8 Easy Sandwich Ideas for Dinner

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Looking for some quick and easy sandwich ideas for dinner to feed your family a hearty meal that’s also budget friendly? Sandwiches don’t just have to be for lunch! You can make a great hot sandwich dinner your family will love – and won’t take a lot of time, effort, or money.

I forget where I heard the advice a few years ago that eating dinner at home doesn’t have to be a whole homecooked meal with three sides, you can serve sandwiches if you need to. That was very freeing for me.

I had put a lot of pressure on myself to come up with a great full meal every night, to have each meal well-rounded, and to have a lot of variety in our meals.

Can I tell you how exhausting that is? Let me guess – you already know how exhausting that is.

Allowing ourselves to serve sandwiches for dinner to feed our hungry family every now and then and make our burden of cooking a little easier is a blessing. So let’s embrace it.

Now, you can totally make a PB&J with chips and fruit and feed your family dinner – I have done that many times when we don’t have much time or it’s just me and the kids. There is nothing wrong with that at all – everyone gets fed, you save money.

But sandwiches for dinner doesn’t have to mean just a cold ham sandwich or a PB&J (with or without the crust). There are actually a lot of great options for dinner sandwiches.

Make sure to save this list, so you can have some easy dinner recipes on hand when you don’t have much time or energy to make a “real dinner”.

Sandwiches aren't just for lunch! Try these quick and easy sandwiches for dinner that will feed your family great on a budget.

Can you serve sandwiches for dinner?

Please give yourself permission right now to serve sandwiches for dinner.

Especially when you have a busy night and not much time for cooking, or if it’s just been one of those long days and your energy is gone.

Sandwiches can fill your family, and save you a lot of stress. There are some great heartier sandwich options below.

What to have with a sandwich for dinner?

You might be wondering what sides you can serve with a sandwich for dinner. Feel free to keep it simple, or make the sides the star of the show.

Light sides like fruit or chips are great. Or you can add more bulk to your meal with a pasta side, salad, or vegetables.

Here’s some sides you can serve with sandwiches:

Chips
Fruit (grapes, apple slices, orange slices, strawberries, fruit with a fruit dip, etc.)
Salad (I love getting salad kits when they are on sale and making side salads for meals)
Cheese cubes or slices
Pickles (I love a pickle spear with a sandwich and chips!)
Applesauce (my kids love a bowl of applesauce with any meal)
Pasta salad
Macaroni and cheese
Soup (homemade or store bought)

8 Easy Sandwich Ideas to Serve for Dinner:

Make dinner quick and easy with one of these delicious dinner sandwich recipes.

You may even want to designate your busiest night of the week as sandwiches for dinner night. Don’t make dinnertime harder than it has to be.

1. Chicken Salad Sandwich

There are many ways to make chicken salad. Find your favorite recipe and keep it close.

You can also buy a bulk container of chicken salad from the deli section to make it even easier on yourself.

I enjoy chicken salad on croissants with pasta salad or chips on the side. Your family might like sourdough bread, chicken salad on a lettuce salad with crackers, or on Hawaiian rolls. Keep a few options so everyone can make their own creation.

You can enjoy leftovers for lunch the next day.

Try one of these chicken salad recipes:

2. Grilled Chicken Sandwich

For a hot sandwich dinner, try this grilled chicken sandwich.

You can also make your own grilled chicken sandwich recipe by grilled thin chicken breasts with your favorite sauce or seasoning, and adding your favorite toppings and buns.

3. Fried Chicken Sandwich

Similarly to the grilled chicken sandwich, you can make fried chicken sandwiches for a nice warm dinner.

I like to cut my chicken breasts in half lengthwise to make them thinner, then use a meat tenderizer. Bread them with your favorite breadcrumbs and fry in oil until cooked through.

I like to add a pickle slice to mine and use sesame buns. These are great served with mac and cheese, too.

You can also try this fried chicken sandwich recipe.

4. Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwiches

For BBQ sandwiches, I like to cook a large Boston butt in the slow cooker with a BBQ rub until it falls off the bone. I will then remove the fat, bones, and grease. Shred the meat and add it back to the slow cooker mixed with BBQ sauce.

This makes quite a bit, and our family always has leftovers for a few more meals.

I place the leftovers in freezer bags that are good portions for our whole family and freeze them for easy meals.

I thaw the meat overnight in the fridge, reheat with more BBQ sauce in the microwave and serve on buns with BBQ sauce and pickles.

Here’s another great BBQ sandwich recipe to try.

5. Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich

There’s something deliciously simple about a grilled cheese, and when you add some deli ham to it, it’s a little more hearty and filling.

Served with soup, you’ll have a satisfying meal that can be ready in just a few minutes.

All you need for a basic grilled ham and cheese sandwich is bread, button, cheese slices, and ham.

You can choose your favorite bread, type of cheese, and deli meat to suit your family’s taste best.

You can even add different mustards, bacon, or experiment with different cheeses and meats.

Here are a variety of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches you can also try:

6. Chicken Melt

Another great way to find sandwiches your family would like is to look at your favorite sandwich or lunch restaurant. That’s where I got the idea for a chicken melt.

Here’s two chicken melt recipes to try:

Chicken Melt
Chicken Melt

7. BLT

Bacon, lettuce, tomato. It doesn’t get much easier or satisfying than that.

Toast some bread, fry some bacon, slice a tomato, and tear some lettuce leaves to make a yummy BLT sandwich.

You can even add cheese, mayo, mustard, pickles or whatever sounds good to you.

Serve with chips, pasta salad, fruit, or a small bowl of soup.

Want to level up your BLT? Try one of these recipes:

8. BBQ Chicken Sandwich

If you happen to have leftover rotisserie chicken or shredded chicken from another recipe, you can quickly mix it with BBQ sauce to make BBQ chicken sandwiches.

Or, add some chicken breasts and BBQ sauce to a slow cooker on low with a little bit of water and shred the meat.

You can add slaw, pickles, or mayo to these sandwiches and serve with chips, fries, or baked beans.

Here’s some more BBQ chicken sandwich recipes to try:

Sandwiches for Dinner:

Sandwiches for dinner don’t have to be PB&J or cold turkey (though those are completely fine). You can serve an easy sandwich dinner and feed your family a hearty, warm meal.

Try some of these sandwich recipes and add them to your meal plan.

If you enjoy monthly meal planning, go ahead and dedicate one night a week as sandwich night and try some of these out.

You can serve simple sandwiches for dinner or try something new out. Don’t feel pressured to make a meat and three dinner every night!

If you need more dinner ideas, be sure to grab your free list of 60+ dinner ideas here!

Cooking for your family is not always easy (in fact, it rarely is), but it’s an act of love. And one that will keep your wallet a little fuller!

Keep at it, mama, you are doing great!

8 Easy Sandwich Ideas for Dinner