30 Minute Healthy Turkey Sloppy Joes with Homemade Sauce

Delicious chicken or turkey sloppy joes with an easy homemade sauce and made with simple, wholesome ingredients. This healthy turkey sloppy joe recipe can easily be doubled or tripled for a crowd, and can even be made in your slow cooker! The perfect weeknight dinner that kiddos and adults love.

Course 30 min or less, Dinner, Gluten Free, Nut Free

Cuisine American

Keyword healthy sloppy joe recipe, healthy sloppy joes, turkey sloppy joes

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Total Time 30

Servings servings

Calories 422cal

Author Monique Volz of AmbitiousKitchen.com

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small white onion, diced
1 red bell pepper or green bell pepper, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound 94% lean ground turkey or chicken
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
½ cup ketchup (I use Trader Joe’s Organic Ketchup)
¼ cup your favorite BBQ sauce (I used Stubb’s Spicy BBQ sauce, but a sweet one is great too!)
1 ½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
½ cup filtered water
Optional: ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper, if you like spice
For serving:
4 hamburger buns of choice
2-4 ounces shredded pepper jack cheese (about 1/2-1 cup)
Optional: Jalapeno slices

Instructions

In a large skillet, add olive oil and place over medium heat. Add in the garlic, white onion and bell pepper; saute for 5 minutes or until onion is translucent. Move mixture to the sides of the pan
Add ground turkey to the skillet and season with salt and pepper; break up the meat and cooking until no longer pink, 5 to 7 minutes.
Once turkey is cooked, add the onion/bell pepper mixture back in. Then add in ketchup, bbq sauce, worcestershire sauce, vinegar, mustard and water. If you like a little heat, add in cayenne pepper.
Stir well to combine and bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low and cook for 10 minutes longer until sauce thickens. If sauce looks too thick, add in a tablespoon of water.
Next add cheese on top of meat mixture, cover with a lid and let the cheese melt for 2 minutes (or until melted). Transfer meat onto hamburger buns and top with jalapeno slices. Enjoy!

Video

Notes

To make this in the slow cooker: simply brown and breakup the turkey, then throw all the ingredients into the slow cooker and cook on high for 2-3 hours or on low for 6 hours. Reduce water to 1/4 cup total.

To make it gluten free: Make sure all ingredients you use are GF and also be sure to use gluten free buns.

To make it dairy free: Leave cheese off, or use a dairy free cheese option.

Nutrition