I quit eating lunch meat when I learned about nitrates, but when I learned how to cook paper-thin slices of turkey at home, homemade lunch meat was on!
Turkey on whole wheat. No cheese, a little bit of lettuce, lots of pickles, lots of olives, just a few jalapenos. Mayonnaise and mustard.
Back in my college days, that was the sandwich I ordered every time I went to Subway and I loved every bite.
Until I learned about nitrates. I immediately broke up with all lunch meat and never looked back. That is until my kids starting going to a peanut-free school.
Not being able to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made me feel incapable of making lunches altogether. Like someone was holding my hands behind my back and told me to make lunch with my feet.
I know it sounds strange, and it sounds strange to type it out.
OF COURSE, there are other things kids can take to school besides a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
I know this first hand because 4 of the 5 days of the week they’re NOT taking a sandwich. They love homemade Lunchables, Italian meatballs, or chocolate chip hummus in their lunches.
But it was a mental block. Not being able to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made making lunch those other 4 days seem practically impossible.
With PBJ out of the question, I went back to my favorite lunch meat again – turkey. I’m still not okay with buying lunch meat.
Now, I know some stores now carry nitrate-free lunch meat, but the last time I saw a 10.5 oz package of sliced turkey it was priced at $8.
I don’t know about you, but my budget can absolutely NOT afford paying $12 per pound for sliced turkey every week! I knew there had to be a better way.
My first attempt was to buy a whole turkey. I bought the smallest one I could for just over $1/lb, roasted it in the oven the same way I roast whole chickens, cut off the wings, legs and set the breasts aside to slice thin for sandwiches.
Although this sounds good in theory, it didn’t work how I had hoped.
There are tendons in the dark meat that made it tough to get even slices for the kids’ sandwiches. Even if I did get a decent slice, the kids kept finding even more tendons in their sandwiches. (The Girl kept spitting them out, saying there were “bones” no matter how careful I was when I cut the turkey).
The breasts were easy to slice through, but the natural grain of the meat made a single slice fall apart into smaller pieces. The kids would have to re-assemble their sandwiches at school because the meat would fall out from between the bread.
Using a whole turkey would have been fine if my goal was to make turkey salads, to dice turkey for dipping or salads or even eating the pieces whole. But using a whole turkey to make lunch meat simply didn’t work.
Homemade Lunch Meat
Next, I tried a whole turkey breast. They come in a single package, ready to roast all by themselves. There are no bone to deal with and thanks to salt, the slices won’t fall apart when you cut them.
I seasoned the outside with homemade seasoned salt and roasted it in the oven according to the package directions.
The resulting turkey breast was so moist and so flavorful, I knew the kids would love it in their lunches!
Except that the slices were too thick!
My goal in making homemade lunch meat was to re-create the floppy thin slices that lunch meat is known for. Fresh out of the oven, the turkey slices weren’t thin at all. They more resembled the slices you get when you carve the Thanksgiving bird – and you and I know that this wouldn’t pass as “lunch meat” for the kids.
So I threw a hail Mary pass, stuck the breast in the fridge and tried to slice it thin again after it had been thoroughly chilled.
And it worked!
With a completely chilled turkey breast and a very sharp serrated knife, I was able to cut slices as thin as you’d expect to find in any lunch meat package. They folded, flopped and made absolutely delicious turkey sandwiches – without nitrates or preservatives!
Additional Recipe Notes
I recommend slicing up the whole turkey breast at the same time. You might as well if you’ve already got the tools out! Use a kitchen scale to weigh the slices into 8 oz portions. Place each portion into a freezer-safe container and pull out one portion each week. This is how we made one turkey breast last a whole month.
Cost Breakdown
The turkey breast I bought was 48 oz (or 3 lbs) and I got it for $8. Making my own lunch meat is the equivalent of paying $1.33 for an 8 oz package of processed lunch meat.
Compared to the store-bought all-natural variety, I’m saving 78% by making my own homemade lunch meat!
