Homemade Sloppy Joes

5 from 4 votes

This recipe is for homemade sloppy joe sauce and includes all kinds of other great info!

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Total Time40

Course: main

Cuisine: American

Keyword: sloppy joes, sloppy joe sauce, manwich

Servings: servings

Calories: 275kcal

In a large frying pan over medium heat, heat the oil until the surface is ripply and then add the celery and onion. Cook till the onion is translucent (about 2 minutes).
Add the garlic and heat for another minute until the wonderful smell of garlic fills the air.
Pull the ground beef into quarter sized pieces and brown the ground beef until just past pink. Break the ground beef up into the smallest pieces possible with a wooden spatula while cooking. If there is a lot of grease/fat in the pan, drain the fat off.
Reduce the heat to medium low and add the tomato sauce, ketchup, BBQ sauce, brown sugar, mustard, worcestershire and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Place a lid on the frying pan and reduce the heat to low. Allow to simmer and stir frequently. Simmer until the sloppy joes are the consistency that you prefer. The longer they cook the thicker they will get. If you want yours looser, add water by the ¼ cup at a time.

When browning the ground beef, don’t overcook it. Simply cook the beef until the pink is gone then add the other ingredients. This helps the beef to taste more moist and flavorful rather than overcooked.
Chop the onion small. Most of the time I recommend leaving onions in a substantial size chop so that people can pick it out if they want. In this sandwich however, the onion should almost disappear into the meat.
If you have someone eating with you who really doesn’t like onion, just leave it out and substitute 1 tsp of onion powder instead.
If you have hung around here any time at all, you’ll know that I think garlic is the herb of the Gods. I went easy on the garlic in this recipe, but it can stand a whole lot more. Feel free to add more. I like mine with 2-3 Tbs of garlic, but that’s just me. You be you.
If you don’t have cider vinegar, it is ok to substitute white vinegar or even lemon juice.
You cover and simmer this recipe to the consistency that you like. If for some reason it isn’t as loose as you would prefer, simply add some water, cover and simmer.