Homemade Sloppy Joes

No more Manwich for my family! My family loved this recipie--I just added a splash of cider vinegar for an extra tang! Perfect. Thanks Chef John-Cant wait to try more of your recipies.

Im only 13 and i made it great and it was easy.

My husband never likes my sloppy joes. We had his family over and I agreed to make sloppy joes. I panicked knowing mine were not up to par so I typed into my iPad and picked this recipe. As everyone was ranting and raving about the sloppy joes my husband leaned over and said these are the best sloppy joes you have ever made. My I have another one? We have been married for 43 years and I finally found the. Best sloppy joe recipe. Thank You!

very yummy. homemade is so much better . Love this site !!!! i added celery diced real small and added the garlic in the beginning.. and the last cup of water ?? id do half that next time..using lean meat is the way to go !!

I have never been a fan of Sloppy Joes made from canned Manwich. But this recipe was great, the whole family liked it. I didn’t have brown sugar so used a little maple syrup. Sometimes you have to improvise and that’s ok.

Once again, Chef John, "Thank you" seems so inadequate. Made this for dinner last night and there was happy silence from my husband's corner as he finished his portion and then not-so-silent (but relatively subdued lest he resemble Bambi in the headlights before running away) ecstatic chatter from mine, when he got up for seconds. Normally, when I make sloppy joes, there is the animated discussion about how ketchup should be used only as a condiment on the side to adorn hot dogs, hamburgers, the occasional french fry, but it should never -- and he repeats never -- be used as an ingredient. There was none of that with this meal :) -- not even the suspicious, "Did you put ketchup in this?" or the disappointed, "Honey, you Know I'm not a big sweet-and-sour fan". A note to those reviewers who thought this was too "sloppy", I would say make this again and be more patient next time -- the liquid does evaporate eventually. The flavour is superb that it is well worth the wait. So .. Thanks again! I have myself a new sloppy joe recipe!

Too sweet for my liking...I had to add more worcestire and a bunch of hot sauce to tone down the sweetness. Good for a starter recipe.

Boy does this recipe bring back memories! I haven't had sloppy joes since I was a kid. Definitely a "retro" kinda meal that dare I say...tastes better than my Mom's! This was so easy and so good - perfect for Sunday football. I doubled the recipe using 96/4 ground beef, one red pepper and one green pepper, half ketchup and half Bennetts Original Chili Sauce along with a generous splash of white wine vinegar, and brown sugar to taste along with the rest of the ingredients. I highly recommend watching Chef John's video. It's only a few minutes long and was very helpful. You really do need to add the water and let it simmer down for at least 30 minutes - and don't be afraid to add the cayenne it really does make a difference but doesn't make it "hot". All I did was keep it warm in a crock pot during the game. I served these on slider rolls with chips and pickles to rave reveiws. Thanks Chef John for another awesome recipe!

I made this into a sloppy joe pizza! Followed the recipe almost exactly (didn't have peppers in the house and I added a bit of red pepper flakes), made a homemade pizza dough and used the sloppy joe mix as the sauce and covered with sharp cheddar. Delicious and very filling!

This is a great recipe! I especially like the fact that it includes mustard, which is left out of many recipes. You don't taste mustard, but it adds something that you really miss if it isn't there. If you don't have Dijon mustard, using whatever kind of mustard you have would be better than no mustard. I left out the black pepper, because I'm allergic to it.

Hello! First of all, allow me to explain a few things. I'm twenty-one, I work part time and I attend college full time. I'm involved in multiple clubs and societies at school, and I happen to be engaged. I hope to give you context when I say that I am not always bountiful in time. I love this recipe, I make it every month or so for my fiance, my roommate and me. It feeds us for approximately 4-5 days of heavy eating, they're two guys and well.. you know how they eat. Now, I don't follow the recipe exactly but I do use its basic bones: - I mix a pound of lean ground beef with a pound of lean ground turkey. - I add a can and a half of Bush's Original Baked Beans (my father used to add beans to sloppy joes) - I add a whole onion, a whole green bell pepper, and a whole red bell pepper. - I also add sriracha and some red pepper flakes. This being said, I let it simmer for roughly an hour. It's brilliant and perfect consistency, definitely flavourful and not the worst thing you can put in your mouth. Also, really nice for a couple of low-budget college couple and their silly roommate.