Watch How to Make Homemade Lunch Meat
DIY Homemade Lunch Meat
I quit eating lunch meat when I learned about nitrates, but when I learned how to cook paper-thin slices of turkey at home, homemade lunch meat was on!
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 90 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 mins
- Yield: 3 lbs 1x
- Category: Main Meals
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 whole turkey breast (approx 48 oz)
- 2 tsp homemade seasoned salt
- 2 tsp olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Rinse the turkey breast and pat dry. If yours comes with a twine casing, leave that on.
- Rub the homemade seasoned salt – or other seasoning of choice – all over the turkey breast, massaging it in as you cover the meat.
- Place the turkey breast in an 8×8 glass pan and drizzle with 1 tsp olive oil. Turn it over and drizzle with the remaining olive oil.
- Roast in the oven for 90 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 165-170F.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Cut off the twine, if necessary, and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, use a very sharp serrated knife (I have this one) to cut very thin slices of turkey breast, aiming for a slice that’s as wide as the knife blade.
- Store in the fridge, freezing any portions that won’t get eaten within a week.
Do you think this would work with chicken breast as well? I like turkey, but sometimes I have difficulty finding it in the store.
Hi Tori,
I definitely think this would work great with chicken. Just slice it the way you would for turkey meat. Let us know how it goes!!
Wish I could give this higher than 5 star. Everyone in my family and even my fiancé’s coworkers love this so much. You HAVE to use her home made season salt with it. It’s AMAZING. It never ends up being deli turkey because we eat it up so fast. Lol it’s phenomenal!
★★★★★
Thanks for sharing, Michaela. Glad you liked it!
It really looks delicious!!! I love turkey deli meat and I wanna make it at home but what temperature do you preheat your oven to when you roast your turkey?
We recommend roasting turkey at 350 degrees F for 13 minutes per pound.
It has never occurred to me to make my own lunch meat! I take a sandwich to work most days because it’s much cheaper than going to Subway. I definitely need to try this recipe!
Would this recipe work with fish too? Something like salmon?
Unfortunately no, because of the texture of fish. It’s flaky, and doesn’t stay in slices. You can still add fish to a sandwich though!
Do you have the nutrician for this?
Hi Dave – you’re welcome to input this recipe into an online nutrition calculator.
I was wondering if I could bother you for more about the turkey. The only boneless turkey breast I am seeing in my rural neck of the woods is turkey breast tenderloin. Was yours a tenderloin? I’m guessing not since you didn’t say so. Do you think a tenderloin would work, or do you think it would be too soft to slice into lunch meat?
I’m not sure if it was a tenderloin or not Courtney, but if it’s super cold, and on the verge of partially frozen, you can definitely cut it!
Okay, thanks for getting back to me! I will have to give it a try! Thankfully the bottom back of my fridge is super cold and sometimes things get a wee bit frozen there. I am nervous! I want so much for this to work!
Thanks for the recipe! Will be trying this soon. My family loves OM cracked pepper deli meat.
★★★★★
HI!
One thing you mentioned was “thanks to the salt,” if we were to cut back on the salt do you think that the turkey wouldn’t hold together? Need to figure out low sodium lunch meat… it seems like a mystical thing. LOL!
I love this idea! I have a few questions about the frozen slices… Do they hold up once thawed, or do they fall apart? How long do they stay “fresh” once thawed? Do you heat them up at all before serving, or eat them straight out of the thawed package? Finally, my oldest is SO picky! Does the meat taste different after being thawed? Sorry for so many questions, but I appreciate any answers. Thanks!
Hi Kim! The slices hold up well enough for a sandwich for sure. They’re good for 4-5 days maybe? Just as long as any typical sandwich meat would be once opened. I usually don’t heat them up, and we didn’t notice any difference in taste at all, other than it tastes more like and less like a “meat-like substance” LOL.
