Sloppy Jane Sandwiches (2024)

Our Sloppy Jane recipe is a healthy cross between chili and Sloppy Joes that makes great sandwiches. This is a hearty sandwich is made with ground turkey or ground chicken so it is lighter and lower in calories.

We love how easy these sandwiches are to make and how good they taste! The leftovers reheat very well too!

Sloppy Jane Recipe

We are all about quick and easy family meals that can be made in under 30 minutes. Our Sloppy Jane recipe is in our rotation because everyone in the family will eat it!

I was especially excited to try this recipe that my mom gave me. She saved it from a newspaper clipping in the 90s.

My husband and I make this for lunch and enjoy the leftovers later in the week. We both work from home, so this is a perfect quick and easy meal. Our two year old also enjoys eating this meal with us.

As farmers, we love using ingredients that we raise or that our families raise in the meals that we cook. My husband grew up on a turkey farm and his parents and brothers still have turkeys that they care for every day. Here is an article I wrote called The Story of A Turkey Farm.

Grinding any meat is a method of tenderizing it. Ground meat is often easier to chew, especially for my kids. So, I’m always looking for delicious recipes that they can enjoy. No one wants to watch dinner drama play out where it takes 20 minutes to chew and swallow each mouth full of meat!

Ingredients Needed:

• Ground turkey or ground chicken
• Chopped onion
• Vegetable oil
• Tomato sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Cumin
• Chili powder
• Black pepper

How to Make Sloppy Jane Sandwiches

1. Heat oil in skillet, add onion and stir until softened.

Add turkey, break into small pieces and cook until meat is no longer pink

If there is extra fat in the skillet drain on a paper towel lined plate.

Add remaining ingredients including tomato sauce and spices.

Stir well and reduce heat to low and cook until flavors are blended.

Tips For Making Sloppy Jane Sandwiches

• Break turkey up into small pieces that are easier to eat and quicker to cook
• Cook turkey by stirring continuously until all the pink is gone
• Butter and toast buns for more flavor
• Use slider buns if desired because these sandwiches can be sloppy…thus the name Sloppy Janes
• Meat reheats well and freezes well in an airtight freezer container or bag

Does Ground Turkey Taste Like Hamburgers?

One of my husband’s favorite meals is Sloppy Joes. We were very impressed with how filling this ground turkey recipe is and how much flavor it has. Spices really enhance the ground turkey or ground chicken and you don’t feel like you’re missing out on anything.

A big variable in any ground meat is the percent lean. That means how much lean meat is in the mixture relative to the ratio of fat. I think the amount of fat in ground meat affects the taste and feel in your mouth more than the species of animal.Remember fat equals flavor, so a little fat is desirable.

How Do I Cook Ground Turkey in the Skillet?

Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a skillet. This recipe calls for adding onions next and sauteeing them until they begin to get soft. Then add the turkey. The biggest difference that I noticed with ground turkey is that it is a bit more difficult to break into pieces than ground beef. Just use a little extra arm muscle and the pieces of ground turkey break apart as well as you want them to.

Ground turkey is done cooking when it is white. I put a lid on the skillet as often as possible to help hold in the heat and speed up the cooking process.

I like that this recipe for Sloppy Jane Sandwiches calls for cooking the turkey on low for an additional ten minutes with the remaining ingredients. This is another step to help ensure that an endpoint cooking temperature of 160ºF is met.

What’s in Ground Turkey

I’ve had the opportunity to tour the turkey processing plant where my in-law’s turkeys are processed. The demand is highest for breast meat. There are other popular cuts too. Then there are other smaller muscles that are good quality and have excellent nutritional value, but they are not popular cuts of meat. These are the muscles that are usually ground up from any species to make ground meat.

Ground meat is often a great value that is low in cost and high in good, quality nutrients. I’ve heard rumors about bones or other random things being included in ground meat, but I truly believe these are rumors from people that may have a different agenda.

Anytime I’ve been on a meat processing plant tour I am required to wear a clean white coat provided by the processing plant. I’m required to wash my hands and I’m still not permitted to touch anything inside the plant. Absolutely no jewelry with stones is allowed to be worn for fear of the slim chance of a stone falling out. When precautions this serious are taken to keep food safe and I see government inspectors everywhere I’m confident that we have a safe food supply. I eat ground meat with confidence and feed it to my kids.

Here are a few other farmhouse favorite meals that we’ve made with ground beef or ground pork and we want to try with ground turkey:

• Hamburger and Noodle Casserole
• Easy Mexican Casserole
• Cheap and Easy Sausage Casserole – Sausage Pizza Bubble Up Casserole
• Best Pizza Meatloaf
• Farmhouse Meatloaf
• Crock Pot Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf
• Cowboy Baked Beans

Printable Recipe for Sloppy Jane Sandwiches

Originally published April 22, 2019 with pictures updated May 26, 2022.

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