I saw that some online creators were making their own lunch meat using a contraption called a “Ham Press.” This intrigued me. I initially tried it using the recipe from the ham press I purchased on Amazon (for around $24), and I deemed that experiment a failure. The product tasted OK, but the texture was weird, and the color was sort of yuck brown and grey.

I’m not one to give things up easily, so yesterday I tried again. This time I used ground chicken instead of the “tube” turkey that I had used before. I also changed the spices around, omitting those that likely gave my first attempt its gross color. Lastly, I did the experiment more simply using basic equipment. Why? Because it was easier.

I’m pleased to report that I did get a final product that was pretty good.

Here are the positives:

-The taste was much better than deli chicken.

-It is less expensive than deli chicken.

Here are the negatives:

-The texture was slightly different than deli chicken.

-Making deli meat involves some labor.

-One pound of chicken yielded slightly less than 15 oz of deli meat. This is likely due to all the water injected into the meat, which was lost during cooking.

Let’s take a closer look!

To one pound of ground chicken, I added 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, onion powder, and salt, plus 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. I also added around 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of gelatin. I mixed it all up with my impeccably clean hands.

I packed the meat mixture into my ham press and sealed the press. I placed the press into a Dutch oven with simmering hot water (around 200°F/95 °C). I waited until the slurry’s internal temperature reached 170°F (75 °C), which is about 5 degrees higher than the safe cooking temperature for chicken. It took around 90 minutes to reach the correct temperature.

I rapidly cooled the ham press in an ice bath. Then it was placed in the fridge overnight.

Here it is removed from the ham press. I ran the press under warm water to help the deli meat release. The yield was not quite 15 oz.

I used a meat slicer to slice the block, but a knife or mandoline would also work.

Here is an individual slice. Honestly, it looked good, and it tasted great. Its flavor was much better than deli chicken. It was less salty and tasted like real chicken.

But here is the real problem: what a mess to clean up! Cleaning a slicer can be tricky as you are handling a very sharp blade. This is a consumer-level slicer. I also have a commercial-level slicer, and that thing is outright dangerous to clean, as it has a huge circular blade that has to be removed and is extremely sharp and slippery. When cleaning any slicer, I recommend extreme caution and cut-proof gloves. Also, watch your feet. If you drop the blade, you could cut off a toe!

The slicer is all cleaned up and ready for its next job.

So what is the bottom line? Yes, it is less expensive to make your own chicken deli meat, and it tastes better. However, it did require work, and cleaning the slicer was no fun.

I know we are all suffering from inflation and the Trump tariff taxes. For me, it would only make sense to use two ham presses at their full 2-pound capacity. That would yield 4 pounds of deli-meat. This would justify cleaning the slicer. I would freeze the excess meat for future lunches. With that said, I have another idea that should be an even easier way to get better/cheaper deli meat at a lower cost. More on that idea in a future post.

Happy eating!

Mike