The Best Sloppy Joes
Quick and easy, these really are the best sloppy joes ever! The bold, exciting flavors make these a tried-and-true favorite!
When is the last time you found yourself craving a sloppy joe?
If your answer is “next to never,” I can’t blame you.
Thanks to a few Dreaded Dinners of my Youth, sloppy joes made the short list of meals I never planned to introduce to my children.
That is, until I took a chance on this new and improved version, and I was totally won over and amazed by how good a sloppy joe could be!
Over ten years later, and these have become a tried-and-true recipe. They are the only sloppy joes we make! And we make them often.
What makes these sloppy joes different?
When you add the right “stuff” to sloppy joes, they quickly go from average to totally spectacular.
Instead of relying on a strong tomato flavor profile that often results in bland, boring sloppy joes, this recipe goes straight for the flavor jugular.
BBQ sauce builds the foundation of flavor while tomato sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce round everything out.
Choose a BBQ sauce you really, really love. My favorite store bought brands are Sweet Baby Rays and Kinders. This is my go-to homemade BBQ sauce recipe.
The meat is saturated with bold, savory flavors instead of swimming in a thin, wimpy sauce.
Not only will this make your taste buds really happy, it also helps avoid the dreaded soggy bun issue.
Because, soggy bread should have never, ever been invented. It’s the worst.
Quick and Easy
These really are the best sloppy joes. And they are so quick and easy to make.
A few notes:
- the ground beef can easily be subbed out for ground turkey
- serve them on hamburger buns, brioche buns, homemade french bread rolls, or over cornbread with cheese
- the prepared sloppy joe meat can be refrigerated for several days and reheated AND it also freezes great
I’ve made these sloppy joes dozens and dozens of times for our little family, and I’ve also made enormous batches to serve crowds upwards of 150 people.
It’s safe to say that these sloppy joes are always a hit.
This sloppy joe recipe is a fan favorite even among past sloppy joe haters!
Allison: Just made this tonight-and adding it to our growing list of amazing recipes from you! Even though I was nervous about trying sloppy joes, my husband said, “has Mel ever let us down?” Haha they are delicious!
Laurel: Our whole family loved this! (And hubby is not a sloppy joe fan )
Ashley S.: This is on regular rotation in my house. It converted my Sloppy-Joe-hating fiancé into someone who regularly requests this dinner. I also love how quick this is to throw together. Thanks for another winner!
Elizabeth: I love these so much I want to cry and hug you. Odd reaction to a sloppy joe? Maybe. But I love them. They are exactly what I’ve always pictured a sloppy joe to be but it just never was. Thank you!!!
What to Serve With This
- French Bread Rolls
- Coleslaw or Boston Baked Beans
- Fresh vegetables and/or green salad
One Year Ago: Copycat Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Recipe {Pressure Cooker or Slow Cooker}
Two Years Ago: Homemade Canned Spaghetti Sauce {Step-by-Step Tutorial}
Three Years Ago: Cheesy Baked Ziti {Make-Ahead/Freezer Meal}
Four Years Ago: The Best Homemade Salsa {Fresh or For Canning}
Five Years Ago: Portillo’s Chopped Salad with Sweet Italian Dressing
Six Years Ago: Sweet Paprika Skillet Chicken
Seven Years Ago: Sweet Mustard Baked Chicken
Eight Years Ago: Succulent Grilled Pork Tenderloin
The Best Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- ½ cup diced onion
- 2 ½ pounds ground beef or ground turkey
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- ⅔ cup BBQ sauce (see note)
- ½ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ cup soy sauce, I use low-sodium
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Rolls or buns, for serving
Instructions
- In a 12-inch nonstick skillet set over medium heat, add the onions and beef (or ground turkey). Cook, breaking the meat into small pieces, until the meat is cooked through and the onions are translucent, 7-8 minutes. Drain excess grease.
- Stir in the tomato paste, BBQ sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire, and soy sauce and a pinch of black pepper. Bring the mixture to a simmer ,and cook until the sauce is slightly thickened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add additional salt and pepper, to taste, if needed.
- Serve the sloppy joe meat warm on buns or rolls.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from Dave Lieberman
Of all the recipes of yours that I have used and we have loved, I had never tried your recipe for sloppy Joes. It had a wonderful depth of flavor. I made it exactly as written, using “93% lean” ground beef.
Thank you, Mel! 🙂
(BTW, I loved how you calculated and recreated this recipe for a crowd for the previous writer!)
Thanks, Nancy! So happy you loved this one!
My husband is a Bishop of a YSA Ward and I’m his linger longer person. 🙂 Do you happen to have advice on quantifies of each ingredient for roughly 140 servings of sloppy joes?
Sounds like a fun adventure! For that many, I’d do 7 onions, chopped, 35 pounds ground beef, about 3 6-ounce cans tomato paste, 9 cups BBQ sauce, 7 cups ketchup, and about 3 cups soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.
This is so helpful. Thank you so much!!! Always an adventure. 😅
This recipe is very forgiving. I have made it a few times being low or out of some ingredients. I swapped A1 for Worcestershire sauce and didn’t have tomato paste. I have added mushrooms for extra meatiness and flavor.
Delicious. Made with your BBQ sauce recipe, which is so good I have to make a batch almost monthly. And I don’t even particularly like BBQ sauce.
A hit all around – made as is with turkey – delicious!
Not my favorite recipe. I tried to doctor it, but I would probably try something different next time. Maybe it’s the soy??
Very good recipe! The best one in my opinion!
Any tips for making this in a crock pot? Maybe add all ingredients and let simmer for 6-8 hrs?
I think that would work (definitely cook the meat first and drain off excess grease before adding to the slow cooker). I’d probably cook on low for 4-5 hours.