WOW! Gotta say I was skeptical but my husband says I need to be open minded; so glad I was. We are both on a diet so the salt concerned me therefore I omitted it and hoped for the best. I also chose regular mustard as it has less fat, sugar, sodium & carbs (again for our diet.) As I was making it our 11 month old twins decided they were hungry too so after step 1 I threw everything in the pan and tended to them stiring every few minutes. I gotta say after an hour or so it was so delicious. I only had a pound of meat but it made about 8 small "diet" appropriate portions for us. Looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!

Did not care for this. I think I would use regular mustard and cut the brown sugar by 2/3rds.

I made this for the first time with my 10 year old son, it was excellent! My son now has a "specialty" dish to make again and again!

These Sloppy Joe's are SO good! I followed the recipe exactly and the whole family loved them. These are so easy to make there's no reason to buy canned sauce! Note: if you have picky eaters, you might consider dicing to pepper very fine to 'hide' them. Thanks, Chef John, and as always we enjoyed your recipe!

My recommendation is follow the recipe exactly and you can't fail. There is only two of us so we make the whole batch and freeze it portioned for two in freezer bags for last minute meals.

I love this recipe. I scale it to use 1 lb. of ground beef, and cut the brown sugar to just about a teaspoon. I also like my joes pretty sloppy, so I cook the mixture, partially covered, for about 30 minutes instead of the full cook time. I served these on Pumpkin Sandwich Rolls with jack-o'-lantern faces for a great Halloween-themed dinner!

Yuck. Way too much catsup and way too much sugar. It's been over 40 minutes and I had to turn the heat to medium, and it's still too soupy. I'm a good cook and I will not try any more of his recipes. I've disliked every one I've tried.

It hurts my ego to hear that Manwhich is a recipe that could be considered retro. I love this recipe. I followed the recipe as written. And my husband drizzled some Sriacha on his meat. I'll try that next time. it isn't a quick meal but it is worth it. I cooked it the night before I wanted to serve for dinner. I broke apart and fluffed up the meat and warmed it in the microwave.

Not better, not worse, just different ? I think this dish has a lot of potential, and I'm sure I'll will be make it again. Before attempting this again, I'll have to figure out what seasonings to use, by reading all of the review, and see that will work for others, and than for me, to make it more flavorful or lot better for me to do! Anyway, excellent to do a SCRATCH on recipes here. It's O.K. but better the next day after the flavors have blended. I can't do the happy food dance!! On this as it is. sorry!! 2-3 Stars

This is a great base recipe for a standard sloppy joe. I used onion powder, sweet red pepper, and a good pinch of cayenne powder. I used a mix of white sugar and molasses for the brown sugar and doubled the worcestershire. I didn't use all the water called for it seemed way too much for it just to cook back out again. Instead of salt I used a bit of chicken bouillion granules. This took a little over an hour to simmer down to nearly dry. This was just standard sloppy joe, not tangy enough for me though and I like it kicked up a bit so it was kind of boring for me as it is. (I love Ruby Drive or Dallas Style) So... overall not my favorite from here, but pretty darned good, Thanks Chef John.

I put less water just 1/2 cup. Instead of just Ketchup I put 3/4 of BBQ Sauce and 1/4 of Ketchup, and add more veggies like fresh tomatoes, Yellow, green and red bell peppers and Cayenne pepper (it brings more flavor to the dish) and just 1 tablespoon of brown sugar (2 is too sweet for me). Really really good recipe! Love it!

I have made and eaten much better

I made this recipe for 60 people using the adjusting app. I added two pounds of carrots, shredded, only 1 cup of water, and a little cayenne pepper and garlic powder. There has to be a misprint in the water amount as it would add up to 20 glasses of water. Also increased meat to 16 lbs. Made it in a roaster the day before and refrigerated it overnight - then put roaster on 200 until heated up, removed cover and heated it on 250 - which cooked off some liquid. Everyone kept saying it was the best sloppy joes they'd had. They could pick up the sandwiches which was nice.

