How To Make Homemade Manwich Sauce
Not too sweet, not too spicy, but a whole lot of tangy zip. Thats the best way to describe what this sloppy joe sauce takes like.
My whole family really likes it! Apparently, a lot of other people like it too.
Hence, you can buy Manwich at nearly every grocery store and it has been around for a while.
You can use fresh or frozen diced green peppers in this recipe. Most of the other ingredients are easy to keep in the pantry, like the dried seasonings and tomato sauce. Even the buns can be kept on hand in the freezer for a little while without drying out too much.
Celery seed may not be one that you already have in your pantry I use it only for this recipe! Feel free to try the recipe without it. I have not made it without the celery seed before, but Im guessing that it will still be delicious.
Once youre finished with your homemade manwich sauce, simply add the sauce to your 1-pound of browned ground beef, bring it to a boil, and then let it simmer for 10 minutes.
Homemade Manwich Sloppy Joe Recipe
This is one of my favorite sloppy joe recipes! Ditch the can – use this copycat recipe instead. Dinner ready in less than 30 minutes. Read the full disclosure
This is the best sloppy joe recipe ever! First of all, its homemade, and we all know homemade is always better. On top of that, this recipe is still easy and quick to make. Plus, it freezes well too! It really is perfect.
Watch how easy it is to prepare this Sloppy Joes Recipe!
So, ditch the can, mix up your own flavorful sloppy joe sauce with simple ingredients, and still have dinner on the table in less than30 minutes. I love easy ground beef recipes and easy dinners!
Sloppy Joe Sauce Ingredients:
This sauce is completely gluten-free , dairy-free AND you can certainly make any additional dietary changes you needed.
- Lean Ground beef, turkey, or chicken.I use any of the above, depending on what is on sale or what I’m feeling like. For the ground turkey or chicken, add a bit of oil into the pan when sauteing it to compensate for the lack of fat.
- Ketchup.Some recipes call for tomato paste and you could totally go that route if you wanted to. I find that ketchup comes with a good amount of salt and is an easy way to add additional flavor. And, let’s face it, I always have ketchup on hand.
- Onions and Green peppers.But there are no green peppers in mine, at all. My family does not like green peppers and I leave them out. However, most recipes will have finely diced green peppers. If you are about green bell peppers, add them in. Onions are another must. Keep the onions diced up fairly small so they don’t overpower the meat. If you don’t have fresh onion go ahead and use onion powder.
- Sugar.Brown or white, but you’ll need a little brown sugar to give perfect balance to the sauce. It also helps if, like mine, your recipe has a bit of kick to it. That little bit of sweet is a nice contrast.
- Siracha.Just a bit makes all of the difference in the world. Or a lot, if your family likes heat.
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Helpful Tips Tricks & Equipment
- If you’re making your own homemade Sloppy Joes in order to avoid processed ingredients, be sure to use all-natural ketchup.
- The sauce in this Sloppy Joe recipe is intended to be slightly sweet, but it’s really a matter of taste. If you prefer a more savory sauce, feel free to use less brown sugar. Additionally, you may use unrefined sugar or a squeeze of honey in place of the brown sugar, if you wish.
- Along those same lines, if you’d like to make this meal even healthier by packing in some extra veggies unbeknownst to your kids , be sure to check out my How to Get Your Kids to Eat Their Veggies post, which specifically addresses Sloppy Joes.
- My family loves Sloppy Joes so much that I’ve also come up with a zesty Tex-Mex version…olè!
- If, like me, you make a lot of ground beef recipes, this tool is pretty darn handy for breaking up your meat.
What Is The Difference Between A Sloppy Joe And Manwich
Manwich is the brand name of a canned seasoned sloppy joe sauce. It came to market in 1969 and was pitched as a quick, easy meal for the entire family, because you simply add it to cooked ground beef in a skillet. Ive actually never had it, so I cant compare my recipe to that sauce. But I do know that anything from scratch is going to be better than anything from a can.
The thing is, homemade Sloppy Joes are just as easy, so why not go with real ingredients and an end result that will taste amazing!
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Throw In Some Veggies
Depending on the flavors you like, mix and match these veggies to make your Manwich sloppy joes taste better.
What add-ins will be your favorites?
- Onions. Sloppy joes just arent sloppy joes without some cooked onion pieces in the sauce. I dont know about you, but I expect onions to be in sloppy joes. They make the meat sauce complete with flavor and texture.
- Green bell peppers. I usually prefer red bell pepper in recipes. But sloppy joes are one exception. The flavor of green pepper is what you want in sloppy joes.
