Sloppy Joe Recipe

Sloppy Joe Ingredients

My family loves a uniquely seasoned Sloppy Joe, no matter what you call it. This recipe is exactly that. It’s easy to make and can be substituted with your favorite ingredients.

While I almost always use lean ground beef, you can easily swap it for other ground meats like turkey or chicken.

This recipe features some unique ingredients that give this “stewed meat” a sauce with a twist of something unusual. Balsamic vinegar lends a touch of sweet and yet tart flavor that makes this recipe a delicious Sloppy Joe.

How to Make Sloppy Joes

Step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, but here’s a quick overview of how easy it is to make!

1. Combine ground meat, celery, onion, and garlic in a large skillet and cook for 8-10 minutes, breaking up the meat as it cooks.
2. Stir in the remaining ingredients and seasoning.
3. Cover and simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve in buns.

Sloppy Joe Origins

Sloppy Joe recipes, popularized in the early 20th century, were known by many different names and featured in restaurants from the United States to Cuba and even China. With few exceptions, sloppy joes are essentially recipes with a base of “stewed meat.” The sauce and its seasonings, however, distinguish one recipe from another or one culture from another.

Here are a few examples of the different names sloppy joe “type” recipes have held in early 20th century American cookbooks: Toasted Deviled Hamburgers, Chopped Meat Sandwiches, Hamburg a la Creole, Beef Mironton, and Minced Beef Spanish Style. Sound familiar? I haven’t come across those names in my early cookbooks, although I’m still searching.

As to its origins, Marilyn Brown, Director of the Consumer Test Kitchen at Heinz in Pittsburgh, says their research at the Carnegie Library suggests that the sloppy joe recipe we know today began in a Sioux City, Iowa, cafe as a “loose meat sandwich” in 1930, the creation of a cook named Joe.