How Much Sloppy Joes Per Person (meat, filling, & sandwiches)

Are sloppy joes on the menu for your next shindig? It is a crowd favorite AND a simple recipe. A sandwich guaranteed to satisfy a big group. This will be an effortless dish if you know how many sloppy joes you need per person.

How much sloppy joes meat should you plan per person? Plan on ½ cup of sloppy joe meat filling per sandwich when served on a regular-sized hamburger bun. This is about 2½ ounces of meat per sandwich. Estimate 1½ sandwiches per person to ensure there is enough food.

You can reduce this amount by about 25% if several side dishes are also served. In addition, if you have smaller buns (slider size) and a variety of toppings, you can get away with less meat per person.

To know exactly how much filling per person, you need to figure out the number of expected guests, the bun size, toppings, and side dishes.

Estimate the Number of Guests

You won't feel overwhelmed when planning food for your party if you know how many people to expect. This can be tricky to gauge unless the invitees are on top of their RSVPs.

To be safe, you may feel more comfortable planning 10-15% more food than expected guests. Everyone remembers the get-togethers where there wasn't enough food. That isn't what you want your friends to remember after the party.

And since sloppy joe leftovers can be frozen, you know the food won't go to waste if you make a little extra.

RELATED: You may also be interested in how to doctor up Manwich sloppy joes. Easy tricks for a better tasting sandwich.

How Much Sloppy Joe Meat Per Sandwich

Plan about ½ cup of the filling for each serving. This is a generous amount for a standard-sized (3½-inch) hamburger bun. You can also get away with ⅓ cup per bun.

Are you supplying larger buns? Do some guests have larger-than-average appetites? (Teenagers, hungry college students, my husband). If so, you may want up to ¾ cup per sandwich.

However, if you're feeding young eaters (10 and younger), ¼ cup might be enough.

Half a cup of filling equals about 2½ ounces of meat.

How Much Sloppy Joes Meat Per Serving

Meat is seldom sold in ½ pound increments. Round up to the nearest pound for plenty of filling.

How Many Sloppy Joes Sandwiches to Plan Per Person

Now you know how much meat you need per sandwich (see the chart above). But what if some people want more than one sloppy joes sandwich?

How many sloppy joes sandwiches should you plan on per person? Supply enough filling and buns for 1½ sloppy joes sandwiches per person. Some people will have two, most will have one, and a few won't eat one at all. (Like the vegetarians in the crowd.)

If you plan on 1½ sandwiches per person, you should have enough food for everyone. Especially if you have sloppy joes toppings and generous side dishes.

How Much Sloppy Joes Meat (1½ sandwiches per person)

Meat is seldom sold in ½ pound increments. Round up to the nearest pound for plenty of filling.

If you have leftovers, no problem. Both buns and sloppy joes meat can be frozen. No food will be wasted.

Counting on 1½ sandwiches per person is a general rule. But you should know your crowd and have an idea of their appetites.

If it is a Boy Scout campout, you may need to plan two sandwiches per person. If it is a 6-year-old's birthday party, one sandwich per person may be just right.

RELATED: If you are looking for more easy food ideas for a crowd, chicken salad is another fantastic option. Check out how much chicken salad per person you need based on bun size.

Provide Plenty of Toppings

Most guests will spoon less meat filling on their sandwich when there are a variety of sloppy joes sandwich toppings. 

Otherwise, the sandwich will be too full and overflow. This creates an even messier sandwich than most people want to deal with.

What are the best toppings for sloppy joes? 

• Coleslaw
• Pickled jalapenos
• Sliced cheese
• Dill pickles

Get even more ideas for sloppy joes toppings. You will love the list.

Serve Side Dishes

Don't forget the side dishes to go along with sloppy joes. Not only will sides provide additional flavors and textures, but they will also fill folks up.

With plenty of tasty sides, people will return for a second helping of sides rather than grabbing another sandwich.

What are some of the best side dishes for sloppy joes?

• Fruit salad, green salad, or veggie tray

• Ambrosia salad or jello salad or cherry fluff

• Potato salad

• Baked macaroni and cheese

• Potato

• 7-Layer dip with tortilla chips

Check out all of great side dishes that go with sloppy joes.

Tips to Stretch the Whole Meal

Research has shown that when people have smaller containers to hold their food, they eat less. In other words, if you provide a smaller plate or bun, people will take less filling.

This tends to hold true unless people are really hungry (like teenage boys).