- Jalapeños. I seldom cook ground beef without chopping up a jalapeño or two to throw in. Cooking the beef and jalapeño together doesnt necessarily make the meat spicy. Instead, it adds some subtle flavor. The longer the jalapeño cooks, the less spicy it gets. Add the jalapeños near the end if you want your sloppy joes to have more heat. Cook them just until they are soft.
- Chopped celery. Sloppy joes are a wonderful way to use up leftover celery. Bonus points for sneaking some veggies in with the meat.
Pro Tips For Making Homemade Sloppy Joes:
- Before you get started, toast your buns. Toasting the bun makes ALL the difference, and only takes a few minutes. Crank up the heat under the skillet to high, and add a drizzle of vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, add the buns, then place the buns cut side up on a cooling rack after theyre toasted.
- Watch the sauce so that it doesnt reduce too much. When too much of the sauce reduces, it gives you a dry sloppy joe mixture. Everyone likes theirs a little differently, but for me, I cook it down so that I can see the bits of meat, and when I drag my spoon through the sauce, it leaves a trail where the sauce is parted. If the sauce immediately flows back into that trail, its too liquid-y. I want a few seconds before the sauce covers the trail, which gives me a saucy consistency thats not too liquid.
- Choose your favorite type of bun. I usually go for either a pretzel bun , or a brioche bun.
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Manwich Sloppy Joe Recipe
The classic sloppy Joe, as we know it today, is mostly associated with Manwich, but it was actually born from Loose Meat Sandwiches, popular in Iowa. It is said that a cook, appropriately named Joe, added tomato sauce to a loose meat sandwich, and a new classic was born!
This homemade sloppy Joes recipe recreates much of what I love about Manwich, while taking these classic sandwiches to the next level! The sauce bursts with a deeper, richer, flavor that I absolutely love! Most importantly, you probably have all of the ingredients for it already in your kitchen!
Plus, lets be honest, we all feel a bit lazy dumping Manwich from a can and calling it dinner. If you make my homemade Manwich recipe, it not only tastes better, but you get the satisfaction of making something from scratch!
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Ingredients For Super Easy Sloppy Joe Recipe
Step 1: Brown Meat
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef, onion and garlic over medium-high heat until the meat is no longer pink. Drain.
Step 2: Whisk Together Sauce
Whisk together the remaining ingredients to make the sauce.
Step 3: Add Sauce to Skillet
Add the sauce to the ground beef mixture in the skillet and stir to combine.
Step 4: Simmer
Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes, or until it reaches the desired consistency.
Step 5: Serve on Buns
Spoon the mixture onto hamburger buns and serve warm.
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Finally Lets Breakdown The Sauce
In conclusion, youll want to keep all these ingredients on hand so you can make sloppy joe sandwiches anytime!
- Salt and pepper, to taste
What Kind Of Buns Or Bread Do I Need For Sloppy Joes
Sloppy Joes are a sandwich, so you need some bread to hold it all together. Here are some of my favorites:
- Italian rolls Big appetites call for big buns, and large, crusty Italian rolls will hold lots of filling!
- Hoagies Soft hoagie rolls soak up all the sauce making these Sloppy Joe sandwiches especially delicious.
- Sandwich bread Sometimes, all Ive got in the house is sandwich bread, and that works, too!
- Sliders Make Sloppy Joes sliders! Theyre cute, fun to eat, and delicious!
- Hot dog buns These will hold a good bit of filling, so theyre also a great option.
- Garlic bread Yes, thats right! Toast some garlic bread, then spoon this Sloppy Joe mixture on top for an open-faced meaty sandwich.
- Toasted hamburger buns These work fine, too!
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How To Make Tex Mex Sloppy Joes
Old Fashioned Sloppy Joes Recipe
Ive got nothing against store-bought Manwich Sloppy Joe sauce, but these homemade Sloppy Joes are so much tastier and almost as easy as popping open a can! The old-fashioned recipe is a classic American comfort food that dates back to the early 20th century, and its no surprise that the sweet-and-savory sandwiches have been loved for generations.
In fact, Marilyn Brown, the Director of the Consumer Test Kitchen at H.J. Heinz, suggests that Sloppy Joes originated with the loose meat sandwiches sold in Sioux City, Iowa in the 1930s. Those sandwiches were , which might explain todays term for the simple recipe, Sloppy Joes. These sandwiches consist of a combination of ground beef in a tomato-based sauce, piled high on hamburger buns. Whats not to love?!
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What Is A Mississippi Pot Roast
If you havent heard of this internet sensation, heres the breakdown. You add a chuck roast, packet of ranch dressing mix, packet of au jus mix, pepperoncini peppers , and some butter to a crockpot and cook it on low until its fork tender . It has a phenomenally savory and tangy flavor, similar to my Shredded Italian Beef!
