15 Uses For Leftover Deli Meat That Don't Involve Making A Sandwich
Sandwiches always taste better when they're made with freshly-sliced deli meat. However, there is a limit to how many ham, turkey, or roast beef sandwiches you can eat. If you overestimated how much meat you would need to make sandwiches for yourself or others on your last grocery run, you may not be feeling that excited about the amount of deli meat that is still in the fridge.
Fortunately, there are other ways to keep your recent deli meat haul from going to waste. You can actually incorporate deli meats into a wide variety of recipes. Not only will these different uses for deli meat help you use up the leftovers and prevent food waste, but you will also find that these recipes taste pretty incredible. Read on to discover several things that you can do with extra meat from the deli. You may find yourself turning to these hacks again and again.
1. Top a homemade pizza
One of the best ways to use up that leftover deli meat is to use it as a topping for a homemade pizza. If you have some leftover ham, you could pair it with pineapple chunks to make a Hawaiian pizza. Just tear the ham slices into small pieces before scattering them over the top of the pizza. As the pizza bakes in the oven, the ham will get warm and crispy, offering the perfect complement to the sweet pineapple.
If you're not a fan of Hawaiian pizza — or have a different type of meat left over — don't let that stop you. Nearly any kind of deli meat can be used to top a pizza. If you give it some creative thought, you might think of other ingredients to add to enhance the flavor. You could even try variations of a traditional marinara sauce and cheese pizza. For example, if you have leftover deli chicken slices, replace the marinara sauce with barbecue sauce. Add the chicken, some black beans, tomatoes, and cheddar cheese, and you'll have a scrumptious barbecue pizza to enjoy.
2. Cook your eggs in it
Those slices of lunch meat in your freezer could instantly be transformed into a "crust" for egg cups. Intrigued? Start by lining each cup in a muffin pan with one or two slices of the meat. Then, whip up some eggs (or egg whites if you prefer) and a little milk in a bowl. Pour the egg mixture into each muffin cup, directly over the lunch meat. Add your favorite accompaniments to each cup — feel free to add cheese, bacon, sausage, spinach, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, or onions. Bake it in the oven until the eggs are cooked, then dig in.
This could even be an excellent recipe to make ahead of time and pop in the microwave or air fryer on a busy morning. If you're hosting a breakfast or brunch, try this recipe idea in a mini muffin pan with just one slice of lunch meat. You'll have cute little egg cups to serve as an appetizer, or along with the meal.
3. Make a salad
If you don't want to make a sandwich for lunch, consider using the deli meat to make a salad. Adding protein to a garden or Caesar salad will help make it filling, and the flavor of the meat will offer a nice complement to the lettuce, croutons, and vegetables that are also present. As you're planning out the rest of the ingredients you'll add to your salad, think about the type of lunch meat you're using. You should also consider which ingredients and flavors will taste best together.
For example, if you have leftover roast beef, you might add sliced red onions or tomatoes to complement its flavor. If you have some salami deli meat you want to use up, add some peppers and olives and drizzle it with a nice Italian vinaigrette dressing. Once you've made your salad, you could also consider serving it on a wrap, instead of out of the salad bowl, if you prefer.
4. Add it to an omelet
Adding deli meat to an omelet is another one way to keep it from going to waste. Even better, the meat will enhance the flavor of your omelet, making it more enjoyable to eat. Ham is often included in many omelets you can find at restaurants, but it isn't the only type of deli meat you could add to your omelet. Turkey, chicken, or even roast beef could also make a nice addition to a breakfast omelet, helping to make it more filling and satisfying.
The trick to adding deli meat to an omelet is to make sure you break the meat up into smaller chunks. If you simply put the whole slice of meat in the omelet, it is going to clump together. Parts of the omelets will end up with too much meat, while other parts won't have enough. When you tear the meat up, the pieces will be more evenly distributed throughout each bite.
5. Put it in macaroni and cheese
You can also try adding deli meat to your macaroni and cheese to give it some extra protein and flavor. Adding lunch meat to mac and cheese will change the texture of each bite, giving you a little something to chew on. Each type of lunch meat will change the overall flavor profile of the mac and cheese, so think about your personal taste preferences to decide what you would like with this recipe idea. If you're using boxed macaroni and cheese, break up the meat and stir it in after the cheese is mixed in, but while the macaroni is still hot.
