When a Sloppy Dinner Is a Good Thing
Is there a more low-pressure meal than sloppy Joes? A sloppy Joe is meant to be, well, sloppy! Presentation is not a word that anyone associated with a sloppy Joe, nor is strict adherence to any sort of technique or particular ingredient combination. A sloppy Joe needs only to be saucy, beefy and served on a squishy burger bun—we really do insist on that school cafeteria style squishy burger bun—and that’s it! Our homemade sloppy Joe recipe serves up nothing but old school nostalgic comfort, and an easy win for the chef. Whatever crowd you’re feeding will happily gobble these up. The recipe is written to serve four, but it can be easily scaled up to serve a much larger crew, and these easy sloppy Joes are a great one for feeding lots of people without too much extra effort. Just be sure you’ve got plenty of napkins close at hand!
Everything You’ll Need To Make The Best Sloppy Joe Recipe, Ever
One glance at our sloppy Joe ingredients and you’ll probably get why they’re such a popular recipe for feeding big crowds. Whatever you want to call it—cheap, budget-friendly, inexpensive, easy on the wallet—sloppy Joes do not break the bank. Quite the opposite! Take a pound of ground beef, add a few condiments, slap it into a bun and call it dinner. Yep, you can feed your family of four for about $10. Seriously! How wild is that? Oh, and these homemade sloppy Joes are really easy, too. And quick. Quick, easy, cheap, kid-friendly, yummy—do we need to say more? They’re not even terribly unhealthy! Sure, a sloppy Joe is not the world's most balanced meal—it could use some veggies on the side—but with lean beef as the anchor, it’s really not too bad for you. Here’s everything you’ll need to make sloppy Joes:
Ground beef
Bell pepper
Yellow onion
Jalapeño
Fresh garlic
Butter
Ketchup
Tomato paste
Brown sugar
Chili powder
Yellow mustard
Garlic powder
Worcestershire sauce
How To Make Sloppy Joes
If the lunch lady could make these—and you know she could—you definitely can! And, no offense to the lunch ladies of our childhood, but these homemade sloppy Joes blow those institutionalized Joes way out of the water. Richly flavorful sloppy Joe sauce—loaded with peppers and onions and every flavor-giving condiment in the cupboard—is at the heart of the deliciousness you’ll be serving up. And here’s how easy it is to make sloppy Joes at home:
Brown the beef.
Pulse the bell pepper, onion, jalapeño, and garlic in a food processor to get it really, really fine. This will help it all just melt into the beef—trust us, it’s worth the extra dishwashing effort! Then add it to the browned beef.
Now things are going to get really saucy! Stir in the ketchup, water, tomato paste, brown sugar, chili powder, mustard, garlic powder, Worcestershire, and salt.
Butter & toast the buns, and top them with the sloppy Joe filling!
What Are Good Side Dishes for Sloppy Joes?
In terms of sides, you can keep it as basic as you want! Sloppy Joes are at home on a paper plate with a handful of potato chips on the side, but if you want to really lean into the retro fun of it all, try serving them with some other classics. We’re thinking:
Tools You’ll Need
More Fast, Easy Ground Beef Recipes
Sloppy, Beefy, Joe-y Goodness
Try this recipe and let us know how you like it! Sloppy Joes are far from fancy (and we mean FAR) but they’re just so easy and so satisfying, we’re pretty sure you’re going to adore them. When you cook them up, we want to hear all about it! Share a photo and tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see your stuff! Happy eating!
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