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Family-friendly meals made easy!
Make everyday family moments count, with easy recipes that everyone will love. Join our email community to receive tested recipes and tips.
Make everyday family moments count, with easy recipes that everyone will love. Join our email community to receive tested recipes and tips.
Sloppy Joes are a family favorite, and it’s not hard to see why. Made with simple ingredients and ready in under an hour, these flavorful dinner sandwiches can feed a hungry crowd quickly, making them the perfect meal for busy weeknights.
Sloppy Joes have been popular since the 1940s. Some say this messy dinner sandwich was first made by a cook named Joe in Sioux City, Iowa, while others claim that it originated in Havana, Cuba and Key West, Florida. The recipe’s simple ingredients of ground beef, tomato-based sauce, and hamburger buns make a quick, filling meal that both adults and kids love.
These days, Sloppy Joes are so popular that the filling has even inspired casserole recipes, Crescent cups, and even pizza. But if you want to keep it classic, this easy recipe for traditional Sloppy Joes will satisfy every time.
Sloppy Joes are made with ingredients that most people already have on hand—which makes them extra easy to whip up on a weeknight. Here’s what you’ll need:
Ground Beef: Perfect for Sloppy Joes because it soaks up all the saucy flavor and makes each bite hearty and satisfying.
Tomato Sauce: This is a key ingredient in classic Sloppy Joes because it adds rich, tangy flavor and helps bring all the ingredients together in a delicious, messy bite.
Yellow Mustard: This adds the perfect amount of acidity to balance out the sweetness.
Other ingredients: Ketchup and brown sugar add sweetness, Worcestershire sauce adds richness and umami, and vinegar adds tang. Green bell pepper/celery and onions give the dish color and texture—plus an easy way to add in a few extra veggies!
Some reviews mentioned that our original recipe was too sweet, so we’ve updated this recipe to use a combination of ketchup, mustard, vinegar, and garlic powder to help balance out the sweetness.
Start by cooking your ground beef, bell pepper or celery, and onion until the meat is fully cooked and brown and the veggies are tender. A cast iron or nonstick pan is your best bet—if you use stainless steel, there’s a greater chance your meat might stick or burn.
To that same skillet, mix the sauce ingredients into the meat and veggies. The sauce is made with super simple fridge and pantry staples: brown sugar, ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, and seasonings.
After everything is nice and combined, let it simmer for a full 15 minutes. This allows the water to evaporate and the sauce to thicken. If you cook for less time, your sauce will be too runny. Once the mixture is hot and saucy, serve it on your favorite buns or Pillsbury™ Biscuits.
Sloppy Joes make a great lunch the next day—or, you can make a double batch, freeze the leftovers, and enjoy it for dinner on a night when you don’t have time to cook!
Store leftover Sloppy Joe mixture in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
If you’d prefer to eat the leftovers later on, you can freeze your Sloppy Joe mixture in an airtight container for up to 6 months.
If your leftovers are in the fridge, you can reheat them in a skillet or saucepan over medium-low heat or in the microwave in 1-minute increments until the mixture is heated through.
If your leftovers are frozen, you can reheat them directly from frozen using the same methods—it just might take a little longer.
One of the things we love about Sloppy Joes is how versatile they are. It’s easy to swap ingredients for what you have on hand, or to fit your family’s preferences.
If you don’t want to use ground beef, you can use ground turkey or ground chicken—as long as the meat is ground, it will cook up the same and stay true to the classic Sloppy Joe texture.
If your family isn’t a fan of mustard, you can replace it with the same amount of ketchup—your Sloppy Joes will just turn out a little sweeter. And if you’re looking for something a little more smoky and sassy, you can replace the ketchup/mustard combo with BBQ sauce.
Sloppy Joes are delicious served on traditional hamburger buns, but we also love eating our Sloppy Joes on soft, fluffy Pillsbury™ Grands!™ Biscuits. They’re the perfect size and give extra-special homemade vibes.
Complete your meal with our top-rated Texas Two-Step Slaw or easy Air Fryer French Fries.
In large skillet, combine ground beef, bell pepper, and onion. Cook over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until beef is thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently. Drain well.
Add brown sugar, garlic powder, salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato sauce. Mix well.
Cover; simmer 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve in buns.
Kids not a fan of “green stuff” in their dinner? Swap out the green pepper and use red pepper instead!
Sloppy Joes make great weeknight meals because the filling can actually be prepared ahead of time. You can store the mixture in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and reheat and pile on buns when you’re ready to serve.
Don’t want to spend time chopping veggies? You can find pre-chopped celery and onions in the produce section of most grocery stores.
