You can feed a small crowd easily with this Crockpot sloppy joe recipe. The meat cooks all day while you live your life. Just drain the liquid and add a quick sauce, then you have a delicious dinner for 20 with very little effort.
This recipe is perfect for when you have a busy life, but need to feed a pack of people. The ground beef is in the slow cooker all day before it gets a flavorful sauce that makes them amazing. Have plenty of buns ready, dinner is going to be good!
Sweet and savory sloppy Joe sandwiches are a great meal for a busy night. The filling comes together quickly and the addition of cola makes it sing.
The recipe isn’t all that different from my cola sloppy joes. The biggest difference is the size of the recipe and the use of a crockpot.
It makes about 20 sandwiches, which is great for when you are feeding a small crowd. However, the leftovers freeze well, so don’t worry if you don’t have that many folks to feed.
Sloppy Joes are always delicious with their sweet and savory tomato sauce. But the addition of cola in this sauce makes it extra special.
Instead of just adding brown sugar, adding the soda adds real depth of flavor in addition to the sweet. It has that peppery pop that really makes this sauce sing.
Feel free to use some flat soda if that’s what you have. A little bit from the bottom of a two liter will find bright new life as part of this yummy sauce.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- The meat cooks in the crockpot, you don’t have to brown it first. (You can make crockpot maid rites in a similar way!)
- The sauce is made from pantry staples.
- The leftovers freeze well or can be repurposed into a tater tot casserole, served on mac and cheese, etc.
- It feeds a crowd with almost no effort.
What is the difference between Sloppy Joes and Maid Rites?
Midwesterners take these things really seriously. I know I have had several comments on my Maid Rite sandwiches recipe about whether or not that reader considers what I posted a proper Maid Rite.
Both sandwiches are loose meat sandwiches. They are made from ground beef that is cooked to a crumbly consistency instead of being formed into a patty like a hamburger.
The Maid Rite sandwich lets the ground beef be the star of the show. There is generally a little onion and a few spices, but not much else.
Sloppy Joes, on the other hand, feature a sweet and savory tomato sauce on crumbles of beef. It is somewhat reminiscent of a tomato bbq sauce, but is generally brighter and more tomato forward.
Just to confuse things a bit more, there is also something called a Davy Crockett sandwich. It is kind of like a sloppy joe, but with a creamy sauce instead of a tomato based one.
There are also crockpot cheeseburgers which are sloppy joe adjacent but with a cheesy sauce.
Can I double or triple the batch?
Technically, you can. However, it would be hard to fit into a crockpot.
For a larger batch recipe, try my roaster sloppy joe recipe. It is sized for about 50 sandwiches and is perfectly sized for a big party.
Crockpot Sloppy Joes
Equipment
Ingredients
Meat
- 5 pounds ground beef
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup cola
Sauce
- ½ cup prepared yellow mustard
- 2 cups ketchup
- ¼ cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ cup cola
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic salt
Instructions
- Place ground beef, water, and cola in slow cooker. Mix to combined the liquid into the meat. Cook in low for 8-10 hours or high for 5-7 hours.5 pounds ground beef, 3 cups water, 1 cup cola
- The meat may look clumped up after it is cooked, that is fine. The liquid in the mix will help it to crumble easily. Drain well, the stir to crumble.½ cup prepared yellow mustard, 2 cups ketchup, ¼ cup light brown sugar, 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, ½ cup cola, ½ teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon garlic salt
- Stir in the sauce ingredients. Cook on low until heated through then serve on buns. Alternatively, hold on low or warm until ready to serve.
Notes
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