These Keto Sloppy Joes are made with ground venison that is cooked in a sweet and tangy homemade sloppy joe sauce. Similar to "Manwich" in flavor, this venison recipe is a keto-friendly open-faced sandwich that is delicious served these Keto Asiago Bagels!
When weeknights are hectic, this sloppy joe recipe is perfect to have made ahead of time. Although it doesn't take long to make, it is also an easy make ahead recipe that reheats well.
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❤️ Why I Love Sloppy Joes
We would eat deer meat often when I was growing up. As a child, I was not a fan of ground venison. My mom only seemed to make burgers with it, and as I remember, added nothing to it. It was just ground venison. Maybe, if she had made homemade venison sloppy joes, I may have liked it better!
Fast forward to adult life, venison stayed a large part of our diet, so I had to find ways to make it and enjoy it. I quickly found out that ground venison could be delicious if it had ground pork added to it.
I especially love ground venison in this recipe for Easy BBQ Cheddar Meatloaves and this Caprese Venison Burger. The addition of other ingredients really amps up the venison for me. Now, I look forward to meals with ground venison and this keto sloppy joe recipe is right at the top of my new favorites list!
Venison Recipes as part of a low carb/keto diet
Since being keto the last few years, I have found a way to work around lean meats and the ketogenic diet. The easiest way is to add fat with flavor to your meat. Venison is naturally lean, and when we have it processed, we always have pork added to the venison. It helps to keep the ground venison moist and it adds more flavor, which is good for those who think they don't like the flavor of venison.
Because we already had added pork fat to our ground venison when it was processed, I did not add extra fat to this recipe. If your venison does not have a pork blend, you can always add 2 tablespoons of butter to the skillet when cooking the venison.
Ingredients
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Ground venison
White onion, green bell pepper, and garlic cloves for flavor
Sugar-free ketchup, I love this brand and use it all the time.
Monkfruit Golden is similar to brown sugar and gives that deeper caramel like flavor.
Dijon mustard, Worcestershire Sauce, salt, and pepper also added for flavor.
Instructions
Step 1:
- In a large skillet, over medium heat, add onion and ground venison.
- Stirring occasionally, cook venison until it has browned.
Step 2:
- Add green pepper, garlic, and ½ cup water to skillet. Stir to combine, then saute with lid on skillet for 1-2 minutes.
- Add ketchup, mustard, monkfruit golden, worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Then add remaining water.
Step 3:
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cook about 5 minutes more, until sauce has thickened. Serve over keto asiago bagels.
Top Tips:
- Deglaze the pan with water and stir to scrape up any browned bits from cooking the venison and onions.
- Cover the skillet at first to trap steam and allow the meat to cook through. Then remove lid and simmer the meat until it is golden browned in spots.
Make Keto Sloppy Joes in a Slow Cooker
Crumble the ground venison and brown it in a skillet. Then add it to the slow cooker with the remaining ingredients. Cook on low for 6-8 hours
Variations
- If you want to add more fat to this recipe, use butter or olive oil to cook the venison, garlic, peppers, and onions.
- Use a sugar-free barbecue sauce in place of ketchup
- Add ½ tablespoon chili powder to spice the recipe up a little.
- Substitute ground beef or turkey for the venison or use half venison and half ground pork.
Serving Suggestions
We always serve our keto sloppy joes with a mayonnaise-based, sugar-free, homemade coleslaw recipe. We also prefer to eat them open-faced. They are just too messy to eat as a sandwich. We have even been known to leave out the bread, scoop out a serving of the sloppy joe meat, place in a bowl, and top with coleslaw!
These Keto Asiago Bagels or Keto Rye Bagels are also a great stand-in for the "bread" part of this venison sloppy joe recipe. The sauce will soak into the bagel some and you get the entire flavor combination!
Serve some garden fresh tomato slices, homemade garlic dill pickles or pickled green beans on the side. Or, a nice big salad with some Thousand Island Salad Dressing (sugar-free recipe) is great also!
More Venison Recipes
- Mongolian Meatballs with Spicy Sweet Glaze
- Thai Basil Venison {Low carb, Keto, Paleo friendly}
- Air Fryer Steak Bites with Venison Tenderloin
- Eggroll in a Bowl with Ground Venison
- Venison Fajitas
*If you made this recipe, please leave a star rating!*
📖 Recipe
Homemade Venison Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- 14 oz ground venison
- ¼ cup diced onion
- ½ cup diced green bell pepper
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1-½ cups water divided
- ½ cup sugar-free ketchup
- 2 tbsp Monkfruit Golden
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- ½ tsp Worcestershire Sauce
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
Instructions
- In a large skillet, over medium heat, add onion and ground venison.
- Stirring occasionally, cook venison until it has browned.
- Add green pepper, garlic, and ½ cup water to skillet. Stir to combine, then saute with lid on skillet for 1-2 minutes.
- Add ketchup, mustard, monkfruit golden, worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Then add remaining water.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cook about 5 minutes more, until sauce has thickened.
- Serve as desired.
The instructions for the Venison Sloppy Joes says to “Add green pepper”. Green peppers are not listed in the Ingredients. How much green pepper is used for this recipe?
Hi Nancy, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I added the amount to the recipe card.
THIS RECIPE IS DELICIOUS!!! JUST TRY IT!!
I've made this so many times, it's a strong favorite in my home. I'm done it with ketchup and with bbq sauce, I like both but I think ketchup is a bit better, less sweet. I also have made a few tweaks since the first time I've made this. I only add about half the suggested water amount, I prefer my sloppy joes to be thicker and less runny. I also never add sugar, I don't have access to sugar-free ketchup where I live so I use what I have and eliminate that ingredient. Otherwise, I highly recommend this recipe! It's SO good!
Hi Ashley, thank you so much for rating the recipe and I am so happy you enjoyed it! Shelby
Tried the sloppy Joe's today - really good! This was the first recipe we used this year's venison. It's a keeper!
Hi Debi! That's great, happy you enjoyed the recipe! Shelby
Definitely 5 stars, this is so good! Only change was omitting green pepper because my guy can't eat them. Can't wait to make it again & I love them with the slaw.
My second post, because I didn't see the star rating at girst!
Hi Debi, thank you for coming back to rate the recipe! Shelby
Well I'm not sure if I can get my hands on venison but I do have bison! I'll give these a go with that. It's been years since we've had sloppy joes.
Hi Bernice, ground beef works great too! Hope you enjoy the recipe! Shelby
I really like venison and cook it whenever I can find it but mostly in a stew or in a pasta sauce and not ground meat. Love the idea of these sloppy joes. Definitely on my to-try list!
This recipe is definitely a keeper! Great flavor, easy to make, and kid-friendly too!
These sloppy joes take me back to my childhood! SO good and love how it's keto-friendly! Perfect dinner 🙂 thanks!
Can you believe that I have never tried sloppy joes before?? This needs to change! Making this ASAP, thank you so much for the recipe 🙂
We've made this recipe 3 times in the past two weeks! It's so easy and honestly great not only on a burger, but sometimes we scoop it over rice or over some pasta! That's how great this is!
This is such a great idea! I'll have to try this as soon as I find venison around here. I haven't had sloppy joes since I was a kid!
My kid has never had sloppy joes. Perhaps it's time to change that! Your recipe looks so easy and full of flavor.
Mmmm.. I'm glad to find a way to enjoy one of my favorite childhood recipes while on a keto diet. These sloppy joes were full of flavor and so quick to make. The kids enjoyed it too!
Hi Anaiah, thanks you, happy the kids enjoyed it as well! Shelby