BEST Leftover Ham Recipe (2024)

Here is the best leftover ham recipe you will ever make and your kids will absolutely love! You can make as a leftover turkey recipe too with the same ingredients and it’s always a hit. With crescent rolls and cheese these turnovers make a great lunch or dinner.

I don’t know about you but I’m always looking for a different and easy leftover ham recipe. I always have extra Christmas ham or once Easter is over. Half of it used to get thrown out because we had enough sandwiches and soup trying to use it up. I usually buy a large one since they are so inexpensive around that time and know it will last us thru the next week with all the leftovers. (post revised, originally published 2/14, affiliate links present)

Easy Leftover Ham Recipe

Although I love throwing leftovers into our crockpot split pea soup I needed a few more ideas to make it last a bit longer. There are really so many ham and swiss sandwiches you can handle right??!!

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I know you have a bag of this in your fridge right now, especially if it’s the day after Christmas or Easter. Whether you’ve made an air fryer ham or one in the oven, you never finish it all.

Leftover Ham Recipe for Dinner

Let me start by saying, I HATE to waste! Especially if I have a bag full of delicious slices of meat I feel like I must find a way to use it.

I do love casseroles for sure, they’re always a great way to use up leftovers. Typically I will throw what I have inside my Instant Pot, or in a casserole dish like our ham tetrazzini with pasta and bingo…dinner is served.

A few years ago I came up with this yummy (and super easy) leftover ham recipe made with sliced ham. I made these little “turnovers” that everyone enjoyed.

If you too are looking for a fun muffin tin meal, this may become a favorite in your house too. The comments can’t be wrong, read them! TONS of people have gone crazy over this hand held finger food for dinner. You can even use it with leftover turkey meat too. After you make them, let us know below what you think of our cubed ham and cheese baked creation. 😉

How long is leftover ham good for?

Most leftover cooked ham can be safely stored in the refrigerator for about 5 days. To ensure it stays moist, store in an airtight freezer bag.

Can I freeze leftover ham?

I usually don’t, rather I prefer to dice it and use it in different meals for the next 2-3 days until it is used up. Our favorite next day meal is this, followed by Instant Pot potato corn chowder.

• If you do have leftovers though, you can keep it in the freezer for longer storage than in the fridge. Just place your sliced or cut up ham into airtight freezer bags for 2-3 months.

This is how you make this leftover ham dinner recipe: First spray your muffin tin with non stick spray. Then, dice your ham or turkey into small bite size pieces. In a bowl add this with your grated cheese.

• I use Swiss but you could substitute cheddar cheese if you’d rather. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir together in a bowl.
• Lay each crescent roll with the larger part of the triangle inside the muffin tin and the smaller end hanging out.
• Scoop the ham mayonnaise mixture inside each muffin cup.

Now fold the smaller end over the top and tuck it underneath a bit.

Best leftover ham recipe

You’re going to use the temperature and timing on your crescent roll package and take them out when tops are nice and browned. I have made another variety you can see below in the video when I could only find a crescent sheet. Not paying attention, I bought this instead. They’re NOT the same, but I made it work.

• Make sure they are pretty golden on top or else the insides of the crescents will be a bit gooey and that isn’t good.
• The kids find them really fun because they can pick it up and eat it without any utensils really. It’s a quick meal I can serve with a side of salad and we’re done!

Looking for more leftover ham recipes? You can dice it up and throw it in all sorts of other meals well beyond just slicing and making a sandwich out of it. Take a peek at what else we have made here.

Leftover ham recipe

1. Cubed or leftover ham
2. Refrigerated crescent rolls
3. Swiss cheese
   1. or mozzarella if you’d rather
4. Mayonnaise
5. Dill
6. Salt (and pepper if desired)
7. Muffin pan

Here’s another fun leftover ham recipe using a crescent sheet (no perforations). Like I said above, I bought this by mistake. It will say crescent sheet or rolls on the package.

• If you too can only find the sheet version, no worries because it comes out yummy this way as well. See how I made the best out of my “mistake” of a purchase below. 😉

Looking for other great ham recipeslike our Crockpot ham and potato soup? This is great and we have a bunch of other suggestions below:

You can make a sort of hash brown casserole on the stovetop with ham, that’s a one pan meal that we love for a quick brunch or breakfast for dinner option.

• We love hearty soups like our ham potato soup!
• Dicing your ham and adding it to leftover scalloped potatoes for a meal idea
  • Add leftovers to scrambled egg in the morning – ham egg goodness
• Black eyed peas and ham is easy to throw together
• Our crockpot breakfast casserole recipe
• Copycat Starbucks sous vide eggs work great with leftovers
• Ham and cheese quiche or these ham and cheese roll ups are fun

Ready to bring your leftover ham recipe ideas to the next level now??!! Yes go ahead and make your favorite chicken cordon bleu too if you want, or throw it into an Instant Pot casserole.

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