This homemade Sloppy Joes recipe is easy, inexpensive, and ready in just 30 minutes. It’s a kid-favorite, and packed with flavor.
Looking for more 30-Minute Meals? Try my Air Fryer Pizza, Taco Salad, or Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas!
Why I love this recipe:
- Homemade Sauce: It has the perfect sauce/beef ratio that is packed with flavor.
- Adaptable: There are so many ways to vary this recipe (see below) by adding veggies, switching the meat, etc.
- Kid Friendly: My kids love this recipe (even when I add veggies) and it makes for a relaxing and fun family dinner. Check out all my kid friendly recipes!
How to make Sloppy Joes:
Brown the Beef: Start by browning the ground beef in a large skillet. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is tender and translucent.
Add Remaining Ingredients: Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and stir to combine.
Simmer for 30 minutes. The simmering time is a crucial part of the recipe because it allows the flavors to blend together.
Serve: After letting the sloppy joe mixture simmer, serve it warm on a toasted hamburger bun as a sloppy joe sandwich.
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: The sloppy joe meat filling can be made up to 2 days ahead of time, depending on the freshness of the beef. Store in the refrigerator and reheat and serve on toasted buns when ready to eat.
To Freeze: Allow the mixture to cool completely and store it in an air-tight, freezer safe container for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat on the stove.
Recipe Variations:
- 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.
Serve Sloppy Joes with:
- 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
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Recipe
Sloppy Joes
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 sauces
- 1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 5 hamburger buns
Instructions
- Add beef to a large pan over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, crumbling and stirring, until browned. Remove grease.
- Add onion and garlic and cook for a few minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients.
- Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Serve warm, inside a toasted hamburger bun.
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
Did You Make This Recipe?
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I originally shared this recipe January 2018. Updated March 2022.
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Excellent! This is the basic, great tasting sloppy Joe like you had as a kid. You can add any special spices/sauces you like but I prefer the simplicity of this recipe.
Does your nutrition information include the bun, or would it be the 345 calories plus the calories for the bun?
Hi Brandy, the nutrition information includes the bun.
Super easy and delicious!
Best Sloppy Joe recipe ever! Everyone that has had it absolutely loved it!
This is the easiest homemade sloppy Joe recipe I have every found. I make a double batch for leftovers for lunches for the next day.
Pretty tasty sloppy joe
Delicious and so easy! Will never go back to premade sloppy joe mix!
This was the perfect nostalgia meal and it was the easiest dish I’ve cooked in a while. Even my picky eater ate an entire sandwich!
Delicious and so easy! Already made this twice, served with a salad on the side. I love that your recipes are simple with simple ingredients. Because who wants to go running around grocery stores looking for ingredients you’ve never heard of before?! I sure don’t 🙂
This is my favorite Sloppy Joe recipe. Don’t cheat the twenty minute simmer. The flavor is won’t disappoint.
This recipe makes a great Sloppy Joe. The entire family of 5 loved it …young and old. I suggest putting some grated Jack Cheese on top (Pepper Jack is excellemt if you want some heat.) I will make this again. Thanks!
This was sooooo easy with a burst of flavor!!!! This will definitely be on the rotation!!!!!
Another good recipe to add to the recipe box! I usually find sloppy joes a little too sweet for my liking, but this was just right. I’m looking forward to trying the Asian version in the future which looks like a refreshing & creative twist.
Lauren, I’ve always made my Sloppy Joe recipe with ground beef, Heinz Chili Sauce and dried onions. I don’t have an exact recipe but it’s so, so easy and has few ingredients. Just start with browning the beef, then add part of a jar of the chili sauce and maybe a couple tsp dried onion flakes and stir. Sometimes I add a little water and/or some diced green peppers. Then serve on toasted buns or even toasted hot dog buns. It’s yummy! Hope you’ll try it sometime and let me know how you like it.
This was so delicious, we will never go back to canned Sloppy Joes!!
This was just perfect! Great flavor and so easy… I had all the ingredients in hand, too! Thanks for this recipe.
Delicious! Best sloppy joes I’ve ever had!
I make Snoopy Joe’s but my I ingredients are a bit different then yours.I find that freezing adds to the flavor. Like chili its better the next day! Karen
I’ve made this several times and always thought it was good but a bit too saucy. Today we added extra diced veggies – 1 carrot, 1 celery, and half a dozen sweet peppers. Turned out great! 7 year old said it was better than usual!
This was so quick to make and was so tasty! This will definitely be a regular in our house. My husband and I added a slice of montery jack cheese to our burgers.
Very easy, very quick, very good!!!!
My husband said this was the best sloppy joe he’s had. The sauce is tasty and thick. Perfect for trying to keep inside the bun. Fast and easy to prepare. I did double it since I have hungry teenage and pre-teen boys.