I love this recipe! It’s perfectly savory and well balanced with tomato flavor and other flavors. I can’t stand sweet sloppy joes so this is where it’s at!
I’ve made this recipe so many times… I use 1 lb of ground beef and two cans of drained, rinsed black beans. Once the meat is cooked, I add the black beans and mash them in with a potato masher.
I’ve tried it the original way, But the black beans make it so delicious and cheaper! Highly recommend!
I freeze my meat in 1 lb increments. Do you think it would work to only use 2 lb of ground beef?
Should work just fine!
I am giving this a 5 star rating and making this tonight for another family because they sound yummy and your recipes have never let me down. I am cooking for my grandchildren now, and they require almost completely different recipes than the previous generation. Sigh! But! They nearly fight over your Cheesy Breadsticks and your Focaccia Bread recipes (well, also everything else I have tried from your website) so I am pretty sure this won’t let me down. Thank you
I’ve never cooked something like sloppy joes for my kids. They all LOVED them. I even had two neighbor kids say “can I come over next time you make those sloppy joes again?” This will be going into my rotation. Thanks!!
These were very good. I wouldn’t expect anything else though! One of my favorite blogs!
Omg yes !! I do not care for sloppy joes but you have changed my mind . This recipe is definitely on the menu rotation!! Thank you
Sorry, I was not a fan. Perhaps a different BBQ sauce could have made a difference.
Excellent recipe! We made these with ground turkey and it was so light. My Grandbabies love this so much we’re making again for tonight’s dinner.
Flavorful and the right a out of sweetness without being cloying. We used Rudy’s BBQ sauce (the standard one, not the sissy sauce). This is one of the best sloppy Joe recipes I’ve tried.
This and your ground beef stroganoff are my two of my seven year old’s very favorite dinners! He gets so excited if this is on the menu. I just use whatever bbq sauce we have in the fridge, which is usually Stubbs, and it’s always delicious!
This is the best Sloppy Joe recipe I’ve ever tasted! Look no further. I used Mel’s Kitchen Cafe BBQ sauce recipe in the Sloppy Joes and would do it every time. Forget store bought, it is phenomenal!
What do you do with your leftover tomato paste? Love these and have been making them for years!
I usually pop it in a small bag and freeze it to use later.
Where I live you can buy a squeezable tube of tomato paste (MUTTI brand). Squeeze out the amount needed. Recap the tube and store in the refrigerator until needed again.
Oh man, these were so good – a million times better than the manwich sloppy joe’s I grew up on! My 6.5 year old said he’d be okay if I made them again a thousand times. 😀
I halved the recipe since there’s just three of us, but the only other change I made was adding about half a teaspoon of yellow mustard in with all of the sauce ingredients since I felt like it needed a little more of a vinegary tang. I used Sweet Baby Ray’s, which is pretty sweet. A different sauce might provide the tang without the addition of mustard.
How would you modify this for the instant pot? I’d like to try it and I’m fairly new to the instant pot. We are in the middle of a kitchen remodel so I’m cooking everything in my slow cooker or instant pot.
Hi Jacquie, I haven’t personally had the greatest luck making ground beef dishes like this in the instant pot. I suppose you could cook the ground beef on saute mode, drain the grease and then add the other ingredients and heat through.
My husband loves sloppy joes. He liked these the best of any I have made. My children 5 children always hate sloppy joes. Except these. All but one liked them and the one thought they were ok. My gluten intolerant child put it on rice and liked it too. wow. A miracle. I used a homemade katzu style sauce the other day for the barbecue sauce that I made too much of from another meal and added half of a red pepper. And I didn’t have tomato paste, so used a small can of tomato sauce and let it simmer down a bit. I was in a hurry so used hamburger I had previously browned and frozen to make this a super fast meal.. Definitely a repeat. I have yet to make a recipe from you that I don’t like. Thank you for being a reliable source for tasty recipes!!!!
I have a question can’t I leave soy sauce out because I don’t like soy sauce and put something else
I like to this recipe but my husband can’t have soy sauce I was wondering if can leave that out or substitute for something else
Yes, you can leave it out or sub in a little extra Worcestershire sauce.
Just wanted to let you know I made the sloppy Joe and it was awesome …..thank you. I also made the manicotti….another hit!!!!! Thank you for everything
Wow, thank you so much, Douglas!
I AM making these for a take in meal tonight and I am sure they will be amazing but mostly I am here to say that I love your new bio: weird animals, dark chocolate, and joggers not jogging. hahaha.
Ha. Thanks for noticing the bio, Lori, and mostly just understanding my weird sense of humor. 🙂
This is a wonderful recipe for sloppy joes! I served it with Mel’s recipe for coleslaw and her instantPot Mac and cheese. I also served it on store bought slider buns. It makes a ton which I appreciate. I will freeeze it flat in ziplock baggies in two serving portions. Then wrap two buns in plastic wrap. Both will fit in a gallon freezer bag and my husband and I will have at least three meals for another time. I love when I find recipes that freeze well.
That sounds like a killer meal, Gail!
Delicious!! Found a new favorite bbq sauce (always used Sweet baby Ray’s) that doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup!! The brand is Sticky Fingers (Memphis original flavor). SO GOOD!
I’ll have to look for that one!
Stubb’s is awesome too (w/o the HFCS)!!
Yes, I can confirm, these ARE the best sloppy joes ever. It is true. I don’t know how it’s possible, but it is. Will definitely make these again. So quick and delicious!
Thanks, Megan! So glad you liked them!
My kids love this so much!
Quick and easy. And liked by all including one who dislikes ground beef.
Left overs made a great lunch.
I love eating leftovers for lunch! Glad you liked these, Sheila – thank you for letting me know!