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

Are you ready for the Big Game, or for friends to come over and hang out? Here is a fun appetizer that is sure to be a hit at your football party. You need 4 things to make these bowls filled with ground beef and sauce. (affiliate links present)

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

This came about when we made a large batch of slow cooker sloppy joes and had buns for everyone. We mean that was delish but we knew it could be served in a much more fun way. Next get together we found these wheat Bolillios that were perfectly shaped like footballs and we 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. We 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 easy, use a can of Manwich. We 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 our 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 like our football shaped cheese ball rolls to make your oh so cute sloppy joe sandwich but better. We 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 we 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. 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 rich yummy flavor! If you are having a party throw it into a slow cooker on low and it can stay warm in there for hours. And it 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 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 our “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

Sloppy Joe Bowls Recipe

By Easy sloppy joe bread bowls for a Super Bowl appetizer are so fun. Flavorful ground beef tomato recipe that is simple to make and served like footballs. Prep: 15 minutes minsCook: 20 minutes minsServings: 8 Save Recipe Saved! Pin Recipe Comment Print Recipe

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 cup mustard
3/4 upc 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, or 3 ingredients to make homemade sauce. Turn to a 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 pipe dollop of sour cream across so it looks like lacing on a football.

Nutrition

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Appetizer, Entree, Main CourseCuisine: American Tried this recipe?Mention @thetypical_mom or tag #thetypicalmom!

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 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 enhances the overall flavors and doesn't get mushy.