This Homemade Sloppy Joe Seasoning is why we're making the perfect sloppy joes every time. If there's anything we love, sloppy and messy, it's slamming some meat rustled up in barbequed tomato sauce in the middle of some buns.
Check also Fish Taco Seasoning, Quesadilla Seasoning and Mediterranean Spice Mix.
That's why we're sharing the Sloppy Joe Seasoning recipe with you, so you know what to make for dinner when you're feeling lazy. This recipe will not only cut down some cooking time, but you'll ensure delicious Sloppy Joes every time!
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What is Sloppy Joe Seasoning?
Once upon a time, a man in Cuba served a sandwich based on the Cuban Dish ‘Ropa Vieja’. His restaurant was covered in melted ice from all the seafood he sold. Soon enough, the name “Sloppy Joes” stuck to the loose meat sandwiches and his establishment.
And here we are sharing with you the secret of how to make the perfect sloppy joes. The secret lies in its seasoning made from an assortment of a top-tier blend of ingredients. It starts from chilli powder, ground mustard, and salt and goes on to cumin, onion powder and brown sugar.
Sloppy Joe Seasoning Ingredients
- Brown sugar: Just the finest you can find at the grocery store
- Onion powder: Store-bought or made at home
- Paprika: Just your favourite brand
- Ground cumin: Essential for the warm earthy flavour in the sloppy joes
- Garlic powder: Store-bought or made at home
- Salt: As per your liking
- Ground mustard: Found in the spice aisle
- Ground black pepper: Just what you may have at home will work
- Chilli powder (optional): If you’re looking for that extra hot spiciness.
How to make the Sloppy Joe Seasoning?
Before beginning, set aside a container where you would want to savour a batch of your Sloppy Joe Seasoning.
Now, it’s a good idea to assemble all the ingredients on your kitchen counter. After which, you can figure out how much of each ingredient you’d like to put in the final “Sloppy Joe Seasoning” container. Suppose you like you’re sloppy joes spicy, in which case you’d want to grab that chilli powder that we’ve mentioned is optional.
On the other hand, if you like your sloppy joes slightly tangy, you can drop in some extra brown sugar. Brown sugar brings out a slight sweetness which, in contrast to all the other spices in the seasoning mix, makes the overall Sloppy Joes taste tangy.
Once you’ve adjusted how you’d want your Sloppy Joe seasoning to taste, you can begin combining the ingredients.
Add all the ingredients in the jar we had set aside before. If you don’t want to create a mess, you can use a funnel for tumbling all the spices in gently.
Mix all the spices well until combined. Consider giving the jar a nice shake.
After closing the jar, add a label and write down the date. This way, you will not only remember how long the seasoning lasted but also ensure you don’t consume any seasoning that’s gone bad.
And there you go, your Sloppy Joe Seasoning is now ready to sprinkle on some ground beef, tomato and barbecue sauce.
Top Tips
- Shake the container of Sloppy Joe’s Seasoning every time you decide to make some Sloppy Joes.
- It’s a good idea to roast some ground spices before use. This deepens their flavour. A spice we love the roasted version of is cumin.
- Are you fond of making lots of seasoning mixes and stacking them up on your kitchen shelves? Then consider buying spices in bulk to save money. Ditch the tiny packages of herbs you get from the grocery store and look for a wholesale spice store instead.
- Write down the measurements of your seasoning mix, so it’s easy to make alterations in the next batch. You will visibly be able to identify what may have gone wrong and how you can fix it the next time around.
- If you don’t have a funnel, you can use a single sheet of rolled paper to transfer spices in and out of containers.
Recipe variations
The recipe we’ve provided for the Sloppy Joe Seasoning Mix is classic and will serve you some succulent sloppy joes. Nonetheless, if you’d like to experiment a little more, consider adding the following ingredients:
Ground celery seeds: They add a flavour of celery that is earthy and slightly bitter to taste.
Green bell paper flakes: If you’d like to add a herby and grassy flavour to your Sloppy Joes, consider adding some green bell pepper flakes.