Very Good Recipe.. I would cut down the brown sugar butter 2t. - 1 T. Up the Worcestershire sauce a bit to equal 1 T. (I use LOW sodium Worcester ) At first I thought the amount of water was too much, but then I realized Chef John may be trying to go for more of a bolognese style ( cooking down the water over time developed more depth of flavor).Howerever to achieve that I would cook it down a little longer. If you do not plan on using AT LEAST all the cooking time indicated then definitely decrease the water. Also I would actually use no sodium beef stock or broth instead of water for a bit more flavor. ..I preferred using yellow mustard over dijion for this recipe. I do use dijon in other recipes, but in this one it is just a tad sweet for my taste. BTW if you have leftovers try stuffing this mixture in jalapeños or pablano or in large portabellas & top with cheese and warm up in the oven..yum

Very good in the fact of adding a good combination of ingredients. I used some leftover beef broth and tomatoe sauce 1/2 ketchup 1/2 just to use leftovers and its till good.

Delicious recipe! I tend to cook 3 to 5 lbs of ground beef at a time with puréed onion, garlic, and tomato and then use in different recipes during the week to cut down on cooking time. I mixed the sauce ingredients with 1 cup of water and a dash of paprika instead of cayenne pepper and 1 tbs of dried mustard (was out of Dijon) and simmered until beginning to thicken. I then added precooked ground beef and simmered until thick. Turned out with a lot more flavor than the canned sloppy joe sauce!

wow... what can i say? this is good. i never changed a thing & my wife & I loved it

Absolutely delicious!!! I didn't have any green peppers on hand but it tasted great without it. Will definitely make again!!!

I didn't see that it called for Dijon so I used regular yellow mustard. It's a keeper of a recipe! The whole family loved them.

Pretty good.

I really like this! I used butterball ground turkey and it was perfect, I like a thicker sauce so I added a little less of each wet ingredient. My family ate this up! Will add to the menu for sure!

I've searched off an on over the past 20 or so years for that perfect sloppy joe recipe and this is it. Followed the recipe, except I added some smoked paprika to the mixture. If my son goes back for seconds, it's usually a keeper. Thanks Chef John!

Perfect just the way it is. My family loved these.

Excellent decision making this homemade Sloppy Joe recipe! Bye bye package mix! This was really good. So good, I made it twice in one week! Easy, quick, and just wait a little to let recipe simmer and cook off extra liquid. I only used 1 lb ground beef and 1 cup water. with only the pound that I had, it made a full eight count of sloppy Joe's. Great recipe and thank you for sharing!

Super delicious! I omitted the green bell peppers, because my husband doesn't like them. I was a little sketched out about the amount of water to put in. Don't skimp on the water! After simmering for about 40 minutes on the stove all of the water was gone. What was left was packed full of flavor Sloppy Joes! It was a little on the sweet side for my taste. I might omit a little bit of the brown sugar next time. However, my husband LOVED this as is!

This was so easy to make and soooo delicious.. Will def make again and again.

This is THE best Sloppy Joe recipe that I have ever made! I'd say I was fortunate when I came across this one when I lost my usual recipe. My husband and son absolutely loved it! I will most definitely be making it again. The only changes I made was that I used less salt and a bit less green pepper, a little more Worcestershire sauce and cut the amount of water down a tad. Thank you Chef John :)

These are great. We added extra ketchup and mustard. Added some sriracha for a little kick at the end. Easy recipe to adjust to your tastes! Thanks.

Very tasty and easy to make!! :)

My husband is on a low cholesterol diet so made with ground turkey. I also added a little jalapeño and a dash of A1 sauce. Made into sloppy pies using Grands bisquits. Super yummy!!! Mahalo for the recipe!!

Loved it. Definitely going to be our Sloppy Joe recipe from now on. We may back off slightly on the brown sugar, but not much.

We love this sandwich! I drained most of the fat, reduced the brown sugar by half, added 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper, and a tad more salt. YUM!

My family was VERY happy with this. I followed the recipe but didn't have enough kethup so I added 8oz tomato sauce. There was a little more brown sugar than I'd like because more fell out of the bag than I was expecting but the family didn't mind at all. I actually had to note that with manwich there's always some left with 2 darn buns left. All buns and Joe were gone :)

I don't like sloppy joes but my girlfriend does so I made this recipe for dinner tonight. I was pleasantly surprised by how good they tasted, then again I've only had cafeteria sloppies so never really had a good experience anyway. Gf said she's never had onions and peppers in it but that she liked them as an addition. I don't like onions or bell peppers either but they actually weren't too bad mixed with the meat texture, tender and could hardly tell they were in there. I added a pinch of garlic powder, cayenne, onion powder and some chili powder while browning the meat, btw. I'm not sure if it did anything different, as I've never made this recipe before. Split the recipe basically in half (1/2 lb of meat) for 2 sizeable sammies. Verrry sloppy because of all the moisture (was difficult to stay in burger every bite) but I guess that's where it gets the name.

