I received this recipe many years ago from my mother-in-law. It’s a beloved family recipe and a delicious addition to potlucks. Even though it’s incredibly simple to construct, it appears to have taken a lot of time.
| Prep Time: | 5 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Total Time: | 50 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 cup ketchup
- ¼ cup dried minced onion
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar, or to taste
- 2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, or more to taste
- 1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 cup beef broth
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 6 hamburger buns
Instructions
- Cook and stir ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat until browned and crumbly, about 10 minutes; drain excess grease. Mix ketchup, dried onion, brown sugar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, and garlic into beef, stirring until brown sugar has dissolved.
- Stir in broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until thick, about 30 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve on buns.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 398 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 45 g |
| Cholesterol | 67 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 28 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 960 mg |
| Sugars | 18 g |
| Fat | 11 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Great basic sloppy joe recipe. Have made it several times. I use ground chicken and chicken broth rather than the beef. I have also substituted smoked paprika for the liquid smoke, as I don’t often have liquid smoke on hand. It’s definitely a go to. Fast and tasty!
This is my favorite recipe! Everyone loves it! I do add a Tbs of chili powder but thats the only change!
So delicious! The beef broth adds to the flavor so much. I didn’t have any liquid smoke however this is still a home run. My husband had seconds and polished it off for a late night snack.
This my absolute favorite sloppy joe recipe. I use 2x more hickory liquid smoke than the recipe calls. I also substitute Truvia sweet complete brown for the brown sugar. I used spicy brown mustard like recipe calls for, not dijon. Delicious!
Great recipe but cut the brown sugar in half. Was too sweet for us.
I will never buy Manwich again….
Still cooking the dish and can’t wait! Kitchen smells great and we’re ready for the tasty sloppy joes!
I didn’t especially like it but my husband and daughter did.
Followed the recipe, except I substituted fresh onions, which I cooked with the meat, for the dried minced. Hubby had TWO sandwiches. Said that it took him back to his childhood. Will definitely make again. It was delicious
I love this sauce. I had stopped making sloppy joes with the canned sauce because it has gotten to where it tastes a bit off. Probably cutting out some of the ingredients to save money. Anyway, it cost very little to make this sauce and it was absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing this one.
i changed the liquid amount by starting out with a quarter cup of both the beef broth and ketchup…..and added a drop of each when needed.
I followed this recipe exactly and I found it to be way too sweet; I would reduce brown sugar to 1 tbs. Also prefer to use real onions instead of dried. Dried are ok if you’re out of onions. But I like the addition of smoke to it.
This was a wet mess. 8oz of broth over a bun. Ketchup verses tomato paste? Maybe if you had a couple of 5 year olds and some cheap white 75 cent buns but not for an easy adult dinner for two.
I’m not a real sloppy joe fan…I make it for Hubby because he likes it. When I found the recipe, and was reading through the ingredients and instructions, my first thought was…Beef broth? Seriously? Liquid smoke? I wasn’t so sure, but decided to try it. Result? This is the BEST sloppy joe I have ever had! No overly ‘tomatoey’ taste. Hubby and I agreed we’ll omit the salt the next time (he’s on a low salt diet, and it tasted too salty to him) and we’ll reduce the brown sugar by about a tablespoon. But we won’t be changing anything else. Also, for those contemplating giving this recipe a try…you MUST cook the mixture AT LEAST thirty minutes. It thickens up beautifully, and the cooking time gives all those flavors time to coalesce. Thank you. Alissa for this incredible recipe!
I have a better recipe. Brown 2lb hamburger meat with garlic salt and black pepper.Add 1 can French Onion soup and 1 small can of tomato paste. Easy and delicious!!
Delicious! I added some mixed frozen vegetables to bulk it up a bit and add even more flavour.
So nice to see recipe without hot sauce, chilies and cayenne etc. This is still the USA but cooks seem to think it’s North Mexico. I love good mexican food but must bow to my ulcer at times.
I was skeptical about making something with catsup, but this was quite good with exact recipe. I added a bit more brown sugar and thought something was still missing, so minced up a jar of roasted red peppers–made a big difference. Then I added a pinch of ground Chile pepper to spice it up a bit. Perfect!
It was OK. I did add additional TBS of brown sugar.
I thought that this was wonderful! Since I had never used liquid smoke before, I was a little nervous about that but then I thought Go for it! and I’m so glad that I did. With the exception of using a little less garlic since I’m not a garlic lover, I followed the recipe exactly and was not at all disappointed.
This is my favorite! I’ve never made Sloppy Joes from scratch before, I had used the Manwich canned sauce so I only have made it a couple times until this recipe! I’ve made this twice in 2 weeks. Thank you for the recipe – I did cut back a bit on the brown sugar that’s the only change I made.