Sloppy Joe Casserole

Sloppy joe casserole recipe came about 2 years ago I went about making up my own homemade sloppy joes recipe with condiments I already had at home. We’ve never bought canned mix since then because it is so much better.

This year I have been focusing on new meals that moms can throw together in 30 minutes or less and thought a sloppy joe casserole would be a great addition to our monthly meal planning rotations.

Doesn’t it look good??!! I know your kids will love it. The way you make the meat is you mix in just 3 things: ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar. If you want a more complex bottom with a bit of heat you can follow our Jiffy tamale pie too. Both are winners for dinner.

Ingredient Notes

For this I will typically use 1 pound of ground beef but if you wanted it spicy you can substitute HOT Jimmy Dean sausage. Want just a touch of heat, use half and half!! For a lower fat version follow our ground chicken sloppy joes recipe for the bottom layer. Diced onions and/or bell peppers can be sauteed with the meat if desired.

For the sauce to make the meat ooey gooey as you would expect there are a few choices. Manwich does work but isn’t as good as homemade using ketchup, mustard and brown sugar. You can make our copycat Not so Sloppy Joe Sauce as an alternative too.

Can you use Manwich?

Yes if you want super easy peasy then you can just use a large can of Manwich instead of making your own like we did above.

For the top layer you are going to mix up what is needed to make the batter for Jiffy corn muffin mix. If you use your own creation you would want enough to fill half of a 8×8 pan, you don’t want it too thick.

Variations

As far as the top goes you have a choice. Mixing up jiffy corn muffin mix with the necessary ingredients on the back of the box, make homemade, OR you can add heat with our Jiffy Mexican cornbread recipe instead.

Sloppy Joe Casserole with Noodles (Option)

Here is the second recipe for an easy sloppy joe casserole using noodles that varies slightly from the one above, tastes a bit different, but is really yummy! More like a traditional recipe using noodles and serving more people than the one above it is easy to throw together, and I use a canned sloppy joe mixture for this one to make it even easier…it’s really cheesy too!

1. 4 cups noodles, we used cavatappi
2. Ground beef or for a vegetarian option you can make Sloppy Lentil Joes as the base
3. Manwich sloppy joe sauce (it’s an amped up tomato sauce essentially)
4. Cheese

Bell Pepper and onion were finely diced and added into this but of course are optional choices. Gives the dish some great texture though so I would recommend it.

Tips

If you are only using 1 lb. of ground beef you’ll need to use an 8×8 baking dish, but could easily double it and use a 9×12 pan as well. I’d use closer to 15 oz. (2 boxes) for that.

The key is not making the top layer too thick on top or else the very middle (bread) won’t get completely done. Not horrible, but that is what I have found to be true. The bottom can be made on the stove or as Instant Pot sloppy joes all in the same pot.

When I serve it I like to put a little dollop of sour cream on top of the scoop, and even a few green onions diced if I have them. For added flavor add a small can of chiles into your cornbread mixture too! YUM!!

Add 1 c. shredded cheese in and slowly mix in too. Pour mixture into a 13×9″ casserole dish covered with foil and put in oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle rest of cheese on top and put back in uncovered for 3-5 min. or until cheese is melted. Serve with sloppy joe sides!

If you wanted a different covering you could use refrigerated crescent rolls or biscuits like you see here. You would use the same directions for the meat mixture below. Instead of mixing the ingredients for the cornmeal muffins and pouring that on top, just roll our the raw crescents.

Use the directions on the back of the tube as far as the temperature and bake time goes. The underside is already cooked and warmed so you’re just cooking the dough until it is no longer sticky and golden brown.

OR just leave the topping off all together like our cheesy ShipWreck Casserole, it is super versatile of course like other throw together meals.

Other Jiffy Corn Muffin Recipes

At Thanksgiving and Christmas we add a can of whole kernel and creamed corn to it to make our VERY popular cream corn casserole side dish. And for a side dish you can make Jiffy cornbread in a skillet which is a fun way to serve it.

You can jump to recipe below which has nutritional information, calories, saturated fat listed too. That will vary slightly depending on the fat content on your meat but will give you a general idea. 😉 Just enjoy it y’all.