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Our easy Sloppy Joes recipe delivers the best messy sandwich with savory ground beef in a sweet and tangy homemade sauce, ready in just 30 minutes.
When I Need Dinner Fast, I Make Sloppy Joes
They're easy enough for busy weeknights, loved by kids and adults, and I usually have what I need already sitting in my pantry. My family devours sloppy joes, and sometimes I sneak extra veggies into the sauce without anyone noticing (like shredded carrot, diced zucchini or spinach). If I make these in the cooler months we will serve sloppy joes with sides like corn on the cob, baked beans, french fries or roasted veggies. In the summertime we like to serve sloppy joes with cucumber salad, fresh fruit, coleslaw, or a crisp green salad.
Check out all of my 30-minute meals, like Hawaiian Haystacks, Instant Pot Fettuccine Alfredo, Chicken Avocado Wrap, Baked Tacos, and Mongolian Noodles!
How to make Sloppy Joes:
Cook Beef: Use a meat chopper or wooden spoon to cook the ground beef in a large skillet, breaking into small pieces as it cooks. Remove grease then add onion and garlic and cook until tender.
Add Ingredients: Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Bring the sloppy joe mixture to a simmer for 30 minutes so all of the flavors blend together.
Serve: Place a scoop of the beef mixture on a warm, toasted hamburger bun and enjoy!
Homemade Sloppy Joes Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup yellow onion, , chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, , minced
- 8 ounces tomato sauce
- 1/3 cup ketchup, , or more, to taste
- 1/4 cup barbecue sauce
- 1 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 5 hamburger buns
Instructions
- Brown ground beef: Add beef to a large pan over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, crumbling and stirring, until browned. Remove grease.1 pound ground beef, salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Season: Add onion and garlic and cook for a few minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients.½ cup yellow onion, 2 cloves garlic, 8 ounces tomato sauce, ⅓ cup ketchup, ¼ cup barbecue sauce, 1 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard, ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Serve warm, inside a toasted hamburger bun.5 hamburger buns
Notes
- Add Veggies: Diced bell peppers, zucchini, spinach, or shredded carrot, can easily be added to this recipe and your kids won’t even notice a difference.
- Hawaiian Sloppy Joes: Substitute more BBQ sauce for the ketchup and add 8 oz., drained crushed pineapple.
- Asian Sloppy Joes: Add 1 tablespoon ground ginger and substitute 1 tablespoons hoisin sauce for the Worcestershire sauce. If desired mix in thinly sliced cucumber slices, chopped water chestnuts or shredded carrot.
- Turkey Sloppy Joes: Substitute ground turkey in place of ground beef and add chopped veggies.
- Low Carb Sloppy Joes: Serve in a lettuce leaf, or serve open-face on a low-carb bun, with a piece of cheese placed on top, and broiled in the oven for 2 minutes.
- Green Salad, Cucumber Onion Salad, or Fresh Corn Salad
- Cold Cut Veggies and dip, Roasted Vegetables or Corn on the Cob
- Baked Beans or Potato Salad
- Mac and Cheese or Macaroni Salad
- French Fries, Potato Wedges or Sweet Potato Fries
- Potato Chips
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I originally shared this recipe January 2018. Updated March 2022 and February 2026.
Hands down best sloppy joes ever!! Love that there is NO Sugar! I used our favorite brand of Kansas city style bbq sauce which gave it a nice kick. So nice to be able to make something so good so easily after a long day at work.
Thank you, thank you!
Thanks for the positive feedback–I’m so glad you liked it!
Pretty solid recipe. It’s a good base. I added some chopped mildly spicy green peppers, a splash or two of liquid smoke, a few big shakes of cayenne pepper powder, a few drops of Thai fish sauce and a teaspoon chinese numbing pepper oil which besides imparting a slight numbing sensation also give a slight lemony citrus kick. Came out really nice. 7 happy friends for dinner!
Good and simple, about like moms version before stores had Manwich in a can. I like the mustard in powered version and the main missing ingredient is the sugar. At the very end you should balance the salty tartness out with white or brown sugar to taste. That’s what puts it over the top!
Excellent recipe! I liked how balanced the sauces were in this.
My family loved it and it now goes in the rotation. I love that your recipes are generally the ingredients I have on hand and lend themselves to being modified to specific tastes. Your custom meal plan option is genius! Thanks for taking the time to help those who want to cook from scratch do it more easily!
Thanks for your kind comment! I’m so happy you’ve enjoyed some of my recipes <3
Loved it wouldn’t change a thing! My 5 year olds favorite meal now ?
Thanks Brooke–it’s always a win when the kids like it!
I’m really trying to make more foods as natural as possible and from scratch now. I believe natural foods will make me feel better. I used a great natural bourbon bbq sauce with no high fructose corn syrup. I also used organic ketchup which has twice the antioxidants than regular ketchup. My finace and 3 teenage boys all ate it and loved it. That right there says a lot for my picky eaters. I doubled the recipe and there was only one portion left for lunch today. Yum. I’m too am so happy I found this website.
I wasn’t a huge Sloppy Joe fan until I made this one for my husband. Excellent!
I’m glad this recipe made you a believer! Thanks so much 🙂
Delicious! I made them for dinner the other night. Doubled the recipe so we would have leftovers. The next day the elderly lady across the street died so guess what food I took over???!!! They have grandchildren so I figured they would all like it. They were thrilled.
Any way, I’m making another batch today for our freezer!
Loved the recipe didn’t have the exact ingredients but I had ones close enough! Everyone said this was the best Sloppy Joe recipe I have ever made!!
My family liked this variation of an all-time favorite. I recently substitued a small can of tomato paste for the tomato sauce, because that is what I had in the pantry. I added enough beef broth to get the consistency I wanted. This recipe works well in a slow cooker – on low for 4 – 5 hours.
Thanks for sharing Peggy–love to hear that it worked well in the slow cooker for you 🙂