Gordon Ramsay’s sloppy joes are saucy spiced beef mince in a sweet, tangy tomato sauce, piled into toasted buns and ready in about thirty minutes. The trick is browning the mince hard before the sauce goes in. That deep colour is what stops it tasting like ketchup on toast.
Gordon doesn’t publish a sloppy joe, but he makes the same thing in a different shape. His chilli con carne from The F Word uses the exact method this needs: brown the mince hard, then build a thick, clingy spiced tomato sauce. This is my sloppy joe adaptation of that base, no beans, sweeter, made for a bun.
The one step most people skip is reducing the sauce properly. You let it simmer until it clings to the mince and stops running, because a watery filling soaks straight through the bun. It should mound on a spoon, not slide off it.
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Gordon Ramsay Sloppy Joes
Course: Main, DinnerCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy4
servings10
minutes20
minutes420
kcal30
minutesSpiced beef mince in a thick, sweet-tangy tomato sauce, adapted from Gordon’s chilli con carne method and piled into toasted buns. Browned hard, simmered clingy, ready in 30 minutes. Serves four.
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
500g (1 lb 2 oz) beef mince
1 onion, finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato purée
200ml (7 fl oz) passata
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp English mustard
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp smoked paprika
Sea salt and black pepper
4 burger buns, toasted
Directions
- Brown the mince: Pat the mince dry, then heat the oil in a large pan until almost smoking. Add the mince so it sizzles on contact and fry hard for 5 to 6 minutes until deeply browned. Don’t crowd the pan.
- Soften the veg: Add the onion and green pepper, cooking for 4 to 5 minutes in the beef fat until softened. Stir in the garlic for the last minute so it doesn’t burn.
- Cook out the purée: Stir in the tomato purée and fry it for 30 seconds, then add the passata, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, brown sugar and paprika. Season well.
- Reduce it: Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring, until the sauce thickens and clings to the mince with no watery pool left in the pan.
- Serve: Toast the buns cut side down, then spoon the mince generously onto the bases and add the lids. Serve straight away while hot.
FAQs
Why shouldn’t you stir the mince constantly?
Because constant stirring is what stops it browning, and the browning is the flavour. Gordon’s rule for mince is to be bold and push the colour further than you dare, the same advice he gives for his chilli beef lettuce wraps. So press it into a hot, almost smoking pan and leave it alone.
He also says not to panic when it sticks. Once the meat has browned properly it releases itself from the pan, and that’s your signal to turn it. Stir too soon and it tears, weeps water and steams grey instead of building that crust.
Why fry the tomato purée before adding the liquid?
This is the step that kills the raw, tinny taste, and Gordon does it in every mince and braise he makes. You add the purée to the hot pan and fry it for about thirty seconds, cooking out the sharp acidity and deepening it before any passata goes in.
Skip it and the purée stays raw and metallic, which is one reason shop-bought sloppy joe sauce tastes flat. Thirty seconds of stirring it through the beef fat is the difference between a sauce that tastes cooked and one that tastes tinned.
Should you brown the mince in batches?
Yes, if your pan is small, and it’s the same reason Gordon browns mince hard for his chilli. A crowded pan drops the temperature, so the meat releases water and boils instead of frying. You want it to sizzle the second it lands, not sit in a grey puddle.
So if 500g looks crammed in your pan, do it in two goes and combine them. It takes five more minutes but it’s the gap between deeply browned mince and pale stewed mince, and you can’t fake that colour later.
How do you stop sloppy joes going soggy?
Reduce the sauce more than feels comfortable, then toast the buns. The filling should mound on a spoon with no loose liquid running in the pan, because a wet filling is what turns the bun to mush. Keep simmering until it clings to the mince.
Toasting the cut side of the bun adds a second defence, since the crisp surface holds the sauce off longer. Only fill the buns just before serving, never in advance, or even a thick filling will soften the bread.
What is the difference between this and chilli con carne?
They share Gordon’s method but they’re different dishes. His chilli con carne has kidney beans, cumin and a whole cinnamon stick, and it’s served as a stew with rice. This sloppy joe drops the beans, leans sweeter with brown sugar and Worcestershire, and goes in a bun.
If you want his spiced mince in a bun done another way, his chilli dogs load a quick beef chilli onto frankfurters with the same Lancashire cheese finish. Think of these as a family of one mince, served three ways.
Can you make the filling ahead?
Yes, and like his chilli it’s better for it, because the sauce deepens overnight as the flavours settle. It keeps three days in the fridge, so reheat gently with a splash of water if it has tightened. His cottage pie mince works the same way, browned hard then improved by a night in the fridge.
It freezes well for up to three months too, so a double batch is worth the one pan. Just never fill the buns until you’re about to eat, since that’s the only part that doesn’t keep.
