Copycat recipes are one of my favorite things to share with you all. I love recreating our favorite restaurant foods at home. The homemade versions are usually cheaper and healthier than what I can buy at the store or when eating out.
Over the years I have shared quite a few copycat and homemade favorites with you. I will admit though that a club sandwich was not high on my list to recreate until recently.
Over the last year my son has developed a love of club sandwiches. There is a local, or maybe more regional, restaurant in our area called McAlisters Deli. We love eating at McAlisters.
We don’t eat out often. We never have really eaten out much, but with all our food issues over the last few years, eating out has become even more rare for us.
When we do eat out though McAlisters is high on the list of places we go. And this is mainly because they have a gluten free menu that includes the best baked potatoes. These aren’t just any baked potato. They pile them high with all kinds of toppings. Their baked potatoes are a meal by themselves and my girls and I love them.
But I can’t forget about my husband and son. They put up with so much when it comes to all our food issues, so I love being able to go out to eat at places they enjoy as well. And they love McAlisters sandwiches.
My son especially loves McAlisters Club Sandwich. It is pretty much the only sandwich he orders there. Every time it is the same thing. To me a club sandwich is pretty much a club sandwich. Nothing special. But my son obviously disagrees.
One day when we were eating there I asked him what he loved so much about the club sandwich and he replied that he loved how big it was and how much there was on it.
And that is where I began to realize what he loved about the sandwich at McAlisters.
Yes, the meat is delicious. It is has specially smoked bacon, ham, and turkey on it. But we are talking about a 12 year old boy here and that is not what he was interested in. He loved the size of the sandwich.
I have to admit I can see why. The sandwiches I normally make at home look pathetic compared to a deli style sandwich. I mean really who puts that much meat and cheese on a normal everyday sandwich. I make that package of lunch meat stretch for as many sandwiches as I can. Please tell me I am not the only one that does that. 🙂
But when I realized what my son loved about the McAlister Club sandwich, I knew I could easily recreate it at home. And really it would work great for an occasional quick and easy dinner.
So I got to work on making a homemade copycat version of McAlister’s Club sandwich.
The recipe below is not so much a recipe. It is more just a list of ingredients I used and the order I layered them in. Because according to my son the order of the layers matter. 🙂 Don’t forget to pile it high with meat. That is the whole point of the sandwich after all. And yes this had three pieces of bread per sandwich, just like McAlister’s.
Copycat McAlister's Club Sandwich
A deli style sandwich made at home!
Ingredients
- 12 slices bread
- 2 tablespoons honey mustard (I made my own by mixing about 1/3 honey to 2/3 mustard, but you could easily use store bought honey mustard )
- 4 pieces of lettuce
- 1 tomato sliced tomato
- 8 slices cooked bacon
- more honey mustard
- bread
- 4 slices swiss cheese
- 4 slices cheddar cheese
- 8 ounces smoked turkey ( or about that much)
- 4 slices ham ( or about that much )
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
Instructions
- Spread mustard on one slice of bread.
- Layer lettuce, tomato, and bacon on top.
- Spread mustard on another slice of bread and place on top of bacon.
- On top of that slice of bread place swiss cheese. Then cheddar cheese. Then place turkey and ham on top of that.
- Spread mayonnaise on the last slice of bread and place on sandwich.
- And enjoy!
Nope, you’re not the only one! I am careful with deli meats too, for health and frugal reasons. We mostly use them to add flavor and excitement to things like plain chicken breasts on sandwiches. The kids get strangely confused and excited when I let them use just deli meat once in a while ………
Glad to know I am not the only one! 🙂
I rarely buy deli meats, so I can honestly say the way I save money on them is by not spending the money. LOL We do love club sandwiches. I don’t know why I don’t make them at home more often. They sound like the perfect quick and easy dinner. Thanks for the idea.
Yes, that is the best way to save money on them. I buy them occasionally for easy sandwiches, but I try to make the sandwiches so my kids don’t use so much of it. 🙂
I think the appeal of this one is not just the size, but the different combination of meats and cheeses. My husband has been telling me to only make him small sandwiches for the last several months. (I make all his gluten-full sandwiches because I want to ensure that gluten doesn’t go everywhere. I wash constantly while making them.) So I made a variation of this sandwich (with what I had on hand) for his lunch right after reading your post, Lynn. He LOVED it, and did not complain about the size! I always cut his sandwiches in four pieces now and he loves that, too. Seems like it wouldn’t make a difference, but there’s something about smaller pieces that everyone enjoys and that does make it more of a club, of course. We use less and less deli meats and I get Applegate Farms when I can. I have to get their products in town as they’re not available at our regular grocery store.
Thanks for the recipe/idea!
Shirley
I am so glad it inspired you to make a version for your husband! And I agree about cutting sandwiches into 4 pieces. I tried with this one, but it was harder to get a good picture that way, so I just cut it in half for the picture. I need to try the Applegate Farms meats. I usually buy the “more” natural nitrate free lunch meats, but have not tried the Applegate Farms ones. I have heard they are really good.
hey I work at a mc allisters deli, I can tell you exactly what we use, I’m not sure that type of wheat bread, but we use 3 slices of wheat lay them out side by side, hellmans light mayo on one and honey mustard on the other two (you can fine copycat mc allisters recipiegr honey mustard online). on the mayo side, 2 Oz. hormel ham. 2 Oz butterball turkey. 1 slide of sharp cheddar, one slice of swiss. place the 2nd slice of bread h9ney mustard side up on top of that. then we use hormel bacon 2 slices ( we bake ours not fey it so it’s healtier), two slices tomato, and thenow Romain sandwich leaf lettuce. then the last piece of bread goes honey mustard side down) then tooth picks and cut and your set!
Thank you for sharing that! I will have to recreate it that way for my son! We love Mcalisters.
What brand of pickle spears do they use?
I am not sure. I will try to ask next time I visit.
Recreate it if you wish, but don’t use Hellman’s LITE mayo. Ewww. It’s bad enough that people use grocery store mayo at all, but the lite versions generally have sugar added. Just use the real mayo or make your own.
Also, where’s the beef on your club sandwich?? When I was growing up my family, like yours, rarely ate out, but when we did my parents ordered club sandwiches (I always thought it sounded so ritzy!). Back then (in the 1960’s) the sandwiches had no bacon, they were made with sliced roast beef, ham, and either turkey or chicken (the lunch meat type, although I bet it would be delicious if made with a real roast beef slices and real chicken breast along with the sliced ham. Not too many dishes back then used much bacon. I think it was expensive then, just as it is now. Ham has gotten expensive since then, too. My Dad didn’t like mustard of any kind, especially not sweet mustards, so he ordered his club sandwich with thousand island dressing. I don’t know if, in today’s PC world, that makes it a NOT club sandwich, but whatever it was called it was delicious!
I want to compliment you on this recipe- the order of the ingredients seems to be spot-on.. I have tried in the past to make a mcalister’s club and failed, but this recipe is so good- I think it’s the closest I’ve ever gotten. Thank you so much for sharing it!!
Glad that you enjoyed it!