Red bell pepper flakes: add a mild sweet essence of the red bell peppers that’ll bring out a unique freshness in your sloppy joes.
Smoked Paprika: Regular paprika is crushed red chillies in a jar. Smoked paprika is made by smoking the peppers with oak wood before they are crushed and added to the jar. Thus, add in some smoked paprika to bring out the smouldered chilli nuance.
Serving Suggestions
This homemade Sloppy Joe Seasoning Mix is a blend of spices that can bring out the juiciness of right about any kind of meat. So, feel free to make this a kitchen essential and dust it in some chicken curry, some lamb chops, or even barbequed short ribs.
And don’t worry, it’s not just limited to non-vegetarians. You can use this mixture to make some vegetable curry, tofu, or barbecued baked beans.
Whenever you’re feeling like prepping a lazy dinner, you now know the most versatile seasoning mix you can grab. It can be used to spice up your sloppy joes or practically anything else!
Storage
Make ahead of time: You can mix in all the ingredients whenever you’d like to have your sloppy joes. Then, store the seasoning for numerous batches of sloppy joes ahead.
Store: This sloppy joe seasoning is homemade, thus free of preservatives and made with the highest quality spices in your kitchen. Therefore, it’s recommended that the seasoning mix be used within six months.
Recipe FAQ
We prefer that you start with adding 2 tablespoon of this seasoning mix to lb. of ground beef. Then, depending on other ingredients, such as the tomato and barbecue sauce, you can consider adding more. We suggest you go slow and add a little seasoning at first and taste as you go. Because you can always add more, but you can’t remove the spiciness of the sloppy joes once added.
If you don’t have all the ingredients mentioned in this recipe, you can look for substitutes and leave them out altogether. Although, if you miss a few ingredients, we cannot guarantee how the finished seasoning mix will taste. Although, definitely let us know the alterations you did and if it still turned out scrumptious or not in the comments. We love your experiments with our recipes!
Remember, we’re making this seasoning mix for all the days that you feel lazy and too tired to prepare dinner. So if you’d like to save up time, then you’d love the time this seasoning mix will save you. And you can always prepare the onion and garlic powder at home to ensure the richness of flavour you’re going for.
If you still don’t want to use the onion and garlic powders, you can leave them out of the seasoning mix. And whenever you’re preparing your sloppy joes, you can dice some onion and garlic instead.
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Recipe Card
Homemade Sloppy Joe Seasoning Mix
Equipment
- Jar
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground mustard
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon chili powder (optional)
Instructions
- Mix all the spices well in a small mixing bowl until combined.
Notes
- Shake the container of Sloppy Joe’s Seasoning every time you decide to make some Sloppy Joes.
- It’s a good idea to roast some ground spices before use. This deepens their flavour. A spice we love the roasted version of is cumin.
- Are you fond of making lots of seasoning mixes and stacking them up on your kitchen shelves? Then consider buying spices in bulk to save money. Ditch the tiny packages of herbs you get from the grocery store and look for a wholesale spice store instead.
- Write down the measurements of your seasoning mix, so it’s easy to make alterations in the next batch. You will visibly be able to identify what may have gone wrong and how you can fix it the next time around.
- If you don’t have a funnel, you can use a single sheet of rolled paper to transfer spices in and out of containers.
variations
The recipe we’ve provided for the Sloppy Joe Seasoning Mix is classic and will serve you some succulent sloppy joes. Nonetheless, if you’d like to experiment a little more, consider adding the following ingredients:- Ground celery seeds: They add a flavour of celery that is earthy and slightly bitter to taste.
- Green bell paper flakes: If you’d like to add a herby and grassy flavour to your Sloppy Joes, consider adding some green bell pepper flakes.
- Red bell pepper flakes: add a mild sweet essence of the red bell peppers that’ll bring out a unique freshness in your sloppy joes.
- Smoked Paprika: Regular paprika is crushed red chillies in a jar. Smoked paprika is made by smoking the peppers with oak wood before they are crushed and added to the jar. Thus, add in some smoked paprika to bring out the smouldered chilli nuance.
Kate
I made a big batch of this seasoning combo, and I keep it in the fridge.