With minimal time but lots of of flavor you need to make The Best Homemade Sloppy Joes, so much nostalgia from this recipe, it’s one recipe everyone enjoys.
One recipe that I grew up on is Sloppy Joes. They are so so good. I have always loved them and we’ve had so many different kinds growing up that it was crazy.
Over the years we have tailored our Homemade Sloppy Joes to our liking and found a recipe that we absolutely have come to love the best overall, and works for our family.
I love adding peppers and onions to our recipe to give it a little more flavor and texture, luckily my kids aren’t that picky and they have come to enjoy the ingredients.
Overall the flavor is absolutely delicious and has just a little bit of a sweetness behind it which is my favorite part. I’m not a huge tomato based Sloppy Joe fan, so these are perfect to us.
Some of my other favorite Sloppy Joe style recipes we have on our site include: Sloppy Joe Casserole, Old Fashioned Homemade Sloppy Joes and Open Faced Sloppy Joes – Wahlburgers Copycat!
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- With easy to find ingredients, this recipe is easy to whip up.
- This can be on your table in less than 30 minutes from start to finish.
- You can easily double this recipe to serve more people.
Just look at that saucy Homemade Sloppy Joe mix! I love it, it just makes me want to drool, but that’s probably because I love them so much anyways.
There is just something nostalgic about a good Sloppy Joe Recipe that I can’t resist, just growing up with them is the main reason, and passing it down to my kids is the best.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE BELOW)
Butter
Sweet onion
Green bell pepper
Garlic
Lean ground beef
Tomato sauce
Ketchup
Light brown sugar
Worcestershire sauce
Salt and Pepper
HOW TO MAKE THE BEST HOMEMADE SLOPPY JOES, STEP BY STEP:
- In a large skillet over medium-low heat add the butter to the pan and melt. Add the onions, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook until softened, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
- Return the skillet to the stove over medium-high heat, add the ground beef and brown the meat, breaking it up.
- Cook until the meat is done, drain off any excess water or fat. Add the peppers and onions back to the pan with the meat.
- Add the tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine, bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Stirring occasionally, simmer for about 5-8 minutes until thickened but still saucy. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve on top of buns of your choice.
WHY WE LOVE SLOPPY JOES:
Look at how easy that is! We like to use lean ground beef because we like to have less grease in our mixture so we usually go with an 85/15 fat ratio for this.
This is one of our favorite recipes but we also like to swap it out with our Old Fashioned version, another one that we grew up on that was awesome.
There is a huge difference between that and this recipe as the old fashioned has chicken gumbo soup, ketchup, mustard and vinegar in the mixture.
We love love love that one as well, but that was the one we grew up on and then there was this one which was my aunt’s recipe that we adapted over the years.
So if you like variety I encourage you to try this one and then give the old fashioned one a try and taste the difference of the two, both amazing but both with completely different flavors.
They don’t call these Sloppy Joes for nothing, look at that meat falling out. I have no problem getting messy especially when it comes to these Homemade Sloppy Joes.
The name says it all, SLOPPY! What you would call it if it weren’t a delicious mess like this. Probably a hamburger, with sloppy joes you want those nice chunk of meat falling out.
HOW TO STORE:
Properly stored in an airtight container or a zip top back in he refrigerator the mixture should last up to 3-4 days, you can reheat in the microwave or in a pan on the stove.
This can also be frozen, woohoo. You all know that I love to freeze recipes and I absolutely love freezer meals because some days I want something that I can just pull out and heat.
To freeze these Homemade Sloppy Joes, place in a freezer bag and place in the freezer and it should keep 2-3 months with best quality but will store longer than that if needed.
Let defrost in refrigerator and then again to reheat you can use your microwave or a pan on the stove and serve.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- We like to use leaner ground beef for this recipe, but you can use what you have on hand, just make sure to drain the grease off.
- The onions and green peppers are optional, we love the texture and flavor that it gives these sloppy joes but they are not necessary.
- This can easily be frozen, see my tips above on how to do that.
- If you want to substitute your meat go for it, this is great mixed with half hamburger and Italian sausage, turkey or chicken.
- You can use your favorite buns for these, we like brioche best, but any bun will do, even sub buns and have a Sloppy Joe Sub.
- This recipe can easily be doubled to serve larger crowds, they are great at family parties or potlucks.
This is really a great versatile recipe that you can adapt to your liking, we love the concoction that we have came up with over these years.
But that doesn’t meant you can’t stray from this recipe, like I did with the original I tweaked it and made it my own and I highly encourage you to do that to suit your needs!
If you are looking for a quick and easy dinner recipe that will feed your whole family then you need to whip up The Best Homemade Sloppy Joes!
If you like this recipe you might also like:
If you’ve tried THE BEST HOMEMADE SLOPPY JOES or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!
The Best Homemade Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- 2 Tbs unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup sweet onion diced
- 1/2 cup green bell pepper diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 lb lean ground beef 85/15
- 8 oz tomato sauce
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 1 Tbs light brown sugar packed
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium-low heat add the butter to the pan and melt. Add the onions, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook until softened, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
- Return the skillet to the stove over medium-high heat, add the ground beef and brown the meat, breaking it up.
- Cook until the meat is done, drain off any excess water or fat. Add the peppers and onions back to the pan with the meat.
- Add the tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine, bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Stirring occasionally, simmer for about 5-8 minutes until thickened but still saucy. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve on top of buns of your choice.
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Nancy
My mother used the same recipe except she used a can of tomato soup instead of tomato sauce. Any comments on the difference of flavor between the two.?