Lunch meat could also help you elevate an oven-baked macaroni and cheese recipe. In addition to mixing some ham, chicken, or beef pieces in with the macaroni and cheese, you can also reserve a few slices to use as a topping. Right before putting the macaroni and cheese in the oven to bake, break up the lunch meat and scatter it over the top of the pan. As the mac and cheese cooks, the meat will crisp up, adding a nice crunch.
6. Make meaty mashed potatoes
Deli meat can also help you take your mashed potatoes to the next level. What's better than creamy and buttery mashed potatoes? Cheesy, buttery, and meaty mashed potatoes, of course. Deli ham, chicken, or turkey can really up the flavor of this dish while giving it a unique texture. The meat can be an especially welcome addition if you'll also serve the potatoes with gravy.
If you're not sold on the idea of adding deli meat to your mashed potatoes, what about the opposite? Try adding mashed potatoes to your deli meat. Make mini roll-ups with a few slices of deli meat and deli cheese topped with mashed potatoes. Depending on how many roll-ups you have, they could be a snack, an appetizer, or even your main course. If you have a few different types of lunch meat left over, try this out with each type. You'll notice that the taste of the mashed potatoes changes, depending on which type of lunch meat is used.
7. Wrap it around vegetables
If you have some extra ham or prosciutto lunch meat, you can put it to good use by making a delicious side dish or appetizer. Try wrapping a slice of the lunch meat around a vegetable. Asparagus, green beans, or even pepper wedges can work very well for this idea. The type of vegetable you choose can help you decide whether to serve the dish hot or cold.
For example, if you're wrapping red, green, or yellow pepper wedges with lunch meat, serving them cold as an appetizer is probably the best choice. Roll each wedge up with a slice of lunch meat, and use a toothpick to keep the meat sealed up and make serving easier. You can add a layer of spreadable cheese between the ham slices and peppers if desired.
For vegetables such as asparagus or green beans, you'll want to heat everything before serving. Wrap each vegetable with one slice of lunch meat, place a toothpick through it, and bake for about 15 minutes (rotating about halfway through the cooking process). You want the lunch meat to start to brown and the vegetables to get tender.
8. Toss it with pasta and sauce
Macaroni and cheese isn't the only pasta dish that can be elevated by adding some delicious deli meat. You could try mixing ham or roast beef with a jar of marinara sauce to make a meaty spaghetti recipe. Break up the deli meat into pieces. Then, heat them with the jar of sauce (or add them to your favorite spaghetti recipe) on the stovetop. Once your pasta is cooked and drained, combine all of the ingredients together, serve, and enjoy.
If you have leftover chicken deli meat, consider combining it with some Alfredo sauce and fettuccine noodles. In no time, you can make your own creamy and delicious chicken Alfredo. While it may feel like you're eating a gourmet meal, minimal effort is required to prepare it. You can make your chicken Alfredo taste even better by shredding some fresh parmesan cheese over it.
9. Make meat and cheese crescent roll ups
Some leftover deli meat and cheese slices can help you upgrade a standard package of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. As a bonus, this recipe idea is quick and easy to make. It yields warm and delicious results. Open the package of refrigerated crescent rolls and unroll them on your baking sheet. Rather than rolling them up right away — as the directions state — place a slice of ham and cheese on top of each triangle.
Once topped with the ham and cheese, you can roll up the crescent rolls and bake them according to the package directions. You'll need to add a few minutes to the recommended cooking time on the package. Once cooked, the resulting roll-ups will be tasty, thanks to the melted cheese and cooked lunch meat. Enjoy these upgraded crescent rolls as a snack, appetizer, or side (they work great with a soup or salad).
10. Make some soup
Several types of lunch meat can also help you take a favorite soup recipe to the next level. Adding some protein will help make the soup more filling. Plus, the flavor of the deli meat can even make the soup more layered. Several types of soup can benefit from adding ham, chicken, turkey, roast beef, or other types of deli meat.
