Sloppy Joe Bowls

Sloppy Joe bowls inside bread are fun football appetizers. Easy to make and delicious, everyone will be talking about these at your Super Bowl party.

We love a get together with friends, and sometimes watching the game is a good excuse to invite people over! I’m all about one stop shopping. Believe me when I say that all the ingredients to this football appetizer are easy with this fun meal.

This came about when I made a large batch of slow cooker sloppy joes and had buns for everyone. I mean that was delish but I knew it could be served in a much more fun way. Next get together I found these wheat Bolillios that were perfectly shaped like footballs and I was set.

Sloppy Joes without Manwich

If you want to make a homemade sloppy joes recipe we have a recipe without Manwich in the link here. I will say that homemade is best, hands down. It is almost as quick as opening the can but go with what you prefer.

Ingredient Notes

If you want to make things really easy, use a can of Manwich. I will say you can get the same flavors with ketchup, brown sugar and mustard with our Copycat Not So Sloppy Joe Sauce

You will want the base to be made with lean ground beef or use part spicy Jimmy Dean sausage or ground turkey can be used for less fat (but not my favorite). You will need a pan to brown on the stove or use our Crockpot ground beef recipe to prep and add the sauce in there so it can sit on warm while guests arrive.

Bolillios are these football shaped rolls to make your oh so cute sloppy joe sandwich but better. I just found these at Walmart in the bakery department. You will need a knife to cut a circle at the top to fill with your sloppy joe filling. If you are serving a crowd over a long period of time I would keep the meat mixture on warm in a slow cooker with these in a bag so they don’t dry out.

Tips

When you get home you’ll want to start this process….this part is easy. Just brown your ground beef and then add your sauce ingredients. If you forget to thaw out your meat, no worries, here are instructions for defrosting Instant Pot frozen ground beef

Now you will want to turn it to low and allow it to simmer at least 20 minutes so it develops that really rich yummy flavor! If you are having a party just throw it into a slow cooker on low and it can literally stay warm in there for hours. And it just gets better and better over time.

When you take your rolls out you will want to cut the shape of a football into the top and pull that top piece out. You can serve these as just one of your many football party food items!

How to Serve

Once your sloppy joe mix has simmered for a while fill the inside of your mini bread bowls. Then get your sour cream ready. Here’s my “hack” – Pick up some pint size freezer bags. Use these for piping the sour cream on top to make the football lace pattern. OR top with goodies like Big Mac sloppy joes

Other sloppy joe recipes you’ll love

You can also use the same mixture to make other things so you have a variety to choose from, but same ingredients. Alongside these a batch of cornbread sloppy joe casserole goes over really well and is super popular too.

If you’re having a get together that’s not football related, this is how to bake frozen rolls. Hollow out the middle, and serve them with these little appetizer forks (found by the toothpicks). 😉 Are you having a get together for the Big Game?? Our Instant Pot sloppy joes are wonderful to to make and use to fill that way too.

How do bread bowls not get soggy?

The best way to keep the bottoms and sides not soggy is to line the inside with something like a slice of cheese!! You can buy slices of cheddar and push into the hole first. Then spoon the meat mixture inside and when eaten it just enhances the overall flavors and doesn’t get mushy.