Sloppy Joe bread bowls are great for a football appetizer or any other party you’re having! Easy to make and delicious! Everyone will be talking about your football shaped cheese ball and these at your Super Bowl party.
Are you ready for the Big Game, or for friends to just come over and hang out? Here is a fun appetizer that is sure to be a hit at your football party. You just need 4 things to make these easy sloppy joe bread bowls. (affiliate links present)
Football Shaped Sloppy Joe Bread Bowls
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 (lucky duck I know. Grabbed 1 lb. of ground beef, found the Manwich and of course the sour cream is by the yogurt. If you want to make homemade 3 ingredient sloppy joes we have a recipe for sloppy joes without Manwich here.
Ingredients
- 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
- Ground beef or use part spicy sausage or ground turkey can be used for less fat (but not my favorite)
- 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.
Then 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.
How to Make Bread Bowl Sloppy Joes
When you get home you’ll want to start your sloppy joes….this part is easy. Just brown your ground beef and then add your can of Manwich. If you forget to thaw out your meat, no worries, here are instructions for defrosting Instant Pot frozen ground beef.
Now 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.
Now take your rolls and cut the shape of a football into the top and pull that piece out. You can serve these as just one of your many football party food items!
Now once your MANWICH 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”!
I am cheap (um, I mean frugal) so I just pick up some pint size freezer bags. Use these for piping the sour cream on your sloppy joe bread bowls! Literally it is so easy to fill and snip a small hole in the corner in order to make the football lace pattern.
I have made these as appetizers for occasions other than a football party. I will show you below what those look like too, they’re one of our faves!
Sloppy Joe bread bowls
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 Jiffy cornbread sloppy joe casserole goes over really well and is super popular too.
It is fun to have a few ready and waiting when guests come over. These mini sloppy joe bread bowls are usually the hit of the party because they’re just so cute.
Like I said, keep the remaining batch in your crockpot so people can serve themselves. Keep the rolls in a basket or warm in the oven until people are ready to make more.
If you’re having a get together that’s not football related just pick up some white rolls at Walmart. 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.
Sloppy Joe Bread Bowls
Equipment
- 1 pan or make sloppy joes in IP or slow cooker
- 1 knife to cut middle out of rolls
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef , or 1/2 lb. spicy ground sausage and 1/2 lb. ground beef is great
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 bell pepper, diced, optional
- 15 oz Manwich, OR use homemade mix below
Homemade Sloppy Joe Sauce
- 1/8 c mustard
- 3/4 c ketchup
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
Instructions
- Put meat into pan on your stovetop with a bit of olive oil, onions and bell peppers. Once browned add can of Manwich.
- Turn to a very low simmer and allow to cook, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes to allow flavors to deepen.
- Turn off. Hollow out top and middle of (Bolillios) small bread bowls. Fill with sloppy joe mixture and top with cheese or dollop of sour cream.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are the cutest things ever. Thank you for sharing!
oh those are so so cute! I love this idea. The football shapes are perfect!
Thank you!
Very cleaver little football sandwiches.