For example, adding cut-up deli meat can enhance the flavor of pea soup or lentil soup. Ham or turkey pieces could make a nice addition to a bowl of creamier soup, such as potato or cheddar broccoli as well. If you don't like making a more involved soup recipe, you could whip up a quick canned chicken noodle soup, and then add some lunch meat. You could even bring some chicken broth — or bullion cubes mixed with water — to a boil. Cook some egg noodles or ramen noodles in the boiling broth, then add the chopped-up lunch meat right before serving. Voilà! A quick and easy lunch or dinner is ready to eat.
11. Put it in a quiche
Yet another way that you can use up leftover meats for a breakfast or brunch item is by adding it to a quiche. Several types of deli meat will pair beautifully with various quiche recipes. Many recipes you find may even specifically call for ham or chicken pieces. There's no reason that you can't chop up your extra deli meat for this.
To help you realize just how many ways you can use deli meat to make a quiche taste better, here are a few ideas to get you started. Add ham, cheese, spinach, and onions to your favorite quiche base to make a delicious ham and cheese quiche. Combine turkey with Swiss cheese for a creamy quiche. Make a roast beef quiche by adding deli roast beef, green peppers, steak sauce, and cheddar cheese to your favorite recipe of this kind. There are so many other possible combinations.
12. Upgrade your grilled cheese
This idea is technically a sandwich. However, it's not the traditional cold-cut sandwich that likely comes to mind when you think about deli meat. Several types of lunch meat can help you upgrade your grilled cheese — making it more of a gourmet meal than simply a quick lunch or dinner. Consider using different types of cheese, depending on the kind of lunch meat you want to use up. For example, turkey and Swiss pair very nicely together.
If you have some roast beef leftover, Gouda, Asiago, or Fontina cheese are excellent options to go with that. Ham and cheddar are always a safe bet, but you could also use American or Muenster. To use up extra chicken deli meat, try mozzarella or Monterey Jack. Once you've decided on the type of cheese you want to use, and have all of the ingredients ready to go, give the lunch meat a quick sear in the pan before adding the bread and butter. This will help make it a bit crispy and thus more enjoyable, when added to your sandwich.
13. Make fried rice
Did you know that lunch meat can also make the perfect addition to a homemade fried rice recipe? Well, it most certainly can. Add your favorite type of lunch meat to the cooked fried rice for a few minutes before removing it from the pan. This will give the dish enough time to warm up without letting it get too dry.
Fried rice can be a good recipe choice if you have several types of lunch meat that you're trying to use up. If you think about the menu at a Chinese restaurant, there is almost always a combination fried rice, a menu item that involves many different foods or meats. You can experiment with different combinations of ham, turkey, chicken, roast beef, salami, or even bologna when making your own fried rice recipe at home. We think you'll find that nearly every combination tastes pretty fabulous.
14. Try a lunch meat shepherd's pie
Traditional shepherd's pie features ground meat and vegetables topped with creamy mashed potatoes. After being prepared, the whole dish is baked in the oven, making the top of the mashed potatoes nice and crispy. Ground meat may be the traditional protein for this dish, but it isn't the only thing you can use when making shepherd's pie.
If you have extra cold cuts to use up, why not try making a lunch meat shepherd's pie? Chop up the sliced meat and set it aside. Then, cook some onions in a skillet. Once cooked, add in the lunch meat and some seasoning, such as garlic powder, rosemary, or thyme. Make a sauce for the meat with Worcestershire sauce, beef broth (or chicken broth), and tomato paste. Stir in a bag of your favorite frozen vegetables, and add the mixture to the bottom of a casserole dish. Top the whole thing with homemade mashed potatoes and cheese and then bake for about 25 minutes.
15. Warm it up and serve it as a breakfast meat
We typically think of deli meat as a lunch food. In fact, it's often referred to as lunch meat. However, you can really enjoy deli meat with any meal. One way to use it when making breakfast is simply to warm up the meat and serve it alongside your breakfast in place of bacon or sausage. You sometimes see ham steaks listed as a breakfast meat option at restaurants. This would be similar, but the piece of meat will just be thinner than a ham steak.
The best way to warm up a few slices of deli meat is in a hot skillet. Because the meat is so thin, it will only take a few seconds on each side until it is hot and ready to eat. Avoid warming up your deli meat in the microwave. This makes it easy to add too much time, which could end up drying the meat out or making it too tough.