But at a party, if you have a limited budget: 

• Supply smaller plates (8-inch lunch plate)

• Serve smaller buns (3½-inch)

• Add more veggies (onions, bell pepper, and celery) to the sloppy joes meat to bulk it up

• Prepare several side dishes

• Don't forget the dessert

How to Stretch the Meat in Sloppy Joes

You need about 1 pound of ground meat to make sloppy joes to feed 6 people. However, you can stretch the meat for a large crowd. 

Increasing other non-meat ingredients in the sloppy joes filling adds bulk, reducing the quantity of meat you need. 

• Add more onions and bell peppers. The amount of onions and peppers varies from one sloppy joes recipe to another. It ranges from ¼ to 1 cup of each vegetable per pound of meat.
  
  To stretch the meat, use 1 cup each of minced onions, 1 cup of diced bell peppers, and ½ cup of diced celery per pound of meat.

• Slice mushrooms and add them to the meat. Mushrooms are a meaty food that can bulk up sloppy joes meat to stretch it further.

The following ingredients may not work at a get-together, but they could work to stretch your family meal.

• Add a non-meat protein. Lentils are a fantastic non-meat ingredient that adds bulk to sloppy joes, stretching the ground beef further.
  
  When used lightly (¼ to ½ cup of cooked lentils/pound of meat) and the sauce is adjusted, your guests may be unable to tell there are lentils in the filling.

• Stir in cooked bulgar wheat or oatmeal. These grains are also a common ingredient to stretch your meat further.

• Try sweet potatoes. Mashed sweet potatoes thicken the sloppy joes filling without drying it out and can be a nice twist to the flavor.

RELATED: Find out the shelf life of sloppy joes (in the fridge and the freezer). If you are cooking a large batch, you might have leftovers. Preserve them correctly for safe eating later.

Ingredients

• Lean ground beef. Buy the meat in bulk for a large get-together. Both Costco and Sam’s Club sell bulk ground beef that is often priced better than in a grocery store. If you have a membership to either store, grab the meat there.
  
  Always go for lean ground beef so there is less oil and fat to drain off. And don’t forget to season the meat with Montreal steak seasoning.

• Sauce. You can make an easy sloppy joes sauce with tomato sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and spices.

• Hamburger buns. Costco or Sam’s Club is also a great place to buy hamburger buns in large quantities.
  
  Try a kaiser bun if you prefer a heartier bun that won’t get soggy. Check out the best bread for sloppy joes to get more creative bread/bun ideas.

Directions

STEP 1: Wash the bell peppers and celery. Dice the onions, peppers, and celery.

STEP 2: Brown the meat in a skillet. Sprinkle in the Montreal steak seasoning. If you have several pounds of meat, do it in batches.

STEP 3: Saute the veggies in a soup pot until they are softened (about 5 to 7 minutes).

STEP 4: Mix the sauce ingredients into the soup pot. Stir to combine everything. Cover and cook for 10 minutes on medium-low heat.

STEP 5: Add the ground beef to the sauce. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until the veggies are soft and the sauce is as thick as you like.

STEP 6: Optional: if the filling is not thick enough, mix cornstarch with cold water until it is smooth. Slowly stir it into the sloppy joes. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.

STEP 7: Serve immediately, or transfer the filling to a slow cooker to keep it warm for the party.

STEP 8: Open a bun and scoop ½ cup of filling on it. Top with cheese, coleslaw, or Fritos.

How to Keep Sloppy Joes Filling Warm During a Party

Three of the best ways to keep sloppy joes filling warm during a party are by using a slow cooker, an Instant Pot, or a chafing dish.

• Try a slow cooker (or two). Use a slow cooker to keep the sloppy joes filling warm during a party. If your guest list is over 50, you will need more than one slow cooker for all the meat. 
  
  Keep the slow cookers plugged in for the whole meal if possible. If there is no outlet near the buffet table, wait to bring the meat to the table until it is time to eat.

• An Instant Pot is another possibility. Keep the meat in an Instant Pot on the "keep warm" setting for warm joes the whole party. You will need access to an outlet to use an Instant Pot.

• Use a chafing dish. Serve the meat in a disposable tray on a chafing dish heated with a fuel can. You can buy fuel cans that last 4 to 6 hours. That is plenty of time for everyone to get their fill.
  
  Divide the sloppy joes filling into separate disposable pans. Place one pan on the food table and the rest in the oven on the lowest heat setting. When the food on the table is gone, replace the empty pan with a hot one from the oven.

With enough food to go around, you can relax with your guests. Enjoy good conversation, shared laughter, and an unforgettable good time.

And if you have extra filling, you can always make one of these fabulous leftover sloppy joe recipes.