Name: Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 10 ounces frozen garlic bread loaf, (thawed (Pepperidge Farms brand)); 1 tablespoon unsalted butter; ½ cup chopped yellow onion; 1 pound lean ground beef; 15 ounces sloppy Joe sauce, (Manwich Original brand); ½ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 2 cups shredded Colby jack cheese; 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, (chopped (optional garnish))

By the second quarter of the game, everyone has settled in front of the television and nobody wants to balance a plate of sloppy joes on their lap. That’s where garlic bread sloppy joes come in. Saucy beef and melted cheese are piled onto garlic bread, then cut into strips that can be picked up with one hand.

A hand picks up a cheesy, baked Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes bread topped with ground meat, melted cheese, and herbs. Several more pieces are arranged on parchment paper on a wooden surface.

Keep The Bread From Going Soggy

The sloppy joe filling should sit on the bread, not soak through it. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the meat, leaving the thinner sauce behind in the skillet, then bake the loaf as soon as it is assembled.

A cast iron skillet filled with cooked ground beef in a rich tomato sauce, perfect for Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes, is stirred with a wooden spatula and sits on a white marble surface.

There is no need to toast the bread separately. I specifically watched the crust when she I this method, and it came out crisp after 15 minutes in the oven.

Two hoagie rolls filled with a savory ground meat mixture sit on a foil-lined baking sheet on a marble surface, ready to become delicious Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes.

Two open-faced sandwich halves topped with cooked meat and shredded cheese rest on a foil-lined baking sheet on a marble countertop, creating a mouthwatering take on Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes.

The key was leaving the excess sauce in the pan rather than carrying it onto the loaf.

Make It Ahead For Game Day Or Dinner

The two-day make-ahead window lets this recipe fit the occasion. For game day, brown the meat a day or two before so there is no skillet on the stove when people arrive. For a weeknight dinner, make it whenever the schedule gives you an opening: Sunday for Tuesday, after dinner the night before, or earlier that morning.

Keep the filling covered in the refrigerator. When it is time to eat, assemble the loaf and bake it for 15 minutes. Karen saw the same flexibility when she tested it, noting that the make-ahead filling would be particularly useful on a night filled with kids’ activities.

Two cheesy French bread pizzas, inspired by Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes, are topped with savory ground beef and fresh parsley and sit on parchment paper over a wooden board, with plates, cheese, and herbs in the background.

If you need a recipe for a larger crowd, my sloppy joe casserole puts the same filling into a 9×13-inch dish.

Cut Them To Match The Crowd

If people are sitting down with plates, cut the loaf into 12 two-inch strips. If it is going onto a game-day board beside several other snacks, cut those strips in half again for about 24 one-inch pieces people can pick up as they pass.

Sliced French bread topped with seasoned ground beef and melted cheese, served on parchment paper atop a wooden board, with parsley and shredded cheese nearby—a delicious twist on Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes.

Smaller pieces are harder to cut and move without losing the topping. Let the loaf rest for a few minutes first so the cheese settles instead of stretching between the cuts. Then slice it directly on the board you plan to serve from. The fewer times those pieces are moved, the more of the sloppy joe filling stays where it belongs.

Several pieces of cheesy ground beef French bread pizza—reminiscent of Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes—are arranged on a wooden board lined with parchment paper. Chopped herbs, plates, and shredded cheese are nearby.

Eat Them The Night You Make Them

The make-ahead flexibility belongs to the filling, not the assembled loaf. Once the meat goes onto the bread, plan to eat it that day. A piece that was crisp at kickoff will be soggy the next day.

That distinction gets lost when recipes say leftovers of this recipe keep for three days. The meat may hold up well in the refrigerator, but the bread continues absorbing the sauce.

Instead of trying to bring leftovers back to life, a better plan is to assemble only what you expect will be eaten. Use as much filling and bread as you need, then store the remainder separately. The meat reheats well and can go onto fresh bread the next day.

You can use the same filling to make my homemade sloppy joes on buns the second night.

Toasted garlic bread topped with saucy ground beef, melted cheese, and a sprinkle of fresh parsley sits on parchment paper on a wooden board—an irresistible twist on classic Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes.

Planning The Rest Of The Menu

Four dishes is enough for a game. People find two favorites in the first quarter and graze past everything else, so a short menu that gets finished beats a long one that goes back in the refrigerator at halftime.

These garlic bread sloppy joes are the hot dish, and they take the oven for 15 minutes right as people are arriving. That means the other three should come out of a slow cooker or the refrigerator, not the oven.