Question: You say the turkey breast is came ready to roast. Is the one you bought pre-brined? The breast I just bought is fresh from the butcher shop and am debating whether the 2tsp salt rubbed on the outside just before cooking is enough. Thanks!
Hi Greg,
You can get pre-brined or not. It’s up to you on the taste. Remember, you can always add more salt when you serve it but it’s hard to take salt out of a recipe. Best of luck!
Sorry to sound cruel but dictating what 98% of what children eat because 2% of them will have an allergic reaction also qualifies as discrimination. It works both ways. Mama Bear doesn’t always get to make the decisions for everyone else.
I’m one of those girlies who absolutely loooooooooooooves lunchmeat! Every week, since October of 2015, I’ve been alternating between lunchmeats when I go to the store. At Safeway, I buy their barbecued pork slices, and at Albertson’s, it’s usually a tossup between lunchmeats. Sometimes I buy London broil, sometimes ham off the bone, sometimes I even buy Healthy Ones chicken. What’s even more amazing is if there’s a lunchmeat I haven’t tried yet, the deli counter workers let me have a sample before I buy, this way I’ll know whether or not I would like whatever meat I want to try. I used to buy Land O’ Frost Lean And Cured Oven-Roasted Turkey Breast, thin sliced. However, whenever I opened the package, it always smelled like someone went poopy in there! Eeeeeewwww that smells rotten! Maybe it was a bunch of yucky preservatives. This alternating of lunchmeats began when I gained about 20 pounds after eating Genoa salami for two months straight! I wonder if there’s a way to make a lunchmeat that has the same taste as Genoa salami, but isn’t so fattening. I’d certainly like to try making lunchmeat one day, but I’m not sure where to start, as there are so many different varieties of meat to choose from. Would a chef’s knife work for achieving this goal?
If you could, I’d appreciate if you’d post a link to the exact boneless turkey breast item you use. I want to see a picture of it so I get the right thing. =)
Would the result be the same if I cooked it in the Crock-Pot instead? I just love how juicy and tender meat is out of the Crock-Pot…what are your thoughts? I was thinking 3 hours on high possibly? Thanks so much for this recipe!
★★★★★
I’m not sure Danielle, but in my experience, meat in the crock pot tends to come out fall apart tender… which is great, but not when you need it to be solid enough to slice. You can always test it out though!
Is this recipe for just one turkey breast? I just bought a “Whole raw turkey breast” which is basically the body of the turkey with neck, legs, wings, & innards removed (ick, sorry). Should I double the amounts of seasoning salt and olive oil? Cook longer?
I think I bought what you bought, so I’d go with what’s written. Enjoy!
You said you’re making homemade lunch meat to get rid of the nitrates. What about the bread you are using?
We got a bread machine and started making homemade bread. It tastes so good! Now it doesn’t last as long as store bought, but I prefer it to the other. PLUS you know what’s inside it.
We make our own bread. 🙂
I love turkey lunch meat! We raise ours here on the farm. Usually get about 15 lbs of breast meat off a large Tom. I cut the breasts out whole and soak in the fridge in a salt, pepper corn, and garlic brine overnight and then bake. Let it cool and chill it overnight, put it in the freezer for a couple hours and slice it with the slicer. I get thin, yummy slices that make perfect sandwiches! Yeah the bread, pickles, mayo, and cheese are all homemade too lol
Do you cook this covered or uncovered?
I’d cook it covered Alana.
Thanks for this I’m going to try it, but wondering if you’ve ever brined the turkey breast overnight before roasting? I’ve bribed a whole turkey for Christmas and other occasions and it was great. Just a thought for anyone to try!
I haven’t Natalie, but that’s a great idea!
You do know nitrates are in all green veggies right? Uncured doesn’t mean nitrate free…they use celery instead.
I do, and that’s why you have to read the ingredients on everything. “uncured” doesn’t necessarily mean nitrate-free as you mentioned. One work-around is using large amounts of celery juice instead. However, you can find uncured meat that does NOT use celery juice either.