These chicken sloppy joes are saucy, hearty and gloriously messy! Just 5 minutes of prep time and a few pantry staples is all you'll need to whip these up from scratch.
Just like my Tajin shrimp tacos, these are a total family favorite, and are perfect for weeknight dinners or game day celebrations!
Last week, I made a big batch of sandwiches for dinner using some of my Air Fryer shredded chicken as the base, and some of my homemade buffalo sauce for the flavor, and everyone devoured them. And that's actually what inspired me to try making some more sandwiches this week.
Traditional sloppy joes are made using ground beef, but this time I had some ground chicken at hand which I wanted to use up, and that's when I thought of making these sloppy joes.
Quick Look
- 🔪Prep time: 5 minutes.
- ⏲️Cook time: 10 minutes.
- 👪 Servings: 2.
- 📋Main ingredients: Ground chicken, seasonings, sauces, veggies, oil.
- ♨️Cooking method: Sauté veggies 🡢 add ground chicken 🡢 add sauces and seasonings 🡢 cook 🡢 cool and serve.
- ⭐Difficulty: Easy.
- 🥣Serving ideas: Top the chicken mixture with a spoonful of balsamic pickled onions for extra flavor!
Jump to:
What's So Great About the Recipe?
- Kids and adults- everyone love sloppy joes! It's the easiest most effortless weeknight dinner you could ever make.
- You can tweak the recipe to suit your taste preference! I love loading them up with my spicy lime pickled onions for an extra crunchy and tangy flavor.
- You can prep these ahead of time too- they're perfect to make and store for later- just like my chicken floss.
Recipe Ingredients
Ground chicken: The perfect lean meat for this recipe. You can use ground turkey too, if you have it at hand.
Sauces: I used a mix of Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce (love using my garlic habanero sauce) and some of my homemade BBQ sauce here, along with yellow mustard.
Veggies: Chopped onions, garlic and some bell peppers for a bit of texture.
Seasonings: Just a bit of salt, pepper, brown sugar (to balance out the other flavors) and paprika.
Oil: To cook down the meat.
See recipe card for quantities.
Substitutions & Variations
- Experiment with different seasonings like taco seasoning, a simple mixed herb seasoning or even an infused salt like garlic parsley salt, herb salt or lemon infused salt to add some more flavor to the chicken filling.
- Sometimes, I also like to add a spoonful of tomato paste or some of my Chinese hot mustard to the filling.
How to Make Chicken Sloppy Joes
Step 1: Heat oil in a pan and sauté the onions, garlic and bell peppers for a minute. Now add the ground chicken.
Step 2: Cook it down for a couple of minutes, and add the seasonings and sauces.
Step 3: Mix well and continue cooking for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Step 4: Take off heat, cool and spoon onto toasted buns. Top with your favorite toppings and serve.
💭Top Tip
Cook the mixture on medium heat and keep stirring to prevent burning. I realized this when I made my homemade spicy Italian sausage.
Tips & Tricks to Nail the Recipe
- Make sure you don't overcook the chicken. 5-7 minutes is enough for the chicken to cook through and still stay soft and juicy.
- You can also bulk up the mixture by adding chopped veggies like zucchini, mushrooms, onions, carrots and bell peppers.
- Don't skip toasting the buns. This takes just a few minutes, but it does the magic and keeps the bread from soaking up all the sauce immediately. I love using my jalapeno butter to get that bit of spicy, buttery flavor, but you can use regular butter too.
- Use your leftover ground chicken to make homemade chicken burger patties that are perfect for meal prep.
- You can use a potato masher to mash up the chicken mixture while it is cooking. This will help you get that uniform texture you're looking for.
How to Serve Chicken Sloppy Joes
These chicken sloppy joes taste fantastic when paired with some French fries (especially my spicy curry fries) or a side of onion rings. I love serving these with my tobacco onions too! Don't forget to top the sloppy joes with some quick pickled red cabbage or a nice and crunchy sweet vinegar coleslaw.
You can also use the leftover chicken filling as a topping for your tacos or loaded nachos if you want to. I personally love spooning some of it over my Mexican baked potatoes and finishing it up with lots of shredded cheese.
Troubleshooting and FAQs
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Yes, you can! Simply prepare the chicken mixture in a big batch, let it cool down and then transfer to a freezer safe bag or container and freeze for up to 3 months.
You can thicken the mixture by simply stirring a couple of spoonfuls of cornstarch slurry while it is still on heat.
To get that sauciness back again, you can add a bit of water or some low sodium vegetable broth into the mix and stir until you get the perfect consistency.
More Chicken Mains
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
If you tried these chicken sloppy joes or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Chicken Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- 450 g ground chicken
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce
- 2 tablespoon BBQ sauce
- 2 bell pepper
- 2 onion
- 3-4 garlic
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- Salt to taste
- 2 tablespoon oil
Instructions
- Heat oil in a pan and sauté the onions, garlic and bell peppers for a minute. Now add the ground chicken.
- Cook it down for a couple of minutes, and add the seasonings and sauces.
- Mix well and continue cooking for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Take off heat, cool and spoon onto toasted buns. Top with your favorite toppings and serve.
Notes
- Cook the mixture on medium heat and keep stirring to prevent burning.
- Make sure you don't overcook the chicken. 5-7 minutes is enough for the chicken to cook through and still stay soft and juicy.
- You can also bulk up the mixture by adding chopped veggies like zucchini, mushrooms, onions, carrots and bell peppers.
- Don't skip toasting the buns. This takes just a few minutes, but it does the magic and keeps the bread from soaking up all the sauce immediately.
- You can use a potato masher to mash up the chicken mixture while it is cooking. This will help you get that uniform texture you're looking for.
