Minnesota Sloppy Joes are made with cream of mushroom soup and defined by the potato chips and dill pickles that go on top of the sloppy joe, inside the bun. Forget about just having potato chips on the side to go with the sloppy joe; crunch right into the chips and pickles as you take your bites of the sandwich. For another fun way to prepare a sloppy joe, try my super-special Sloppy Joe Recipe!
Minnesota Sloppy Joe
In the 1930s, a cook named Joe (makes sense) decided to add some tomato sauce to ground beef. These “loose meat sandwiches” with tomato sauce became known as Sloppy Joes.
This Minnesota Sloppy Joe recipe adds cream of mushroom soup to the ground beef, and folks here in the midwest know a thing or two about using cream-of-mushroom soup in lots of our hot dishes!
What makes a “Minnesota” Sloppy Joe different? Lots of things! The sauce itself utilizes that cream of mushroom mentioned earlier, but it is also all about the way it is served. Pickles and potato chips. I highly recommend crunchy dill pickles and plain salty potato chips. It’s a total package and one that folks outside of the midwest may not understand. No worries! We don’t mind keeping some of our delicious secrets here! 😉
How to Make Minnesota Sloppy Joes
If you are from the midwest, there is no doubt you have a few cans of cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup in your kitchen for recipes like my Chicken Wild Rice Casserole. Well, you can add these Minnesota Sloppy Joes to the list of recipes that use cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup. You could also get away with using cream of chicken gumbo soup.
To make the sloppy joes, begin by browning the ground beef in a large skillet until it is no longer pink. Add the ketchup, mustard, and cream of mushroom soup. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Top the beef mixture onto a toasted bun, but before you put on that top bun, add the potato chips and dill pickle chips to the sloppy joe. Enjoy the crunch and flavor in each bite!
Tips, Tricks, and Variations
The number one thing I tell people who make sloppy joes is to toast the bun. Sloppy joes are supposed to be “sloppy” not “soggy”. Toasting the bun keeps the juices from soaking into the bun and making it a soggy mess. I also love to eat my sloppy joes open-faced on bread.
Another variation to the recipe is to use ground chicken or pork. Turkey would be delicious as well. You could also use vegetable protein in place of the ground beef for a meatless sloppy joe.
How to Serve Leftovers
If you have any sloppy joe leftover, you can store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days. I love sloppy joes heated up the day after it has been made. Here are a few options you can use the sloppy joes for (besides in a hamburger bun):
- Chili Dog
- Bake it with rice and cheese in a bell pepper
- Pile it on Chili Cheese Fries
- Add it to your baked potato
- Scoop it up with some Fritos or add it to a plate of nachos
More Sloppy Joe Recipes
Minnesota Sloppy Joe
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- ¾ cup ketchup
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- 1 can (10.5 ounces) cream of mushroom soup
- salt and pepper, to taste
- potato chips and dill pickles, for topping
Instructions
- In a medium skillet over medium heat, cook the ground beef until the beef is no longer pink. Drain.
- Stir in the ketchup, mustard, and can of cream of mushroom soup. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve on a bun, topped with chips and pickles.
Did you make this recipe?
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A little late in commenting but I’ve just now come across this recipe on Pinterest. I’m from MN and have eaten both types of Sloppy Joes if you will…both the cream based and tomato based. I’m sure everyone grew up calling them something different and I don’t understand why people always have to get so defensive and snarky. Call them whatever you like in your family. I know some families closer to Iowa that refer to them as Maid-Rites. I can appreciate them both but prefer the tomato based ones that are a little sweeter whereas many in my family prefer more of a smoky bbq type sloppy joe.
I want to be an arbitrator for all those getting up in arms and offending poor judy. As much as I love the sweet ketchupy familiar sloppy Joe, I was looking for something different. I haven’t tried it yet, so i’m not going to rate it. She’s putting out something different. Don’t be close minded. Even in my very narrow farm experience in central ohio I was once served a sloppy Joe made with cream of mushroom soup. I was a teenager and it was nothing like I ever had. I didn’t know what to think. I can’t say I didn’t like it, but it was very unfamiliar. Hence, at my present age of seventy years old, I’m looking for something different. Maybe you were too or you wouldn’t have been looking at this recipe. Be kind and open minded. You never know what’s going to open your eyes and taste buds.
Sorry I meant poor amanda. Give me a break, I’m 70 haha
Yah I was gonna say I’m from Minnesota and we make them with
Campbell’s Chicken Gumbo.
1 can for every pound of hamburger.
Chopped onion
Ground beef
Ketchup
Mustard
Brown sugar, optional
Served with American Cheese, optional
They are really good!!!
Worst sloppy joe’s ever. Way too sweet. 3/4 cup ketchup is way too much. I questioned this recipe before making it. Am going with my gut before, no pun intended, making another recipe if my head is saying no way.
So weird you’d make a recipe that you questioned and didn’t sound good to you.
Why wouldn’t you adjust the recipe according to your taste, THEN write a review?
No no no! In Minneapolis public schools home ec class we were taught to make sloppy joes this way. I still make them and am told that they are the best people have ever eaten. The ingredients are ketchup, a bit of mustard, brown sugar, vinegar, a splash of worcestershire and water ‘ They are sweet and tangy. Using canned soup is just weird, especially the chicken gumbo!
Hi Carol! What you have described is Sloppy Joe. This is another, popular, midwestern version. Both can exist simultaneously.
Gotta agree with Schelly, born and raised in MN and never heard of using cream of soups for a Sloppy Joe. My grandma and mom always made it with gumbo..my fiance’s grandma always made it with gumbo… I mean they lived within a half hour of each other for probably most of their lives, so idk how much of Minnesota we represent, but maybe this recipe is more of a southern MN thing
I’ve never heard of this before. A Minnesota Sloppy is made with a can of Chicken Gumbo soup. It is true that we love our Cream of Mushroom, but not in our Sloppy Joe’s.
Not a fan of regular sloppy joes, stumbled on this recipe and its amazing! Few ingredients, quick to throw together, great flavor, its wonderful all around!
Just like I remember from when I was growing up!!