Instant Pot Sloppy Joes. Looking for weeknight sloppy joes from your pressure cooker? Try this recipe. You’ll love it!
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I picked up this Sloppy Joe recipe from Pam Anderson’s Perfect Recipes for Having People Over cookbook years ago; it’s been one of my go-to weeknight recipes ever since. This is the pressure-cooked version of Pam’s recipe. I cook sloppy joes in my Instant Pot because I can set it and forget it while it simmers.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion, minced
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 pounds lean ground beef (preferably 85% lean ground beef or leaner)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup water (or chicken broth)
- 1 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (optional)
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)
- 1 tablespoon Franks Red Hot sauce (optional)
Accompaniments (Optional)
- Hamburger buns (recipe makes enough to top 8 to 12 buns)
- Hot sauce (I like more Franks Red Hot)
- Pickle chips
INSTRUCTIONS
Sauté the onion
Add the vegetable oil to an Instant Pot set to Sauté mode – high (or medium-high heat in a stovetop PC), and heat until the vegetable oil shimmers. Add the onion and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Sauté until the onions start to soften around the edges, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the ground beef and cook until it just loses its pink color
Sprinkle the ground beef evenly with the garlic powder and ½ teaspoon fine sea salt. Add the beef to the pot and cook, stirring and breaking it up until it loses its pink color, about 5 minutes.
Everything in the pot (but don’t stir the ketchup)
Stir the ½ cup of water into the pot, then scrape the bottom with a flat-edged wooden spoon to ensure nothing is sticking. Pour the ketchup over the top of the beef, then add the mustard and brown sugar, and the (optional) soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce. Don’t stir – we want the water on the bottom and the ketchup on top, to keep the ketchup from sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning.
Pressure cook for 10 minutes with natural pressure release
Lock the lid on the pressure cooker, and cook at high pressure for 10 minutes in an Instant Pot, electric pressure cooker, or stovetop pressure cooker. (Use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook-custom mode set to 10 minutes in an Instant Pot.) After the cooking time is over, let the pressure come down naturally, about 10 more minutes. (If you’re in a hurry, you can quick release any remaining pressure after 5 minutes.) Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to avoid the hot steam.
Stir the pot and serve
Stir the ketchup into the beef until everything is evenly mixed. Serve on hamburger buns with your favorite accompaniments on the side. Enjoy!
Substitutions
- Different ground beef: This recipe works as written lean ground beef, 85-15 (85% lean) or leaner. If you’re OK with a little extra fat, 80-20 will work. If you are using regular “ground beef” (which usually means 73-27 lean to fat), drain the fat out of the pot after cooking the beef and before adding the water.
- Ground Turkey (aka Sloppy Janes): You can replace the ground beef with ground turkey; everything else stays the same.
- Extra spices: To make the recipe fancier, add 1 tablespoon of paprika and ½ teaspoons of onion powder to the garlic powder.
- Extra-sloppy: If you want even sloppier joes, add an extra ½ cup of ketchup.
- Extra veggies: Add a cored and diced bell pepper with the onions – red or green bell peppers are my favorite.
Equipment
A 6-quart pressure cooker
A flat-edged wooden spoon
Scaling
This recipe doubles easily in a 6-quart pressure cooker. Cut all the ingredients in half, and it will fit in a 3-quart pressure cooker. The cooking time does not change; it takes the same amount of time to cook the ground beef, no matter how much is in the pot.
Storage
Sloppy joe meat freezes beautifully; this recipe makes about 2 quarts. I portion any leftovers into quart-sized containers; each quart will top 4 to 6 buns, depending on how sloppy you want to get. Cooked sloppy joe meat will last for a few days in the refrigerator or up to 6 months in the freezer if you store it in airtight containers.
Tips and Tricks
- Frozen ground beef: If you have frozen ground beef, you can toss it directly in the pot, and keep cooking it with Sauté mode until it thaws, breaks up, and loses its pink color. This will take at least 10 minutes. Keep scraping the outer layer of cooked meat to expose the frozen inside until it is all thawed.
- Avoid the burn warning – don’t stir in the ketchup! The layers are the key – the water and ground beef keep the ketchup away from the bottom of the pot.
What to serve with Instant Pot Sloppy Joes
As I mentioned in the recipe, I want my sloppy joes on cheap hamburger buns, with pickle chips and some more hot sauce sprinkled on top. I like to serve sloppy joes with coleslaw and some type of potato – potato salad, potato chips, or Air Fryer Frozen French Fries.
Adapted from Perfect Recipes for Having People Over by Pam Anderson
Print
Instant Pot Sloppy Joes (Easy Weeknight Recipe)
Total Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 8–12 sloppy joes 1x
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion, minced
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 pounds lean ground beef (preferably 85% lean ground beef or leaner)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup water (or chicken broth)
- 1 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (optional)
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)
- 1 tablespoon Franks Red Hot sauce (optional)
Accompaniments (Optional)
- Hamburger buns (recipe makes enough to top 8 to 12 buns)
- Hot sauce (I like more Franks Red Hot)
- Pickle chips
Instructions
- Sauté the onion: Add the vegetable oil to an Instant Pot set to Sauté mode – high (or medium-high heat in a stovetop PC), and heat until the vegetable oil shimmers. Add the onion and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Sauté until the onions start to soften around the edges, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the ground beef and cook until it just loses its pink color: Sprinkle the ground beef evenly with the garlic powder and ½ teaspoon fine sea salt. Add the beef to the pot and cook, stirring and breaking it up until it loses its pink color, about 5 minutes.
- Everything in the pot: Stir the ½ cup of water into the pot, then scrape the bottom with a flat-edged wooden spoon to ensure nothing is sticking. Pour the ketchup over the top of the beef, then add the mustard and brown sugar, and the (optional) soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce. Don’t stir – we want the water on the bottom and the ketchup on top, to keep the ketchup from sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning.
- Pressure cook for 10 minutes with a natural pressure release: Lock the lid on the pressure cooker, and cook at high pressure for 10 minutes in an Instant Pot, electric pressure cooker, or stovetop pressure cooker. (Use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook-custom mode set to 10 minutes in an Instant Pot.) After the cooking time is over, let the pressure come down naturally, about 10 more minutes. (If you’re in a hurry, you can quick release any remaining pressure after 5 minutes.) Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to avoid the hot steam.
- Stir the pot and serve: Stir the ketchup into the beef until everything is evenly mixed. Serve on hamburger buns with your favorite accompaniments on the side. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Weeknight Dinner
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
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