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!
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)!
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
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.
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.
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.
Create a free account to Save Recipes
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!
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.
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
Want to save this recipe? Create a free account to easily save your favorite recipes
Photos used in a previous version of this post.
From 6 to 65 the whole family loved these! Second time making this recipe ?
Made these for my teenagers last night and they gobbled them up. I added more mustard and a whole onion and green bell instead of 1/2. I will only add 1/2 the brown sugar or omit it next time as it was too sweet for me. But I loved the crust that developed on the meat by letting it sit for a few minutes. Great idea and I’ll be using this method on more recipes. Thank you for a great and quick mid-week meal.
Super easy and Super yummy. This is definitely the go to recipe
My whole family loves this recipe! We will never go back to canned sloppy joes!
Very easy to make. I used ketchup but I don’t like the vinegar soreness so I added a can of tomatoes paste and added water to the paste. It took most of the vinegar taste out of it. But the receipe is great. It’s just my taste.
Wow. Looks tasty!
Aptly named!
Your site is my “go to” for recipes. Always easy to make and so tasty! Thank you. Please don’t go anywhere!
Great dish. My husband & great granddaughter love it. I serve fries with it and sometimes put cheese on it. Thanks, I need help as I’m not the best cook.
Im sure you are better than you give yourself credit for!
Just made this tonight. Fantastic. Thank you so much for the recipe!!!!!
I use this recipe for homemade sloppy joes regularly!!! It tastes so much better then the canned sloppy Joe sauce, and it’s so easy to make!!!
If I add all the ingredients to a slow cooker, should I pan cook the meat, onion, and pepper first? Thanks.
I would suggest it yes
Hands down the best sloppy joes you will ever eat! I didn’t chang a thing. My coworkers loved them so much they are still talking about them months after I made them! They request them at every food day at work!
This really IS the ULTIMATE! Just loved the flavor..since we like sweet, I didn’t add the Worcestershire, and it was awesome! May add some pineapple and lettuce and make it a wrap next time!…or just eat it with a spoon! Thank you!
I made this tonight omitting the brown sugar (I thought it was too sweet last time) and adding a little worcestershire sauce as others recommended. It was perfect!
So glad you liked it Heidi!
This is the best I have ever had, I did add 1 tablespoon A-1 steak sauce also.
I made these for dinner last night and they were amazing. My husband said they were the best Sloppy Joe’s he’s ever had. Thank you for the recipe!
Just made these tonight for dinner. Easy and oh so good! This is my go-to recipes when I crave a good Sloppy Joe!
This is by far the absolute BEST sloppy joe recipe. The richness is out of this world! My family ate it in seconds…literally lol
Wow! Thanks, Deidra.
this is a great recipe.. thank you!
You’re welcome, Charlie. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
We made this recipe yesterday and it was awesome. Just a tip for vegan, plant based, or dairy free readers: We substituted Beyond Meat for the ground beef and it tasted great! We used Arnold brand hamburger buns and Violife vegan cheddar slices to top it all off. You could not tell that it was veganized at all! Great recipe!
Thanks for the tips, Mel!
Best homemade recipe I’ve tried! I used red pepper (instead of green) since that was all I had and added a little worcestershire. The whole family loved it!! Thanks for the recipe!
Once again, your sloppy joe recipe is amazing! My family loves the ones we have tried, and this is no exception. Thank you so much for sharing!
You just made my day, Tamara. Thanks!
Great recipe! Left out brown sugar and added some Worcestershire sauce and it was great!
Thanks for the 5 stars, Julie.
I will never, ever make a sloppy joe recipe other than this! Just….excellent – the tips were great as well. Thank you!
Wow, that’s a HUGE compliment, Barb!! Thanks so much!
Excellent tasting Sloppy Jo recipe! Much like what was served in school cafeterias back in the day. Way back in the day, say 1950’s…. For my personal taste I added sweet relish and added a bit of water for a little looser consistency to make it a little more “sloppier”.
I love this recipe. Before this, I’d get a craving for sloppy Joes and every recipe or can left me disappointed afterward. I made this to give them one last chance and now I make it at least once a month, with the addition of some grated zucchini cooked down with the meat because hidden veggies are awesome. It reheats so well and is fab on top of a sweet potato.
Hi! This looks delicious and really want to try it! Can you tell me what kind of buns you used and what you did with them? The pic is what sold me, but I don’t see anything about the buns mentioned at the end of the recipe. Thank you!
I used Brioche buns and toasted them. I also butter mine before toasting because it’s add even more depth of flavor. Enjoy!
Made this tonight, it was great. I only used 1 Tbsp of brown sugar and I also added a little smoked paprika. Will definitely make again
Add a little smoked paprika & little smoked garlic. Stratospheric sloppyness!!!
Sounds amazing!
this was outstanding. Told my soon, and he is eager to try. Philly cheese steak sloppy Joe’s are next. Thanks ?
I made these the other day just to see if they would be good to serve at my granddaughters birthday party they were really good.
