Ground Chicken Sloppy Joes
This sloppy joes recipe uses ground chicken to create a simple, flavorful meal in under 15 minutes. The ultimate kid friendly meal, this recipe comes together in no time and uses mostly pantry staples. You likely have all the ingredients on hand and let’s be honest, everyone loves sloppy joes for dinner!
When you are not really in the mood to cook but want to get something nutritious on the table, look no further than these gluten free ground chicken sloppy joes. Serve on buns, over rice or even over sweet potato fries for a super fun meal.
Once you try this 15 minute meal, be sure to bookmark Buffalo Chicken and Rice Bowls or Asian Ground Chicken Rice Bowls for more simple but flavorful meals to try.
Ingredients
- Ground chicken (or ground turkey) – ground chicken is a fun swap to the traditional ground beef. Ground chicken makes the recipe lower in fat and calories. You could also use ground turkey for this.
Sloppy Joe’s Sauce
- Ketchup – ketchup provides that tangy flavor that most people associate with sloppy joe’s.
- Tomato Paste – tomato paste helps add a deep richness to the sauce without overpowering.
- Coconut Aminos (or gluten free tamari) – coconut aminos are a gluten free, soy free alternative to soy sauce. They help provide a depth of flavor to the sauce.
- Apple Cider Vinegar – helps create that tangy flavor (along with the ketchup) that you expect in sloppy joes. It also helps ensure that the sauce is not too sweet. You could also use rice wine vinegar or white vinegar.
- Maple Syrup – maple syrup adds a touch of sweetness and really helps make this taste like the sloppy joe’s from your childhood. If you want to make this recipe Whole30 friendly, replace the maple syrup with a few pitted dates soaked in hot water and blend the sauce before using it.
- Spices: Salt, dried chives (or garlic powder) – these simple spices help to give the sloppy joe mixture the perfect seasoning. Note: using dried chives can help make this recipe lower in FODMAPs.
How to make ground chicken sloppy joes
Cook the chicken: Cook the chicken in a preheated skillet over medium high heat 4-7 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and no longer pink.
Make the sauce: While the chicken is cooking, combine the sloppy joe sauce in a bowl.
Combine the sauce and chicken: Once the chicken is done cooking, pour the sloppy joe sauce over top and turn the heat down to medium. Cook 4-5 minutes longer, letting the sauce reduce slightly.
Other additions
- Veggies: You can add onions, bell peppers, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower rice to the sauce. Be sure to sauté these first to soften them. Leave them whole or blend them into the sauce.
- Spice: Add crushed red pepper flakes, sriracha, cayenne pepper or jalapenos.
- Beans: Stretch your grocery budget by adding some cooked lentils or beans (white beans, black beans, pinto beans) to the ground chicken mixture to help stretch it out a bit further. Double the sauce if you are adding beans.
Ground Chicken Sloppy Joe’s
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
Sloppy Joe's Sauce
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 tbsp ketchup
- 3 tbsp coconut aminos
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1.5 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup water
- 3/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp dried chives (or 1 tsp. garlic powder)
Instructions
- Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Add ground chicken to the skillet and cook 7-10 minutes until fully cooked through.1 pound ground chicken
- While the chicken is cooking, combine the ingredients to make sloppy joe's sauce. Stir well to fully incorporate.3 tbsp tomato paste, 3 tbsp ketchup, 3 tbsp coconut aminos, 1 tbsp maple syrup, 1.5 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1/3 cup water, 3/4 tsp sea salt, 1 tbsp dried chives (or 1 tsp. garlic powder)
- When the chicken is done cooking, add the sloppy joes sauce then cook 3-4 minutes to let the sauce simmer.
Recipe Notes
- This recipe easily doubles or triples without much extra cooking time (as long as you have large enough skillets). You can easily double this recipe or triple it (you will need two skillets going at once) so that you can serve a large crowd.
- Use your instant pot! You can make these ground chicken sloppy joes in the instant pot in about 15 minutes. You will sauté the chicken first then add the sauce and cook for 3 minutes before quick releasing the pressure.
- Fridge: Store leftover sloppy joes with ground chicken in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Reheat on the stove over low to medium low heat until warmed through. You could also reheat in the microwave 1-2 minutes.
- Freezer: Store in a freezer safe bag or container for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge overnight or cook on low to medium low heat, covered until cooked through.
Nutrition Information
How to serve
- Serve on a hamburger bun
- On sweet potato toast
- Serve along side of cooked rice or quinoa (this is a great option for gluten free meals, as cooked rice and quinoa are often more budget friendly and easier to find than gluten free buns).
- Stuff inside a cooked sweet potato or cooked baked potato for a fun twist
What to serve on the side
- Fries or Mashed potatoes
- Veggies: Make my famous breadcrumb topped broccoli, air fryer roasted zucchini
- Slaw – red cabbage slaw would be a fun family meal.
- Salad – add a salad to get in more greens.
Common questions
Can you make this in advance
Yes, you can make this recipe in advance. It reheats really well on the stove or in the microwave.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat on the stove over low heat.
Can you double the recipe
Yes, this recipe doubles well, just make sure you are using a really large skillet to cook the chicken. You should not need to add any additional time to cooking the recipe assuming you have a large skillet.
Can you add veggies to these sloppy joes
Yes, you can add veggies! The best way is to finely dice 1 onion, 1 yellow, orange or red bell pepper, and 2 carrots and sauté them together in a skillet for 10 minutes or so until the carrots begin to soften.
Once the veggies are soft, you can either leave the veggies in chunks or blend them up with the rest of the ingredients for the sauce to make a hidden vegetable sloppy joe recipe.
Can you make chicken sloppy joes in the instant pot?
Yes, you will want to brown the chicken first then cook with the sauce in the instant pot for 3 minutes (note this is for a 6 qt Instant Pot. If you have an 8 qt, you will have to double the recipe).
- Start by turning on the sauté function and sauté the ground chicken until no longer pink.
- Turn off the sauté function. Add about ¼ cup of water to the instant pot and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon, making sure you get up any brown bits from cooking the chicken.
- Make the sloppy joes sauce in a bowl (omit the water since you used it to scrape the bottom of the pan) and pour it over the ground chicken. Do not stir.
- Put the lid on and cook 3 minutes high pressure. Quick release (manually release) the pressure once it’s done cooking. Stir well and serve hot.
Super easy and high protein! I added cooked lentils, half blended in the sauce and half mixed in with the meat. Serving for dinner tonight on slider buns. Hopefully 🤞 my kids will enjoy, I know I will!
I love the idea of adding in cooked lentils – that is just genius Hailey! Fingers crossed the kids loved them – so glad you did! Thank you so much for coming to leave a comment, it means so much. Happy cooking! Sam
This is delicious and so easy. My whole family loved it. Thank you for a great recipe.