French Onion Joes
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These French Onion Joes are an easy alternative to traditional sloppy joes without the tomatoes. With just four ingredients, this loose meat sandwich is quick dinner option. Using a can of condensed French Onion soup, these ground beef sandwiches can be on the table in less than 20 minutes.
French Onion Sloppy Joes
I love meals that are made with ground beef because they are kid-friendly and husband-friendly, and they typically go together easily. Ground beef is a versatile protein and it is budget-friendly. We love that you can really stretch a pound of ground beef to serve a crowd. You can even brown up ground beef, drain, and freeze for even quicker meals.
It’s no secret, our family is crazy for Sloppy Joes. We love Easy Sloppy Joes, Classic Sloppy Joes, and we use our leftovers for Sloppy Joe Cups. There’s something about these saucy sandwich that we go nuts over.
French Onion Loose Meat Sandwiches
We were so excited when a co-worker of mine shared a new version of “joes” with us. This is her mom’s version of sloppy joe. It’s nice to have a version for those who have aversions to tomatoes which are found in traditional sloppy joes. These are really similar to the classic Iowa Maid-Rites.
Ingredient List
- Ground beef
- Water
- All Purpose Flour
- Condensed French Onion Soup
- Salt and Black Pepper
This skillet ground beef dish is always a hit when we make it. We have even made it into French Onion Joe Sliders where we spread it Hawaiian rolls, add cheese and cover with a delicious butter drizzle before baking.
We love using condensed French Onion soup…so much that we have an entire post highlighting all of our dishes made with canned French Onion Soup.
If you want a more traditional loose meat sandwich, check out our Stroganoff Loose Meat Sandwiches.
How to Make French Onion Joes
Step By Step Instructions
- Brown ground beef in a large skillet and drain off any excess grease.
- Mix water with flour and stir it with the meat and condensed French Onion Soup in the skillet.
- Let the meat mixture simmer over medium heat until thickened, approximately 5 minutes.
- Season to taste with salt and black pepper, and serve on buns. Optional toppings include sliced Colby cheese, mustard or pickles.
Full recipe and ingredient list for loose meat sandwiches is at the bottom of this post.
Check out some of our other favorite ground beef meals, including Aunt Shannon’s Lasagna, Cheeseburger Quiche, Cheeseburger Turnovers and Crock Pot Ground Beef Acapulco Enchiladas. Want even more ground beef recipes? 8 Great Ground Beef Recipes over at Recipes the Crock!
We are linking up to Weekend Potluck. Check out all the great recipes there!
Equipment
I highly recommend a meat chopper for all recipes using ground beef. You’ll find yourself using it all the time!
French Onion Joes
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 10.5 oz. condensed French onion soup
- 1/3 cup water
- 3 Tablespoons flour
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Brown ground beef in a skillet; drain excess grease.
- In a bowl, mix water and flour together until smooth.
- Add cooked ground beef, french onion soup, and water/flour mixture back to the skillet. Simmer over medium heat until thickened.
- Serve on buns. Optional toppings include Colby cheese, mustard or pickles.
Notes
- Using a can of condensed French Onion soup, these ground beef sandwiches can be on the table in less than 20 minutes.
- I love meals that are made with ground beef because they are kid-friendly and husband-friendly, and they typically go together easily. You can even brown up ground beef, drain, and freeze for even quicker meals.
- It’s no secret, our family is crazy for Sloppy Joes. We love Easy Sloppy Joes, Classic Sloppy Joes, and we use our leftovers for Sloppy Joe Cups. There’s something about these saucy sandwich that we go nuts over.
Do you dilute the soup to leave it condensed?
It will dilute a bit when you add it to the water/flour mixture so no extra water is needed except what is called for in the recipe!
No. I don’t mix flour and water either. Just sprinkle a couple tablespoons of flour over ground meat, stir, then add soup.
I have made theses for 50 years. They were a favorite childhood recipe from my mom. My children love them, and they are also making them. The only difference is that I was taught to put 2 rounded tablespoons (for every 1 1/2 lbs of meat) of flour right on the ground beef after it is drained. You sprinkle the flour on the meat. Then stir the meat until you see no more white flour. Then add the soup right from the can. Bring to a boil. Then simmer until thickened.
Very similar to how my mom made them many years ago, accept she used dry Lipton Onion Soup mix. Yum!!!
These French onion joes look so yummy. They are going in my menu for next week.
I wanted to share another sloppy joe recipe with you. I like this one because it hides veggies in the joes. I add about half the honey at first and after they are cooking down I taste then add more until I get the flavor I’m looking for. This is one of only 2 recipes that I like and prefer ground turkey in.
HONEY JOES
Source National Honey Foundation
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup – onions, chopped
1/4 cup – celery, chopped
1/4 cup – carrots, grated
2 T – vegetable oil
1 lb. – ground turkey or beef
1/2 cup – tomato paste
1/4 cup – honey
3 T – water
1 T – vinegar
2 tsp. – Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp. – chili powder
4 – hamburger buns
Salt and pepper, to taste
DIRECTIONS
In a large pan over medium heat, sauté onions, celery and carrots in oil until soft. Stir in turkey; cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until turkey is browned and crumbly. Stir in remaining ingredients, except seasonings and hamburger buns. Simmer, covered, 3 to 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Divide mixture evenly between hamburger buns to serve.
Thanks for sharing. Honey Joes sound amazing. We’ll have to try them!
I have some home canned ground beef in onion soup mix and was looking for new recipes for it. I am definitely going to try this. I imagine this would be about a 5 minute meal as all I’ll have to do is heat and thicken the broth.
Adding to the menu for next week, these sound AMAZING!
Yay! Hope you enjoy them!
Have not made. Looks delicious
They are!!
Holy cow, the same sloppy joes my mom made for us (I’m 65 years old) and I still make every now and then. Only difference is we sprinkle about a tablespoon of flour over the browned, drained beef, stir that around for a minute and then add the can of soup (no water, salt or pepper) and a can of condensed soup is 8 oz here in Canada so a bit less soup. Sometimes we like to add sliced carrot and eat it over mashed potatoes like a hamburger stew. Yum, delicious stuff!
We love that this reminds you of your childhood! It would be perfect over mashed potatoes.
I just made this for dinner. I like how fast it comes together. What a unique way to prepare sloppy joes. I worried it would be to salty but it wasn’t. No need to add any salt. I will make this again, maybe with ground poultry next time.
Thanks for the note! It’s a favorite in our house too!
Has anyone tried using ground turkey with this recipe? I’m trying to find a good recipe that won’t lose flavor when using turkey. Thank you!
We haven’t tried ground turkey yet either. Anyone else?
These were great, leftovers used over crispy fries topped with cheese, an Iowa version of poutine 😊 ! So good, both ways
Yum, that does sound like a great way to use up the leftovers…or just eat them all that way. Thanks for sharing!
What a great recipe for “Joes”. My husband calls them French Onion Jacques (what a comedian I married). I put them on onion buns with some provolone cheese and they are one of our favorites. Thank you for a recipe that is easy and uses ingredients that are easy to find and one doesn’t have to take out a loan just to buy the items to make them. I love all your recipes and look forward to trying more of them!
Love this, thanks for sharing!
my mom always made these but added ketchup as well, so good!
Ketchup would be a great addition…add a little sweetness! Thanks for sharing.
I made this tonight but doubled it and added frozen chopped onion, ground turkey and some Worcestershire sauce, a little pepper and skipped the water due to leftover water from the frozen onion, oh, and cornstarch instead of flour.
Delicious!! It’s a little looser than I like but I think I might serve over rice or noodles.