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Variations Of This Recipe
- Chicken this recipe is delicious with ground chicken as well.
- Beef and of course, you can use the original meat used in sloppy joes, ground beef.
- Veggies feel free to add any additional veggies to this recipe. Some finely grated carrot , are great to add because no one will even know theyre there!
- Spicy if youre a fan of the heat, try substituting a jalapeno for the green bell pepper, and adding some cayenne pepper and/or hot sauce.
- Texture some people arent big fans of the actual pieces of veggies in their sloppy joes. You can add the onion and bell pepper to a food processor and pulse until very finely minced, almost like a paste.
- Molasses for some depth of flavor, try adding a spoonful of molasses!
- Broth for even MORE flavor, try using chicken broth instead
- Sugar brown sugar can be substituted, or you can omit the sugar entirely. Its all up to you
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Sloppy Joe Sauce Variations:
There are quite a few ways you can doctor up this sloppy sauce recipe.
- Add chopped onion: Cook finely chopped yellow onion with the bell peppers. You may find it best to omit the onion powder when using fresh onion.
- Add jalapenos: Remove the seeds and ribs of 1-2 jalapenos then chop them and cook them with the bell pepper.
- Add cayenne pepper: This will add a good bit of heat to the sauce. Stir in ¼-½ teaspoon when you add the black pepper.
- Add yellow mustard: Stir in 2-3 teaspoons of yellow mustard when you add the tomato puree.
Turn Up The Heat To Evaporate The Liquid
This method is probably the best way to solve the wet sloppy joes issue. In a way, it is also the quickest way to thicken the sauce without worrying about losing flavor or adding more ingredients. Bringing the sauce to a high boil and continuously stirring the sloppy joes will cause the liquid to evaporate, thus thickening the sauce.
It is also advised to stay on top of the stirring because the sauce will burn quickly. As you stir the pot, the sauce will thicken, and you must lower the heat back to the desired simmer once the desired consistency is reached. The sauce should be almost like a pasta sauce that will hold the sloppy joes together for each serving, still with a bit of liquid for juiciness.
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Brookdale Sloppy Joe Sauce
Manwich canned sloppy joe sauce commercials were catchy and sort of cheesy back in the day.
Most notably, I recall the jingle, I want a Manwich, please. Going back farther, commercials talked about how you could just brown some ground beef and have a Manwich night. And remember, a sandwich is a sandwich, but a Manwich is a meal.
Aldi sells its own version of Manwich sauce: Brookdale Sloppy Joe Sauce.
While Aldi is known for eschewing a lot of name brands and primarily selling its own house brands, some house brands are less common and familiar than others at the discount grocer.
Brookdale is a small private label at Aldi that doesnt seem to encompass much besides canned beef stew , canned chili, canned corned beef, canned corned beef and hash, canned Vienna sausage, and canned sloppy joe sauce.
In other words, Brookdale products are great for stocking your emergency shelf.
Brookdale Sloppy Joe Sauce cost $0.79 for a 15-oz. can at the time of publication. This is a Regular Buy, which means its at Aldi year round.
Manwich costs about $1 for a can thats around 15-16 ounces from retailers such as Target, Walmart, and Dollar General, making the Aldi version a better deal.
Ingredients for the Aldi sauce are fairly straightforward, with mostly recognizable and whole foods other than high fructose corn syrup and xanthan gum. Ingredients are similar to Manwich sauce.
Nutrition information and ingredients.
Make The Sloppy Joe Sauce
Brown the meat over medium-high heat with the onion and garlic. Drain if needed and return to the pot. Then, season with salt and pepper. Sauté additional add-ins as needed.
In a large bowl, mix together the sauce ingredients: Worcestershire sauce, mustard, water, brown sugar, and tomato sauce. Give it a good whisk until all the ingredients are incorporated.
Pour the sauce over the ground beef, stir, and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Broil the buns while you wait for the sauce to finish.
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How To Make Sloppy Joes:
1. Brown the beef. Start by browning the ground beef in a large skillet. Then add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is tender and translucent.
2. Add remaining ingredients. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients, and allow everything to simmer together for 30 minutes. .
3. Serve. After letting the sloppy joe mixture simmer, serve it warm on a toasted hamburger bun!
A Favorite Easy Dinner
Sloppy joes are one of those classics that never go out of style. These are loved by my kids but theyre also one of my husbands favorites .
It is suggested that sloppy joes were created by a chef named Joe in the 30s in Sioux City, Iowa, and are based on the loose meat sandwich.
- A homemade sloppy joe sauce uses ingredients you likely have on hand already.
- Its almost as fast as opening a can of mix but tastes so much better!
- The meat mixture can be prepared ahead of time and reheated for quick meals.
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