Mike’s Sloppy Joe Stuffed Meatballs
This is my husband’s recipe and it’s a pretty simple way of throwing some Sloppy Joe’s together for a meatball stuffing. It’s quick and easy and has a great consistency for stuffing meatballs!
Mike's Sloppy Joe Stuffed Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 cup breadcrumbs.
- 1 tbs Montreal Steak seasoning
- 2 eggs
- pepper to taste
Mike's Sloppy Joes
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 1/2 packets McCormick's Sloppy Joe Seasoning Mix
- 1 6 oz can tomato paste
- 1 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- For the sloppy joes brown the hamburger and then drain the grease – this takes about 10 mins
- Put the ground beef back into the pan you cooked it in and add the McCormick’s Seasoning, the tomato paste and water and mix together well.
- Take the sloppy joe mixture and spoon it into the silicon molds and put in the freezer. Depending on your freezer and how warm the mixture is, it will have to be in there for about 4 hours minimum.
- Once your sloppy joe mixture is frozen and you’re ready to make your meatballs, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- In a bowl combine ground meat, breadcrumbs, Montreal seasoning, eggs and season to taste with pepper.
- Take a good scoop of the meat mixture and flatten it in your hand. Take two of the frozen sloppy joe pucks and place them in the middle of the meat mixture. Wrap the meat around the frozen sloppy joe pucks and roll it into the shape of a ball.
- Place your meatballs on a greased baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 22 mins.
These meatballs are a pretty simple base because I really wanted the sloppy joe filling to stand out. It seems a little weird to stuff ground beef with ground beef but these are really delicious. I figured if I kept the meat mixture lightly seasoned you would be able to taste the sloppy joe filling a little better.
The reason I used two of the frozen Sloppy Joe pucks (as I call them) to the meatball is because Sloppy Joes are supposed to be sloppy! This makes the meatballs on the larger size and the pictures I show are on a Hawaiian slider style bun. The ration to me is perfect, again because these meatballs are supposed to be on the messy side, but you can see from the pictures how the meatball sits on a slider type bun. You can always go out and get larger buns to serve these meatballs on – like hamburger buns. For our meatball party happy hour where I did my Sloppy Joe Meatball-off, a lot of folks just ate the meatball without a bun. They are delicious either way.
I’m a fan of freezing things to stuff meatballs with – you’ll see a lot of that in my Stuffed Meatball recipes. It takes a little planning since you have to wait for the stuffing to freeze but I think it’s totally worth it for the end results. You can also stuff your meatballs with unexpected things to surprise your guests!
That’s the best thing about stuffed meatballs! As long as the meatball stays together – which I’ll admit, sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t, you can always surprise the folks that you are feeding. There are so many delicious things you can stuff a meatball with once you have the proper tools – like the silicon molds that I use – and a little extra time and effort of getting that stuffing made and in the freezer to set.
The silicon molds that I use are awesome for so many reasons. First of all they are perfectly shaped for meatballs. They are half circles that work for wrapping the meatball mixture around, and work even better if you use both parts of the circle mold. I have recipes that do both a half circle and the full circle mold. It is also so easy to get whatever meatball stuffing you can come up with out of the mold once they are frozen. I haven’t come up with a stuffing yet that got stuck in these molds.
Sloppy Joe’s, to me, are a Midwestern staple and you see them a lot at family gatherings and potlucks. The other cool thing about Sloppy Joes is that everyone and their family has their own recipe, so the options are endless! One of my tasks to add to the Sloppy Joe Stuffed Meatball recipes I already have is to reach out to others and see what their go-to Sloppy Joe recipe is.
These meatballs are perfect for any potluck or family gathering you may go to and they put a little different twist on two classic dishes. You can plop them into a crockpot before you leave and haul them off to your next event with ease. They make amazing sliders or sandwiches, or are a perfect bite all on their own.
More Recipes By Category
Midwestern Meatballs
We live in the Midwest and there are so many classic recipes that the rest of the country is missing out on. I’m here to help share those recipes in meatball form.
Classic Meatballs
I have some classic meatballs that are the foundation of a lot of my meatball recipes. You’ll find some basic meatball recipes and recipes that we are grew up with and love.
Stuffed Meatballs
I love stuffing meatballs – and once you start browsing the site you’ll see that I’m pretty creative with what I can come up with to stuff my balls with – and every recipe is delicious.
