Name: Loose Meat Sandwiches
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 3 pounds LEAN ground beef; 2 tablespoons cider vinegar; 2 tablespoons brown sugar; 2 tablespoons worcestershire; 2 tablespoons soy sauce; 1 whole onion (finely chopped); 1 +1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt; 1/2 teaspoon pepper; 2 teaspoons garlic powder; 3 to 4 cups water; 2 beef bouillon cubes; 2 chicken boullion cubes

Jump to Recipe

These Loose Meat Sandwiches are the ones I talked about at the end of my video yesterday.

This is one of those recipes you just have to try. Martha Staton emailed me when I shared a special email address with my subscribers and asked if I had the recipe to Maid-Rite or Alley Canteen burgers like she grew up on in Iowa. But wouldn’t you know, I have never stepped foot in Iowa and had no idea what she was talking about. The way she carried on about how good they were got me to doing some research right quick like, though! I found the basic jist of the recipe and then decided what cooking method would be the best way to duplicate it, then added a little of my own seasonings and here you go… Some Loose Meat Sandwiches.

Delicious Flavor

These ingredients just blend and meld to create a brand new flavor all their own. The one thing I would say is that they taste absolutely nothing like a sloppy joe. The closest thing I could compare them to would be something in the family of a Krystal hamburger, but they taste even better than that. It’s more like the Krystal’s older, beautiful sister who won all of the pageants and homecoming queen while Krystal sat home without even a date to the dance.

Recipe Ingredients:

Garlic Powder
Brown Sugar
Onion
Worcestershire Sauce
Soy Sauce
LEAN Ground beef
Cider Vinegar
Seasoned Salt
Black Pepper
2 chicken and 2 beef bouillon cubes* or a cup of chicken broth and beef broth instead (even though only one of each is pictured)

Start With Lean Beef

It is very important to start with a lean beef so you don’t have a lot of meat grease when cooking. All beef prices are sheer madness nowadays so there isn’t much of a difference in buying ground chuck or lean ground beef. Just don’t use regular ground beef because there will be far too much grease and you will regret it when you go to serve up these puppies.

A Word About Bouillion Cubes

I have gotten away from using Bouillion cubes to keep salt levels low and substituted with Beef and Chicken Broth. I find these give the meat even more flavor. But use whatever you feel comfortable with.

And you need some of these because they are the absolute perfect vessel for our loose meat sandwiches.

It is very important that you use Hawaiian sweet rolls for this. If you use a regular hamburger bun, it’s going to fall to pieces and be a big old mess, plus it won’t have that flavor in the bun that these rolls have.

Jyl’s stubborn daughter (waves and smiles to Erin) didn’t believe me and insisted on trying it on a bun. After that, she had one on a Hawaiian roll like I told her to in the first place and admitted that it was an entirely different experience.

How To Make Loose Meat Sandwiches Step by Step

Chop up your onions kindly fine.

I know, my onions are not chopped fine but this is about as far as I get before my brain is ready to move onto the next step.

Finely chopped is a relative phrase.

Add onions and beef to a large skillet. Pour in water or if you are using the chicken and beef broth, pour that in here now.

Now start mooshing up the ground beef with the water. You’ll notice that with the added water the ground beef gets really, really fine. That is what we want. This is how we make hot dog chili and it is perfect for this meat as well. You’re going to end up with very fine granules of tender beef and the water cooks out.

You want to put that over medium high heat and cook it until the meat is done and there is no more pinkness.

It will get done pretty quick in this case because all of that water is cooking it at the same time the heat is.

Now add everything else.

Return this to the stovetop and stir it really, really well. Cook over medium to medium high heat, stirring often, until the liquid cooks down as pictured below. This part may will take anywhere from ten to twenty minutes. Just find something to read and hang out around the stove.

Or even better, let your kids do this part while you go put your feet up.

This is our finished loose meat, all ready for sandwiches.

Using a spoon, strain out some of the meat and press it into a pile on top of the center of a cut Hawaiian Sweet Roll.

What Are Some Good Toppings for Loose Meat Sandwiches?

They are absolutely sublime when topped with mustard.

One of my daughters friend had one and insisted on hot sauce and said the same thing about hot sauce.

My son claims they are crowned best with ketchup.

My husband insists that purity is best and has them as they are, nothing added, just on the roll.

Either way, this is one of those recipes your family is going to remember and talk about for generations to come.

“My Grandma/Mama/Dad/Uncle/Sister/Neighbor/Pastor’s Wife made the best loose meat sandwiches and *I* have his/her recipe…”