A dip that holds on warm: Crockpot Rotel dip is three ingredients and sits on the warm setting for up to three hours, so it is done before the first person knocks and still good at the end of the third quarter. Crockpot buffalo chicken dip does the same job with heat behind it. Pick one, not both.

Something on a toothpick, made ahead: Bacon wrapped little smokies get wrapped and chilled an hour before they go in, so they can bake while the breadsticks rest. Buffalo chicken meatballs freeze for three months and reheat, which makes them the one to do weeks ahead.

Something cold from the refrigerator: Ranch roll ups are cream cheese and ranch with crisp vegetables and jalapeños rolled into tortillas. Roll them the night before, keep them whole, and slice them into pinwheels just before people arrive. They are the only thing on the table with vegetables in them and the only one that needs no heat at all.

That is the whole menu. Everything except the breadsticks can be done before anyone arrives.

Swapping The Beef

Ground turkey is the most common substitute when there is no beef in the freezer, and ground chicken works the same way. Italian sausage works too, although it brings its own seasoning and usually enough fat for the skillet.

Turkey and chicken need one small adjustment. They do not render as much fat as beef, leaving the onion with very little to cook in. Add a tablespoon of olive oil when the meat goes into the skillet. I ran into the same issue while testing my sloppy joe dip, and the added oil kept both the meat and onion from drying out.

To stretch the filling without adding more meat, cook chopped green pepper or sliced mushrooms with the onion. They soften into the sauce and add more volume without changing how the loaf is assembled.

Assorted ingredients on a counter—ground beef, parsley, onion, butter, cheddar cheese, garlic loaf, canned tomatoes, Manwich sauce, and salt—all set against a white tile background for preparing delicious Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes. — One loaf turns a pound of ground beef into 12 pieces, enough to set out with the rest of the game-day food.

If you are feeding people for a whole afternoon rather than a quarter, my Super Bowl recipes has the slow cooker dips and the make-ahead trays that fill out the rest of a spread.

Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes

5 from 1 vote

Garlic bread sloppy joes turn one loaf and a pound of beef into 12 cheesy strips you pick up with one hand. No plates, no forks, ready in 15 minutes.

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 15

Total Time 35

Servings

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Ingredients

10 ounces frozen garlic bread loaf, thawed (Pepperidge Farms brand)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
½ cup chopped yellow onion
1 pound lean ground beef
15 ounces sloppy Joe sauce, Manwich Original brand
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 cups shredded Colby jack cheese
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped (optional garnish)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Set aside.
Remove your loaf of garlic bread from the freezer to allow it to thaw while you prepare the sloppy Joe mixture.
In a large skillet, on medium-high heat, add the unsalted butter and chopped onions. Saute the onions until soft and translucent.
Add the lean ground beef to the skillet and brown the meat for 5-6 minutes or until fully cooked and no pink remains. Drain any excess fat and liquids from the skillet.
To the skillet of browned ground beef and onions, on medium heat-low heat, add the sloppy Joe sauce, salt, and black pepper. Stir and simmer the sloppy Joe mixture for 5 minutes.
While your sauce is simmering, remove the loaf of garlic bread from the wrapper and open the loaf. You may need to use a butter knife to help separate the two sides of the loaf. Place both sides of the garlic bread, butter side up, onto the prepared baking sheet.
Divide the sloppy Joe mixture evenly between the two pieces of garlic loaf. Be sure to spread the mixture out into an even layer.
Top each of the loaves with 1 cup of the shredded Colby jack cheese.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
Allow the sloppy Joe loaves to cool slightly before garnishing with optional chopped fresh parsley and slicing the bread into 2-inch wide breadsticks.

Notes

There are various brands available for frozen garlic bread loaf. They vary in size between 8 to 16 ounces. If your loaf is on the smaller side, you may have some leftover sloppy Joe mixture. If your loaf is on the larger side, your layer of sloppy Joe mixture will be spread slightly thinner.
If using a fresh loaf of French bread, slice it down the center and follow the recipe as for the thawed garlic bread. You can leave your loaf plain, or you can spread a couple of tablespoons of softened butter onto the sliced loaves and sprinkle about ½ teaspoon of garlic salt evenly over the butter before topping the bread with the sloppy Joe mixture. You will need to check your bread at the 10-minute mark to be sure it is not getting too crispy on the bottom.
When adding the sloppy Joe meat sauce to the garlic loaves, I use a large slotted spoon. This allows any excess sauce to stay in the pan. I think these work best when there is not too much excess sauce on the bread.
You may need to check your bake time at 10 to 12 minutes for smaller loaves, and larger loaves may need an additional 3 to 5 minutes. Remember, you are only melting your cheese and heating your bread. Your meat mixture is already fully cooked.