Turkey Sloppy Joes

These Turkey Sloppy Joes are family-tested and kid-approved, plus lean ground turkey is a great healthy option for weeknight dinners. Embrace the mess and your kids will, too!

By
Nick Evans
Nick Evans
Nick Evans

Nick has been creating recipes for home cooks for almost 15 years. He is the author of Love Your Leftovers and has contributed to Simply Recipes since 2017.

Learn about Simply Recipes' Editorial Process
Updated August 17, 2022
Nick Evans
How to Make Turkey Sloppy Joes
Nick Evans

Oh boy, do I have memories of sloppy joes as a child. Note that I did not say “fond” memories. Just memories. Vague, soupy, tasteless, sugary-sweet memories.

The sloppy joes of my youth tended to be either from a can or from a cafeteria, and neither were particularly special.

The good news is that we can easily improve on them. The even better news is that kids still love sloppy joes!

For this version, I use ground turkey—a riff on classic sloppy joes made with beef. I like turkey because it’s lean, and it also lets the other ingredients (like all those delicious veggies) shine.

Let’s get messy and make some good sloppy joes!

Easy Sloppy Joes with Turkey add the sauce
Nick Evans

Kids and Messy Foods

There’s this weird dynamic in kid-food land. Sometimes kids want super-clean separated foods. Peas can’t touch chicken! Chicken can’t touch rice! You know that game.

But if you embrace the mess, kids will generally also like that!

If you are making sloppy joes, I recommend embracing the slop and showing them that messy food can be fun and delicious. Challenge them to take big bites or make sloppy joe sauce mustaches.

Try to keep the food on the darn plates but if you have fun with this messy meal, they will, too!

I have a theory: Introducing kids to fun and messy meals like this one will eventually erode that child annoyance of wanting everything perfectly separated.

Toppings for Homemade Turkey Sloppy Joes
Nick Evans

The One Trick to Great Sloppy Joes

This recipe is generally easy and straightforward to make. You put the stuff in a big pot, simmer it together until the sauce is thick and the turkey is cooked, and then slather it on buns. Done.

The one thing that I highly recommend taking the time to do is to mince your vegetables very finely, or use a food processor to pulse them.

Cooking the minced veggies in oil, i.e. making a sofrito, makes for a delicious base for recipes like this. The fine mince is important so the vegetables melt into the sloppy joe mix and you don’t end up with any huge bites of vegetables.

It’s an annoying step, but one that’s worth the work!

How to Store or Freeze Leftover Sloppy Joe Mix

Leftover sloppy joe mix reheats well in the microwave. Reheat it in 30 second bursts on high and stir in between bursts until mixture is hot.

If you want to freeze this recipe, let it cool completely and then store it in an airtight, freezer-safe container for 2 months. It will also keep in the fridge for 4-5 days.

The Dad Add: Potatoes Chips and Pickled Jalapeños

The Dad add for me on these sloppy joes is all about the toppings. I like to add some crunch and some heat to my sandwich so I top it with really good kettle potato chips and pickled jalapeños.

It makes you almost need a fork and knife to eat the sandwich, but SO good.

Easy Sloppy Joes with Turkey
Nick Evans

The Kid Report Card

I have a few tricks up my sleeve to get my kids to eat. You can’t use the tricks every night, but I pull the following one out occasionally: Challenge them to see who can take a bigger bite, Dad or Kid.

I captured this photo as my older kid took SO big of a bite that I immediately was concerned about choking, as parents often do.

Once he tried it though, it was smooth sailing because a) these are good and he liked them, and b) his sister became intrigued because he was so into it and also tried it. Normally, she would just eat the pickle and then yell at me to color with her while I tried to eat so even eating a few bites was a win for me!

So, all in all, I call this one a win!

More Kid-Friendly Recipes!

Turkey Sloppy Joes

Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 26 mins
Total Time 36 mins
Servings 8 to 10 servings
Yield 8 to 10 sandwiches
Cook Mode (Keep screen awake)

Ingredients

  • 1 large carrot

  • 1 small onion

  • 2 ribs celery

  • 1/2 green pepper

  • 2 cloves garlic

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

  • 1 pound ground turkey

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

  • 1/2 cup ketchup

  • 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce

  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar

  • Soft hamburger buns, to serve

  • Coleslaw, to serve

DAD ADD:

  • Kettle potato chips

  • Pickled jalapenos

Method

  1. Prepare the vegetable mix:

    Pulse the ingredients in a food processor until they are minced. Alternatively, very finely mince the onion, carrot, green pepper, celery, and garlic with a chef's knife.

    It’s very important that there are no huge chunks in the final sloppy joe mix, so if you don’t have a food processor, take your time while chopping them—do it in advance if you want. Just store the chopped veggies together in a covered container in the fridge.

    Homemade Sloppy Joes with Turkey pulse the veggies to mix
    Nick Evans
  2. Begin cooking the vegetables:

    In a medium to large saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil along with the minced veggies. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes until veggies soften but don’t brown. Season the veggies with salt and pepper.

  3. Add the turkey and cook:

    Add the ground turkey to the pot. Stir it constantly to break up the turkey. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes until turkey is cooked through.

    Cooking turkey for Sloppy Joes
    Nick Evans
    Turkey Sloppy Joes mixture
    Nick Evans
  4. Add the sauce:

    Add the ketchup, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and brown sugar to the pot and bring to a simmer.

    Turn heat down to low and simmer the sloppy joes mixture, stirring regularly, for 6 to 8 minutes until mixture is thick. (Simmer for an additional 5 minutes if the mixture still seems too soupy.)

    Taste and adjust the seasonings to your liking.

  5. Serve:

    Serve sloppy joes piled high on soft hamburger buns served with coleslaw. Add kettle potato chips and pickled jalapeños, if desired.

    Easy Sloppy Joes with Turkey add the sauce
    Nick Evans
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
322 Calories
13g Fat
35g Carbs
17g Protein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8 to 10
Amount per serving
Calories 322
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 13g 16%
Saturated Fat 3g 15%
Cholesterol 48mg 16%
Sodium 753mg 33%
Total Carbohydrate 35g 13%
Dietary Fiber 2g 9%
Total Sugars 10g
Protein 17g
Vitamin C 14mg 71%
Calcium 131mg 10%
Iron 3mg 19%
Potassium 451mg 10%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.