My family loved this. Tastes so much better than the stuff in the can. A big thumbs up. :)

I didn't change a thing and it was great! Adding to my rotation!

My boys loved this, I didn't have the packet when I made decided to make sloppy joe's and came across this recipe. After trying it we decided from now on we are going to make them this way! We also like add kidney beans. Definitely will be making this again and again.

Could we eat it? Yes. Did we like it? No. I love Chef John's recipes, but this was a miss for us. This was way too sweet and we tried adding more mustard and even a little lemon and cider vinegar to counter the sweetness, which helped ever so slightly. To no avail, still too sweet. Will try a different recipe or go back to one we've made before.

We loved this recipe! I actually served it over baked potatoes. There was no leftovers.

Made this tonight and all I can say is .....YUMMY FOR THE TUMMY!!! Thank you so much for the recipe. :)

Don't gimme no balogna... and don't gimme no manwich! Excellent recipe, only thing i changed was a little more worcheshire and skipped the 2nd cup of water. I also used Ballpark mustard (Bertman's, best in the country!) instead of the dijon.

I've been making this Sloppy Joe recipe for my family for years. It is definitely the best! All the flavors come together perfectly! It's hard not to want a second helping! After eating this, my family would never eat Sloppy Joe out of a can. In fact I'm not even sure they know such a thing exists.

One of my weekly go to recipes! We love this. I buy firmer rolls from the bakery as they hold up better. Even as a drier meatier sloppy Joe, this still is juicy.

Very good, will definitely make this again. The only suggestion I have is to use less brown sugar if using red bell peppers in place of green ones. Otherwise was quick and easy to through together and tasted great!

A recipe to please the whole family! The kids have requested this over and over. The first time I made it, I didn't change a thing and it was delicious but just a little too sweet for me. The second time, I added a little more Worcestershire and dijon. Now I always make it that way, but that's really just a matter of personal preference.

This is a delicious homemade recipe for an All-American favorite... I didn't really measure (shame on me...) but used each of the ingredients here, including the cayenne. It came out like a sweet hot mixture and we loved it. Lots of sugar between the ketchup and brown sugar, however. I only added water the first time cooked it down real good and then while that was cooking down, I made my sloppy mix and kept taste testing for a good 45mins, adding this and that. Mixed it into the meat in the skillet and let it all cook down more, for 30mins. Very yummy with the cayenne... We like a good kick to our dishes. :o)

Family loved these, this recipe is going on my meal list. I followed the recipe and didn't have any problem with the amount of water as some reviewers mentioned. Don't try to rush the cooking time. My dad had seconds and raved, this is unusual for him.

This was quite good, but after reading the ingredients I knew I would make some changes. I added more Worcester than just a dash, more onion and substituted black pepper for spicy pepper medley. I didn't add any salt and thought it was just right . 11/2 tsps of salt is way to salty. I added the brown sugar but thought it was to sweet so will leave it out next time. I also added chilli flakes instead of cayenne and cut the ketchup to 1/2.cup and added a little taco seasoning. I liked the results and enjoyed it on a toasted burger bun.

This recipe is awesome! Thanks Chef John!!

I used Vegetarian Ground Soy and followed the rest of the recipe "as is" and the whole family LOVED it! We won't be using the packaged stuff or canned stuff ever again. Very yummy indeed.

Tried this last night - everyone loved it! Some said that it was even better than Manwich!!! Doubled the recipe because we had extended family over. Followed it pretty much as listed, with the exception of water, only used 2 cups even though doubled would have been 4! It cooked down perfectly! Added a little extra Worcestershire sauce and used brown mustard instead of Dijon. Very tasty!!! Thanks!!

Yes I will make again

Awesome! Better than anything you will find in a can. :)

I added 1 1/2 cups of water instead of the 2 cups, just because I liked the thickness. The flavors were outstanding. Better than store bought, without the chemicals. I can even imagine "fixing" this recipe up. Add black beans or corn and black olives...

