This is the best homemade sloppy Joe recipe, made with real ingredients and the perfect balance of flavors and texture. Use ground beef or ground turkey. Such a delicious, quick and easy dinner in only 20 minutes!
When you’re tired and hungry with mouths to feed, it’s hard to beat a classic like Sloppy Joes! Always a family-friendly option. Skip the store-bought canned sauce and make them from scratch. So much better and still so easy!
What is the difference between a Sloppy Joe and Manwich?
Manwich is the brand name of a canned seasoned sloppy joe sauce. It came to market in 1969 and was pitched as a quick, easy meal for the entire family, because you simply add it to cooked ground beef in a skillet. I’ve actually never had it, so I can’t compare my recipe to that sauce. But I do know that anything from scratch is going to be better than anything from a can.
The thing is, homemade Sloppy Joes are just as easy, so why not go with real ingredients and an end result that will taste amazing!
How to Make Sloppy Joes
You simply brown some ground beef in a skillet, add in spices and sauce ingredients, combine, simmer, scoop onto toasted buns, and done! What takes a sloppy Joe from 1 to 10 is the type of spices and ingredients you use.
I’ve made a lot of versions over the years, but this one is by far our favorite. It’s sweet, tangy, rich, with a little zip; the perfect balance of flavors and thick consistency. Nothing fancy, just simple pantry ingredients and just plain tasty.
Sloppy Joes Recipe Variations
This sloppy Joe recipe is the way I love it, but can easily be modified to suit your taste buds.
- Health conscience? Use ground turkey instead of beef.
- Swap out the ketchup for BBQ sauce.
- Too sweet? Cut back on the brown sugar.
- Like it spicier? Stir in some chopped jalapeños.
- Want it richer? Use beef or chicken broth instead of the water.
- Hate vegetables? Omit the onion and bell pepper.
- Fill a hollowed out bun with sloppy Joe meat, top with cheese, and stick it under the broiler for a couple minutes.
- Instead of a bun, top a baked potato with the sloppy Joe mixture! Yummy!
- Have a crowd or want leftovers for the next day? Easily double the recipe.
Can I Make Sloppy Joes in a crockpot?
Yep! Brown the beef, onion, and bell pepper in a skillet, then add to your crock pot along with all the other ingredients. Cook on LOW for about 4 hours or HIGH for 2. Cooking in the slow cooker will result in a softer texture than sloppy joes made in the skillet, though.
Can I Freeze Sloppy Joe Meat?
Yep! Make sure the cooked meat mixture is completely cooled, then add to freezer-safe containers (the entire batch or individual portions) and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat before serving.
These easy Sloppy Joes, along with my Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes, and Chopped Cheeseburgers are requested all the time by my family and a testament to how much we love a loose meat sandwich. Meaty, messy, and delicious in every bite!
Watch the video for this Sloppy Joe Recipe
I hope you love this delicious and simple recipe – be sure to give it a review below! Also don’t forget to follow Belly Full on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube!
Easy Homemade Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 small sweet onion , diced
- 1/2 small green bell pepper , diced
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons yellow mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Toasted buns , for serving
Instructions
- Warm oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef, onion, and bell pepper; breaking up the meat into crumbles with a wooden spoon. Cook for about 5 minutes until beef is cooked through and vegetables are tender. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Drain off grease.
- Stir in tomato paste until thoroughly combined.
- Add in ketchup, water, brown sugar, Worcestershire, mustard, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Stir well to combine.
- Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes until mixture has thickened.
- Remove from heat and serve on toasted buns and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Nutritional information does not include the buns.
- For recipe variations, please refer to the full article.
Nutrition
Other Notes
Mom of 5 boys here – doubled the recipe and they gobbled it up. Best sloppy joes ever. Will be my new go-to. Thank you!
Recipe is full of flavor
It had a very good flavor but I’d recommend leaving out the red pepper flakes for those who do not like heat. My little kids ate it but screamed their mouths burned lol.
This is a great recipe. So much better that the can stuff!
It was amazing. My husband won’t stop talking about it! It has a nice kick to it.
I made this recipe for dinner. I substituted apricot chutney for the brown sugar and used half the amount of mustard and Worcester sauce. I also added a tiny bit of MSG to pull the flavors together. Came out great!
I made this tonight and we loved it! I liked the tanginess from the mustard but it didn’t take over the whole meal. And unlike |Manwich| there is no funky after taste.
Best I’ve ever had! I make mine with ground venison instead of beef.
I have made this recipe several times now. I will say, buying Manwich is a thing of the past! I did however tweak the recipe and used white onion and a whole green pepper.
Best and easiest sloppy joe recipe by far!
Easy and fun to make. Let’s you play with flavors. Family loved it as well.
I doubled this recipe using ground turkey; it is so simple and tasty! I’ll definitely be making this from now on.
Best sloppy joes I’ve ever made and so easy. My new go-to recipe!
This recipe is very tasty and simple to make We also thinned with little water and used for sauce on hot dogs.
I made pretty much exact, but left out the sugar. This is better than Manwich by a long shot.
Big complaint…….too delicious for 4 servings. Is now on permanent rotation. But seriously just double the recipe goes quickly
I don’t know why it never occurred to me to make sloppy joes from scratch, but having made these now, I will never ever buy it from a can again. So easy and so yummy!
My husband loves this recipe
After throwing a FIT because I couldn’t find the two cans of Manwich, the hubby sent me this recipe. This is the Manwich King and says he’d rather me make it scratch from now on. Kids loved it also!!
Easy to make and delicious! Loved it!
This is delicious! Just made it for dinner using ground turkey & yellow bell pepper (because I didn’t have green) & it’s so good. Thanks for a great, simple recipe. :)
So easy and so good!
This was a quick and tasty evening meal for a busy weekday dinner. Served with a few chips and pickles. Simple but delicious.
This is very close to what I make, I also ad 2 T. sweet pickle relish to mine. Yum
These were awesome! Very tasty. I was skeptical when I tasted it right after I added all the ingredients, but once it sat cooking for those 10 minutes……. chef’s kiss! We loved them.
Easy, fast and adaptable! I used jalapeño ketchup and omitted the red pepper flakes. Had a wonderful, deep, rich flavor! Perfect for a cold winter football Sunday!
This is always a hit! I call them adult Sloppy Joe’s because the kids won’t eat them from a package. I tripled the recipe for a bunch of people and it was still delicious!!!
I planned to make sloppy Joe’s and realizes my prebought sauce was no good.. I was so happy to find your recipe. It was so easy and my husband absolutely loved this. Thank you so much for sharing.
Much better than the canned stuff!!!! Thanks so much sharing this delicious recipe.
To people who is not a big fan of sweet. Omit the brown sugar. I found it was sweet enough from the Ketchup.
Can u can this recipe?
We are tough food critics in my house and we absolutely LOVED this recipe and it was sooo easy! I will never buy the can version again.
Next time I will leave out the brown sugar. It was too sweet for my taste. However, the other seasonings were terrific. Great consistency!
I don’t usually leave reviews but this recipe was AWESOME! I did as you suggested and added jolapenos and instead if water i used beef broth. Didn’t have fresh garlic so I used garlic salt and didn’t have tomato paste so Googled how to make some and made my own. Anyway….all that to say that it turned out great. Thanks for the recipe.
Just made this, and it was so good. I made just half the recipe the first time, but will make a full recipe the next time.
I made this yesterday, and both of us loved them. I used to use molasses and brown sugar, and vinegar.. Perfect sweet sour taste.