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Greek Sloppy Joes

Time to take your taste buds to Greece with these Greek Sloppy Joes made with ground lamb, peperoncini, feta cheese, and a homemade tzatziki (cucumber yogurt) sauce.


Greek Sloppy Joes made with American ground lamb


As often as I cook with beef and chicken at home, I must admit lamb is my favorite meat. At first I only ate it for Easter where I would make a lamb chop while everyone else ate ham. I don’t even know how that tradition started other than I probably whined about how I didn’t want ham. When I started making a decent paycheck a few years ago, I bought ground lamb on occasion. Then earlier this year, I got a Middle Eastern cookbook that featured lamb. A lot. I’ve been so smitten over this book that I’ve been adding lamb more and more to my menu planning. In fact, I’d take ground lamb over beef any day. Then I started thinking about my friends and family who have not (or very rarely) cooked with lamb. Why isn’t lamb more popular? The American Lamb Board had that same question and asked me to develop a recipe that would encourage you to have lamb for dinner tonight (or at least pick up some lamb the next time you buy groceries). Cooking with ground lamb is the best place to start; if you can cook ground beef, you can cook ground lamb. See? You’re off to a great start already! Lamb also naturally lends itself so well to global flavors, which is why I went Greek with these Greek Sloppy Joes served with a tzatziki (cucumber yogurt) sauce and homemade pita chips. You know sloppy joes. You know Greek food. Now you can have both in one sandwich.


Greek Sloppy Joes made with ground lamb, peperoncini, feta cheese, and cucumber yogurt sauce

What makes these sloppy joes Greek? When I think of Greek food, I immediately think of gyros, which is almost always lamb. I started with my traditional sloppy joe recipe and subbed ground lamb for the beef. Then I added red onion, a good bit of dried oregano, chopped peperoncini, feta cheese, and of course topped it all off with a homemade tzatziki sauce (don’t worry – I can’t pronounce it either). I loved the temperature contrast of the hot lamb mixture with the cold sauce. If you’re a little wary about using peperoncini (which is milder than a jalapeno), you can certainly substitute green bell pepper.


American Ground Lamb For Greek Sloppy Joes

Let’s talk about the star of the dish – the lamb. American Lamb sent me ground lamb, which is known for its quality, flavor, and tenderness. With more than 82,000 family-owned sheep operations in almost every state, American Lamb is local and available year round. No more waiting for Easter! The lamb is also grass-fed as I know some of you take that into consideration when buying meat. Also, this company has a great sense of humor. I mean, look at those stickers! And a book titled “Curriculamb.” Gotta love companies who are punny.


Greek Sloppy Joes made with American ground lamb and topped with homemade tzatziki sauce

I served my Greek Sloppy Joes with homemade pita chips. Funny story about those – I went to the store to pick up a bag. Except it was $4 for a small bag! Right below the chips was fresh pita bread for $2. Knowing how quick and easy it was to bake my own (see my recipe here), I just saved $2 and probably got twice as many pita chips than the bag.

Tell me – will you be cooking with lamb more often? What will you make first?

Greek Sloppy Joes

Yield: 6
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

Sloppy Joes

  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup chopped red onion
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 12 ounces ground lamb, thawed
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup chopped peperoncini (can sub green bell pepper)
  • 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup tomato sauce
  • 1/4 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 6 hamburger buns

Tzatziki Sauce

  • 3/4 cup full fat Greek yogurt (roughly one 5.3 ounce cup)
  • 1/2 cup chopped cucumber, peeled and seeded
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon dried dill
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

For the sloppy joes

  2. In a large skillet over medium heat, add the oil. When hot, add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
  3. Add the lamb, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Add the oregano, salt, and peperoncini. Cook until the lamb just has a little bit of pink left (do not completely cook through). Drain the grease.
  4. Stir in brown sugar, tomato sauce, and ketchup. Simmer until the sauce thickens, roughly 8-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the feta cheese. Serve on hamburger buns with tzatziki sauce spooned on top.

For the tzatziki sauce

  2. In a medium bowl, mix together the yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, dill, and garlic powder. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
© Carla Cardello (www.chocolatemoosey.com)

 

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Disclosure: I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls. As always, thank you for reading and supporting brands I work with, which allows me to bring you more recipes. All opinions, text, and photographs are my own.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Yet another thing we have in common. Lamb is my favorite meat. I LOVE lamb and would order a lamb chop over steak any day. The reason more people in this country don't eat lamb (I think ) is because it has a reputation from our Grandparents that it is "strong" and "gamey". Also because most of it was imported lamb was and still is VERY expensive. We have a large Greek Town section here in Chicago and I ALWAYS order lamb when we go there. They REALLY know what to do with lamb.
    Reply

  3. P.S. When making Tzatziki you should use full fat Greek yogurt and let it drain in a colander for about 1/2 hour. Also squeeze liquid out of cucumbers. Otherwise the sauce gets too liquidy.
    Reply

    • Cooking with lamb is easy! I usually tell people if you can cook beef, chances are pretty super high that you can cook lamb. In the case of ground lamb, I cooked it just like I would ground beef. Hope that inspires you to try it!
      Reply

  6. I have never eaten a sloppy joe before.. think it's definitely a much loved American food that is hard to find here in Australia. You definitely have inspired me to make a regular sloppy joe AND these greek versions to find out what all the fuss is about!
    Reply

    • I will say that homemade sloppy joes are quite amazing (assuming you love tomato-based beef/lamb recipes lol) I grew up with canned sloppy joe sauce and wasn't crazy about sloppy joes until I started making mine from scratch. Hope you give them a try!
      Reply

  7. I'm not a fan of lamb, partly because I can get sore throat easily right after eating lamb so I try to avoid eating lamb, but you totally convince me to try this recipe. The addition of Greek Yogurt totally makes this a fun refreshing meal. Can't wait to grab a bite, I mean a big bite!
    Reply

    • Hmm interesting you get a sore throat after eating lamb! Wonder if it's the lamb itself or something in the recipe (tomatoes, mint, whatever it's paired with). I hope you do give this recipe a try and hope you don't have any allergies!
      Reply

  11. I love lamb but since it's not super popular I can usually pick up some manager specials that are about to expire at the super market. I just take it home and either freeze it or cook it up right away. My family loves it. I grew up eating lamb chops, but lamb sloppy joes? Wow! I'll have to try this!!
    Reply

  14. Too funny - Greek Sloppy Joes have been on my "recipes to create" list for ages. I'm kind of glad you beat me to it, because this recipe is fantastic. I love ground lamb, and every time I buy it and make something with it at home, I always wonder why I don't do it more often.
    Reply

  16. Made this tonight using a 1.25# package of ground turkey, as we're not huge fans of lamb. We used an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce, which ended up being a hefty 3/4 c. (weight vs. volume) and maybe 1/3 c. of ketchup. We served it in whole wheat pita. It was delicious and will absolutely be made again. Thanks for sharing such a great re-do of an old classic!
    Reply

    • Glad you were able to customize to your liking! That's the nice thing about sloppy joes - you can play around until you get what your taste buds love.
      Reply

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