This is now a family favorite. The bell peppers are the key, I add more than the recipe calls. I ran out of brown sugar last night and used homemade applesauce instead, that just added an even better level of flavor!! Thanks,

I was out of the canned stuff so tried this instead. My husband liked it way more than canned sloppy joe sauce. This is a keeper! Thank you Chef John!

Tasty and quick to make. Great for a quick weeknight meal with a salad on the side. Kids loved it, hubby likes it. Definitely a regular in the rotation.

Very good

Very easy to make and my son loved it!!! I added mushrooms and I used 70/30 lean meat instead of the extra lean. I didn't add the extra cup of water at the end it was already a bit liquidy from the first cup. but it came out great!!

Overall, I thought it was average. It was a little too sweet. Next time I would cut back on the brown sugar. Not the best, but not the worst either.

Made this and loved it Added the dash of Apple cider vinegar another person suggested perfect tang!

Wow so easy and so good. My kids destroyed this so fast...Definitely will be making again.

This recipe was delicious:) Instead of two cups of water, I added tomato paste to one of the cups of water. I also splashed it up with cider vinegar and added a teaspoon of cayenne:)

If you love SWEET sloppy Joes this is for you. If you like more of a tange, you will not like this one. I even added apple cider vinegar that someone else suggested, didn't work. I added more mustard. Nope. I also let mine simmer twice as long as called for and it was still watery.

So Good Cooks Up just Great > Awesome ! Never out of a can again. Thank-You

2 tablespoons of brown sugar is way too much! I had to add additional 4 tablespoons of vinegar to try to compensate. And even then it was too sweet. If using ketchup there's plenty of sugar in that, I might try this recipe again but not add the sugar. Also be aware that the simmering time is not long enough to thicken the sloppy joe mix. It took 1 hr and 15 minutes for mine to thicken. I would recommend reducing the amount of water.

My family liked it, but it was a little too sweet for our taste. I would omit brown sugar next time and only use one cup of water.

Delicious! Also, I like that you can alter to your taste. Excellent!

As a vegetarian, I used Beyond Meat Fiesty Crumbles. Didn't have any brown sugar so I used molasses. I didn't add the second cup of water and didn't simmer for 40 minutes because the faux meat would have fallen apart. Very very good. Tastes just like I remember Sloppy Joes from my childhood.

Very tasty! Good flavor. Had to let it cool longer to allow more evaporation of liquid (5-7 min). But at the right consistency it was over the top!

I was told by my 11 year do not buy the store mix ! so yes it was a hit

I’ve made this twice now- exactly as written and we LOVE it. To make it lower carb, I’m serving it over spaghetti squash instead of on a bun. This will be added to our menu regularly.

Yummy!

I'm never making Manwich again! Even though this takes a little longer, its worth every minute.

I found it too sweet. So I added 2 tablespoon s of vinegar and half of tomato paste. I will do half of sugar only next time. My grandkids lived it!

Great instructions! It came out great

Fantastic. I’ve never made or eaten a sloppy joe before because the cans of Manwich in the grocery store look awful. My husband asked me to make this sandwich for dinner so this was the first recipe that popped into my google results. These homemade sloppy joes were delicious. Saved this recipe as a fave. Definitely will cook again.

Substituted pork and added some hot sauce for some zing. A simple and but recipe.

My family and son loved this recipe. I added a little local BBQ sauce, Worcestershire, and mustard. I followed it exactly the first time, it was great!

I loved these sloppy joes! I only had l lb of ground beef and it was still fantastic

I tried this for supper one night, and everybody liked it, and yes I will make it again....

I made this last night and honestly it was delicious! I did end up adding in some extra spices (garlic salt, paprika, onion powder) and I cut the sugar in half since I generally don't like sweet foods and the ketchup had me worried. I also didn't use both cups of water, I didn't end up needing it. I will definitely make this again ^^

Great as made. I'll never use a mix again.

This turned out great! I’m a vegetarian so I used quorn grounds and veggie broth instead of beef.

great hit

I used ground chorizo with ground beef. I also cooked the sloppy Joe mixture in the slow cooker. Turned out great.

Super easy to make and everyone loved it!!

I made this just tonight and my whole family loved it. I only had regular mustard so I used that and didn't need the brown sugar (as my family doesn't love sweet tasting savory meals and ketchup is plenty sweet). I thought it was awesome!