Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Recipes

A Pastrami Sandwich, in Stuffing Form

As cookbook author Melissa Clark says, “Thanksgiving is just one big excuse to eat lots of stuffing.” For me, stuffing is simply a better way to experience the practice of dunking a piece of bread into a bowl of chicken soup. You get more doughy bready goodness, less of a mess, and in my experience, tons more flavor.

Such is the principal behind the following recipe.

This challah and pastrami stuffing is slightly inspired by one memorable midnight trip to Katz’s Deli where I sat happy as a clam and drunk as a sorority girl, dunking my pastrami sandwich into my friend’s matzo ball soup and making a massive and delicious mess. If only I just had a bowl of this stuffing, there might have been one less sloppy drunk girl on the Lower East Side that night.

The pastrami in this recipe is balanced by the sweetness of honey and dried currants. It is truly a delicious mix of flavors, and I hope it will give you something to be thankful for.

Challah and Pastrami Stuffing

1 loaf of plain challah, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (since it will be toasted, it does not need to be stale, however it’s best to stay away from the super moist brands of challah, like Zomick’s.) 1 medium onion, chopped
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1/2 cup margarine, divided
2 pinches of salt
1 pound pastrami (thickly sliced and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces)
1/2 cup dried currants
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 eggs
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1) Spread out challah cubes on a baking sheet and bake in an oven set to 200 degrees for 45 minutes, so that bread dries out, flipping once halfway through. Once they’re finished, remove the baking tray or trays and turn up the temperature of the oven to 375.

2) In a large pan set over medium heat, cook the onions and celery in 1/4 cup of margarine and 2 pinches of salt for about 5 minutes, until soft. Stir in the pastrami and dried currants and let cook for 5 minutes, while you prepare the broth mixture.

3) To prepare the broth mixture, whisk together the chicken broth (room temperature), eggs, honey, and spices in a medium-sized bowl.

4) In a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish, gently combine the bread cubes and onion/pastrami mix. Fold in the broth mixture and parsley to coat the cubes evenly. Melt the remaining 1/4 cup margarine and pour evenly over the top.

5) Bake for 40 minutes.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.