Name: Easy Ground Chicken Sloppy Joes
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 Tbs butter; 1 medium white or yellow onion, diced; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp ground black pepper; 1/2 cup chili sauce; 1/2 cup light beer; 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce; 2 Tbs honey; 1 lb ground chicken; 6 burger buns; Shredded cheddar cheese *optional

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Saucy, tangy Ground Chicken Sloppy Joes are a one-pan meal that doesn’t require a ton of ingredients. Added bonus: this American classic takes less than 30 minutes to make!

A ground chicken sloppy joes sandwich on a blue plate with another sandwich int he background.

Truth: I’ve never been into Sloppy Joes. When my husband requested them for dinner, I took the opportunity to come up with a homemade sloppy joes recipe I would be excited to eat. After all, they’re popular because they’re easy to make.

Along with wanting to make this an easy recipe, that meant I didn’t want to haul out a ton of ingredients. But of course I don’t skimp on flavor! The secret to these sloppy joes is to let them simmer for 15 minutes so that the sauce gets nice and thick. Make ’em extra sloppy.

ingredients for ground chicken sloppy joes on a sheet pan including chili sauce, beer, onion, honey and garlic.

Ingredient Notes

The full list of ingredients and measurements is in the recipe card below. But the beauty of this recipe is that you can make some substitutions to use what you already have on hand.

Onion – I stuck with onion as the only “vegetable” in this recipe because I wanted to keep it simple. But feel free to add more veggies when you’re in the saute step, things like green bell pepper, diced carrots or celery.
Ground Chicken – I’ve made this recipe with both ground chicken as well as ground turkey. Both are super lean and don’t require you to strain off any fat after browning, making this recipe that much easier. You can absolutely make this with lean ground beef as well, but be sure to strain off some of the fat after browning it otherwise you’ll end up with greasy joes.
Chili Sauce – Most sloppy joes recipes call for tomato sauce but instead we’re using Chili Sauce. I was introduced to Chili Sauce by Holly from Spend with Pennies. The first time I tried it, I thought it might be spicy like sriracha or chili oil, but it’s very mild. It’s essentially ketchup that has spices like chili peppers added to it for a little mild kick.
Light Beer – Using a light beer adds a nice hit of acidity and tang to the sauce. I am a fan of non-alcoholic beers and you can see I used Coors when making this batch. Feel free to use any regular beer, though. Pale ale, lager, IPA all work great. However, I wouldn’t use a dark beer like Guinness, though you’re welcome to try! Report back if you do. If you don’t have beer, no problem! Sub in any kind of broth or water.
Honey – Sloppy joes usually have a little bit of sweetness. If you don’t have honey feel free to sub in brown sugar.

How to Make Ground Chicken Sloppy Joes

Time needed: 30 minutes

Let’s get dinner on the table in under 30 minutes with 3 steps!

Brown the Meat
First up, saute 1 diced onion and 2 cloves of garlic in butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until it’s just slightly softened and fragrant, then add in 1 pound of lean ground chicken or turkey. If you want to use ground beef, see the ingredient notes above.
Make the Sauce
Add the salt, pepper, chili sauce, beer, worcestershire sauce and honey to the skillet and once it starts to bubble, reduce the heat to medium-low (or low if your stovetop is on the more powerful side) and leave the skillet uncovered to simmer for fifteen minutes. Things will look watery and you’ll question if this is correct at this stage. Never fear, you’re doing it right!
Ready to Serve
After 15 minutes, the sloppy joe mixture will be nice and thick and ready to serve. If you’re not quite ready though, just cover the skillet with a lid and reduce the heat to as low as possible or turn it off. You don’t want to over-thicken the sauce and lose all the sloppiness.

What to Serve with Sloppy Joes

Hamburger buns are always a popular choice for sloppy joes. I’ve also done these as sliders with my sourdough dinner rolls. My kids love to add shredded cheddar cheese on top. My husband is a heat fiend and he likes to add hot sauce and pickled jalapeno peppers on top.

I’ll serve this alongside a simple salad or steamed veggies.

I’ve also used the leftovers the next day and used it to top off a green salad, kind of like a hamburger salad. Keep leftovers in an airtight container and keep up to 3 days.