onion , chopped
  • 1/2 green bell pepper , chopped
  • 1 clove garlic , minced
  • 2 teaspoons yellow mustard
  • 3/4 cup ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

Instructions

  • Add the ground beef to a large skillet (this browns very well) on high heat and brown until a deep brown crust appears before breaking the beef apart.
  • Stir the ground beef and brown until a deep crust appears on about 50 or so percent of the beef, and it is cooked through, then remove the beef, drain the excess liquid and add the butter, onions and bell pepper to the pan.
  • Let brown for 1-2 minutes before stirring, then let brown for another 1-2 minutes before stirring again and add the beef back into the pan.
  • Add the garlic, mustard, ketchup, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, to the pan and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated (about 75% of the mixture is above liquid), 3-5 minutes.
  • Serve on toasted hamburger buns.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 176kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 536mg | Potassium: 386mg | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 250IU | Vitamin C: 10.1mg | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 2mg
Keyword: Ultimate Sloppy Joes
ULTIMATE SLOPPY JOE PIN 1

Photos used in a previous version of this post.

Ultimate Sloppy Joes Collage
Sloppy Joes Collage
The Ultimate Sloppy Joes made at home in just 20 minutes with no canned sauces!
Just 20 minutes from start to finish and you'll have the easiest and ultimate sloppy joes!
Ultimate Sloppy Joes Collage
Ultimate Sloppy Joes Collage
Ultimate Sloppy Joes Collage
Ultimate Sloppy Joes Collage
Ultimate Sloppy Joes Collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. I liked the recipe, I’m diabetic so it was a little too sweet for me. Next time I’ll use less brown sugar, I also added a little Cumin to the recipe. It gave it a little kick more of flavor.

  2. I made this for dinner for my family, which includes my boyfriend, my almost 2 year old daughter, and my grandmother. The sauce was so good, I added a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. I also added some pre frozen Pilsbury biscuits you cook in the oven, big note to myself add the biscuits after, I also added some shredded cheese on top. Everyone loved it!

  3. I make ALMOST the same recipe. I use salted butter and do not add salt separately, I used 1/2 tsp jarred mince garlic in place of the garlic clove, and I add 1/2 stalk of chopped celery to the chopped onions and green pepper; and I add 1/4 C sodium free beef broth to the ketchup. Everything else is identical. I have adopted charring the meat first from your recipe which adds to the depth of flavor. Thanks!

  4. This recipe is amazing. I did add about a half cup of water for the brown sugar to dissolve. I did not use peppers because I have picky kids. It turned out really good with a pickle and Velveeta cheese on it. Thank you for sharing this recipe.

    1. A pickle and velveeta cheese?!!! That’s a new one for me :). Thanks for taking time to let us know how you prepared your sloppy joes. We have a LOT of Sloppy Joe recipes on the site. I hope you’ll check them out and let us know what you think!

  5. Excellent! My first time making sloppy joes, and they were delicious. I know, I won’t find a better recipe than this one.

  6. Love the detailed recipe instructions. Seems simple enough for my small kids to love! Definitely keeping this for my go to sloppy joe recipe! Thanks!

  7. I have to make 6lbs of beef into sloppy joes. I’d like to try this recipe and assume I’ll just multiple everything by 6.

    To serve, do you think I can reheat/keep it warm in a crockpot? Any suggestions on time if so? Thank you!

    1. Here’s an option to consider.
      Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes: Add the ingredients (minus the buns) to the crock pot and cook on low for 4 hours. Stir before serving and scoop onto your toasted hamburger bun.

  8. adjusted recipe to feed 60 people and they all said that was the best sloppy joe they had tasted!!!

  9. Made this tonight with ground turkey and it was delicious. It reminded me of the way my mom used to make them. We really enjoyed them!

  10. Used this recipe when I realized I didn’t have the packet of sloppy Joe seasoning. I didn’t have bell pepper but I had just about all of the rest of the ingredients. I have to say this was DELICIOUS!! I will never use a packet again!! It was a hit with the family! Thank you!!

  11. I liked the recipe but found it was too sweet. I added about 4 oz of tomato sauce to cut the sweetness. Next time, I will just use less brown sugar and substitute some of the ketchup with water or tomato sauce.

  12. Great flavor! A little dry for me but just added more catsup. My hubby told m how much he liked it. Thanks for sharing. ?

  13. Always used canned sloppy joes till I found this recipe a few months ago, and now it’s all I’ll use!! Whole family loves it!

  14. I always used canned sloppy Joe sauce until I found this recipe. I usually use 1/2-1 lb more beef and a can of tomato paste. If needed, I add beef broth to thin it out.
    So good!

  15. This sloppy Joe recipe is fantastic!! My husband was blown away- said it was fantastic! Thanks for sharing! It’s all I’ll use moving forward; period!

  16. First time making this. It turned out well and my husband loved it. I used ground chicken instead of beef. I also used some mini peppers because that was what I had. My only issue is that the recipe is for 6 people. They must have very small portions or used slider rolls. There was just enough for 4 people. Will make again.

  17. Great recipe! I followed your directions and made no changes. I can totally understand why this recipe has won blue ribbons ;o)

    This will now be my “go to” recipe for Sloppy Joes. We really liked it a lot.

    Thank you

  18. Yummy sloppy joes! I love that the beef is charred at first – that adds a nice texture to the meat. I added a few tbsps of water to my ketchup measuring cup since my sauce was kinda thick. Thanks for the great recipe.

  19. Loved it!! Used only 1 T brown sugar and 8 oz tomato sauce with a few T water instead of catsup. Also added chili powder and smoked paprika .

  20. My new go-to for sloppy joes – made this last night for dinner. So quick and easy and soooo good!!!

  21. I followed the recipe exactly but didn’t feel like it was very saucy. I added 1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce and 10 oz tomato sauce and it came out delicious! Husband loved it too. Toasted buns were the finishing touch. Will definitely use this recipe in the future.

  22. This is so tasty, so easy and quick. Definite go to when not sure what to do with ground meat during warmer mo that. Love it! Thank you for sharing!

  23. I just made your sloppy joe’s and they are THE best. I will be savings this recipe. Thank you.

  24. I have been searching forever for the perfect sloppy joe recipe and I finally found it. Thank you so much! I did exactly what you said to do except I puréed the onion and bell pepper in the food processor to hide them from my kids. Muahahaha!

  25. Soooo good! I made these today and will definitely make again! I didn’t have a green pepper, so I substituted a red one indyead’

  26. This was so easy and every kitchen has these ingredients! I added a little paprika and chili powder too and it was sooo good! Everyone had seconds! 🙂