I need to make these this weekend for her birthday what is the best way to make these in a crockpot for about 30 people and how much hamburger do you suggest
Plan on making these a head of time and put them in a crockpot the day of. Please send suggestions as I don’t want to disappoint my guests
There are instructions in the post on how to make these in the slow cooker. You’ll probably need to make 5 times this recipe for enough to serve 30 people. I would definitely recommend using multiple slow cookers. Hope this helps.
This is the best sloppy joes Ihave ever had. My husband and I love this recipe. You have to try it.
This recipe is okay. The techniques make for a levelled up sloppy joe. Crust on the meat and caramelized peppers and onions make the ingredients sing. Otherwise it’s super sweet and boring. (Probably good for kids?) I added chilli powder, tomato paste, chilli flakes, Worcestershire sauce, a splash of apple cider vinegar at the end, a tsp of sugar and not as much ketchup. My batch also needed some water to simmer in (about 1/3 C) Take the cooking methods and look for added spices in other 5 star sloppy joe recipes. If you like a lot of flavour – you might be disappointed in this recipe as is.
I added more brown sugar for little more sweetness, but delicious
Hi! My husband and I really liked your recipe! I have been using the can version of sloppy joe mix for years, but not 100% happy with it, so I looked online for an easy recipe and I decided to try yours, since I had all of the ingredients on hand. I think this will be my go-to recipe from now on! Thanks a bunch!
This was really good and very fast and easy to make. I added 4 oz of diced portobello mushrooms I needed to use up, browning them with the meat so the extra liquid poured off with the fat. Couldn’t taste them but a nice hidden veggie. Definitely on the sweeter side, so I will cut back the brown sugar to 1 tbsp next time for personal preference (and there will definitely be a next time). Added a few drops off green pepper sauce on mine because I like heat. Thanks for the recipe!
I made for a friend and her family, but of course taste tested first. It was great and my friend and family thought so as well. I appreciated the detail on the crusting of the ground beef. I understand the difference that made in the taste.
does this tastes like ketchup? im not a big fan of ketchup and was wondering if i should use tomato sauce instead
We loved it! Served it on split and toasted kaiser rolls! Hubby went for seconds.
Great sloppy Joe recipe, not too sweet. I really appreciate the detailed instructions. The only (minor) change I made was to add a single drop of smoke flavor. Gave it just a bit of depth. This will be my go-to recipe from now on.
Thanks for the suggestion, Jenny.
I am wondering if I am missing something. At the beginning of the recipe you give times for making it in the crock pot for 4 hours and then also using the instantpot for 20 minutes with a pressure release of 5 minutes. After the ingredients the recipe instructions have you brown the meat and sauté vegetables in the Instantpot. It says to cook the sauce down for 3-5 minutes. No where does it say to put the lid in and pressure cook for 20 min. Usually you need at least a 1/2 cup of thin liquid to pressurize and this recipe does not have that listed.
Thank you for this recipe!!
Made this tonight for my whole family and everyone loved it, I added the Worcestershire sauce and I think it turned out perfect!!
This recipe was delicious! I did add the tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce like mentioned above the recipe. My husband and I both loved it. Best sloppy Joe recipe!
Delicious! The only difference I made was substituted a can of tomato sauce for the ketchup.
made this came out dynamite. made changes to the fact this is all I had in freezer I used some hot sausage and hamburger 5O%X 50% Came out so great. and added some red wine. cooked off wine. Really good
Thanks for coming back to let me know how much you enjoyed it. I appreciate the 5 stars.
this is a great recipe.. thanks for sharing!
This was delicious! A big thumbs up from all the family
Yay! So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for the review.
This is the best sloppy joe ever! And over browning the ground beef, genius!
Thank you,
Bonnie
I’ve used this recipe several times and we continue to enjoy this. It is far better and safer than using a can of premade sauce. Thanks for sharing ?
I made these ultimatum sloppy joes for dinner tonight. I have not made sloppy joes since the early days of our marriage when all I used was Manwich. My husband declared he was not fond of that meal so I stopped making it 49 years ago. We both really enjoyed your recipe tonight. I think it will also be great to serve when the grandkids come to visit in the summer. Thank you for all your time and expertise you put into your recipes.
You’re so welcome, Karen. I really appreciate the 5 stars.
Too sweet. Missing some tang. Just like a lot of bad sloppy joe recipes that taste more like you mixed meat with bbq sauce and a touch of mustard. Traditional sloppy joes have are less sweet and have a more unique flavor, not like bbq sauce.
If you had read all her tips she addresses this preference by suggesting you add a tablespoon of Worcester sauce.
Worcestershire would give it a little bite but I think it’s tons better than any other sloppy joe I’ve ever made!
Just had to scroll down here to sincerely thank you for the time and effort you put into this!
I needed this tonight … some fresh ideas . Thank you!
Gotta go, the meat is sizzling…
Connie, thank you so much for the kind words! Hope dinner was a hit!
Just made this for Christmas Eve, and it was a HUGE hit!!! All my guests asked for the recipe. I will never buy canned sloppy Joe again!!
Love it!