I made these last night and everyone agreed it could go into “the roation”. They had refused to eat the ones made from a can. We loved how flavorful they were without being sweet. Thanks!
I give you ten stars and hooray for not adding cheese on this recipe
I fixed these for supper tonight and they are GOOD! My picky 14 year old grandson wasn’t thrilled about my choice for supper, until he took a bite! He ate his whole sandwich, and I used large size buns! They’re so good there’s no need to add anything once it’s on the bun. THAT’S A GREAT SLOPPY JOE!
Total home run! By the way this is at the end of her week 1 meal plan. An unexpected bonus to these meals is that my house smells awesome.
It was very good. Easy to make. Similar to a Manwich, but not as runny. Served on open hamburger bun, with coleslaw. Definitely worth trying.
Made this exactly as stated and it was DELICIOUS! We served as open face on burger buns!
i just love this its amazing
Tasty recipe. I substituted ground turkey.
Had your sloppy Joe’s for dinner tonight and it had such a nice, rich flavor. We all enjoyed them. I eat mine open faced with fresh, raw onion on it. The rest ate them closed. This is our new go-to recipe. Thanks !!!
Try adding mushrooms to your sloopy joe mix. Adds some good flavor
y mom and aunt would make these for us frequently when we were kids. I’ve never found a recipe close enough to their’s until I tried this one! Thank you so much for bringing back all those wonderful memories. Classic and simple always wins!
New favorite sloppy joe recipe! My kids have not enjoyed other similar sloppy joe recipes from scratch, this one was a hit with all of us though. I will double it so we have leftovers next time!
Delicious and so easy to make from scratch.
I’m happy to hear you liked them! Thanks for commenting!
I used a pint of canned chili sauce in place of the tomato sauce and bbq sauce. I added about a cup of frozen mixed vegetables. We love it and I have made it multiple times.
I have a VERY picky Husband. When I told him I was making sloppy joes from scratch he looked disappointed. “Nothing tops the old school out of a can flavor”! This one got his eyebrows raised and he had 2 servings. I made enough to freeze and he asked for me to keep the rest in the fridge so he could finish it by end of the week. This one is a keeper.
That’s so great! I’m happy he enjoyed it! Thanks for your comment.
Just whipped this up. We doubled the recipe, keeping the W sauce at 2 T, omitting the garlic powder, and adding cheese at the very end. We also added carrots and celery to beef up the veggie content since we have 4 picky kids. The only one who didn’t touch it was the 2yo…but he was super hungry and doesn’t like trying new things in that state.
This is a delicious recipe! It’s easily tweaked to suit your family’s needs, too. We may have a new family fave, if the youngest will eat it. 🙂
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 🙂
THIS WAS SOO GOOD AND SO EASY TO MAKE. I found your website with a simple google and am so glad I did. I’ll be trying more of your recipes! xoxo
Thanks Kathy–I’m so glad you found me!
i added a little spoonful of brown sugar because my family likes sloppy joes a bit sweeter, but otherwise followed the recipe, and we all loved it! especially loved the addition of barbecue sauce. we ate the sloppy joes on kaiser rolls with slices of sharp cheddar on top. i will definitely make this again. thank you for sharing this great recipe!
This was delicious as is. I wouldn’t change a thing; my family loved it!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!
I made this recipe exactly as written and would not change a thing. My family all loved it with one exception, one member requested that in future I make extra sauce so next time i’m doubling the recipe so they will be extra sloppy. This doesn’t take long to make and beats canned sauce all to pieces!
Thanks for sharing!
We used to have these all of the time growing up. I love the new twist of adding BBQ sauce in the recipe, it adds a great flavor! Also good as leftovers! 🙂
Glad I doubled the recipe, everyone went back for seconds. Taste great over tater tots with melted cheese, yum.
This was awesome I omitted the salt and pepper and added diced tomatoes with green chile peppers and added about 4 sweet peppers. Will be using this recipe again. I might follow the recipe as is but probably not as I enjoy using recipes as guides only but this is an awesome base. The sauce itself would work for BBQ beef or pork sandwiches or even chicken
I agree, it would be yummy over bbq beef or pork sandwiches! Thanks for sharing your experience 🙂
I enjoyed this, I used spicier ketchup and BBQ sauce and tasted great!
What mind of bbq didu use
This is a fantastic (and easy) Sloppy Joe recipe! The bbq sauce really makes it!
I agree, the bbq sauce gives the sauce an extra boost of flavor that I love! Thanks so much, I’m really happy you liked them!
Love the idea of adding barbecue sauce etc. to Sloppy Joes – I’ve already pinned this recipe!! ; o )
This recipe was really greasy ?
Did you drain the grease after cooking the ground beef? That’s the only thing that would make it greasy….