Thinly sliced potatoes and diced ham smothered in a creamy, super cheesy sauce and baked to perfection! This recipe is perfect for using up that leftover ham from the holidays and makes a delicious, hearty side item OR a comforting main dish.
How was your Easter? Did you eat lots of good food? Go on any Easter egg hunts? I’m pretty sure I ate my weight in Reese’s eggs this weekend… yikes, how many weeks till swimsuit season starts??
Today I have the PERFECT recipe to make use of all that leftover ham you have sitting in your fridge. It involves lots of thinly sliced potatoes, bite-size chunks of that delicious ham you just cooked, and the most luscious, creamy, dreamy cheese sauce you’ve ever seen. We’re making cheesy scalloped potatoes today, my friend!
These potatoes required a good amount of bake time in the oven, but the process of putting it all together is pretty quick and simple. First, you slice up 2 pounds of potatoes as thin and even as you can. If you have a mandolin, you’ll definitely want to get it out of the cabinet for this recipe. A sharp knife will work fine too, but a mandolin lets you make nice, even slices much thinner than a knife will.
Side note: Keep an eye on your fingers, okay? These potatoes are good, but not worth chopping off the tip of your finger over. Always exercise caution and safety when it comes sharp knives and mandolins, friends. 🙂
Kitchen Tip:
The potatoes will turn brown pretty quickly as you slice them, so keep a big bowl of cold water next to you and drop the potatoes in the water as you slice. This will keep them from browning on you! When it’s time to assemble the dish, just drain the potatoes and pat them dry with a clean kitchen towel.
Layer some sliced potatoes in a baking dish, then sprinkle on some of that leftover ham, and top with a layer of glorious cheese sauce. Now repeat… potatoes, ham, cheese sauce. Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 45 minutes, then remove the foil about bake for another 20 or 30 minutes. When the scalloped potatoes come out of the oven, they will be perfectly tender, and the top will be bubbling and golden brown around the edges. It really is a pretty dish, I tell ya.
My last tidbit of advice: let this puppy cool about 10-15 minutes before serving. It needs that time to rest and let the sauce “set up” a bit before diving in. I actually think these potatoes get even better the longer they sit. I may or may not sneak bites of it cold out of the fridge. Just sayin’. 🙂 And of course, you don’t have to wait until after a holiday meal to make this dish. You can pick up a small package of ham from the store or even leave the ham out of it entirely. I definitely prefer it with the ham, but that’s always an option!
Now I have an honest confession to make… our oven has seen better days. It’s basically older than dirt and could use a good cleaning, but especially after all the holiday cooking we did, it REALLY needed some love and attention.
Not only does a dirty oven look nasty, but it can sour the food you’re cooking in there as well. I used a can of Easy-Off Fume Free to get rid of all the grease and spilled food in there, and now it’s back in tip-top shape again. How does one family make an oven so dirty?? Easy-Off worked quickly, didn’t stink up the whole house, and got rid of all that baked-on grease like a champ. See… 🙂
Visit Easy-Off at http://www.easyoff.us/ to learn more!
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- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup diced onion
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups milk (I used 2%)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
- 2 pounds russet potatoes, washed and very thinly sliced
- 1 pound diced ham (about 4 cups)
- fresh parsley, for garnish
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and coat a 3 quart baking dish in nonstick cooking spray. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes until garlic is fragrant and onions are tender. Sprinkle in flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Whisk in milk and cook until sauce is thickened and bubbly, about 4-5 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and cheese and stir until cheese is melted. Remove sauce from heat.
- Place half the sliced potatoes in bottom of prepared baking dish. Top with half the ham, then pour on half the sauce. Repeat layers and cover dish tightly with foil. Bake covered for 45 minutes, then remove foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes until potatoes are tender and top is golden and bubbly. Let cool 10-15 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley, if desired.
- The potatoes will turn brown quickly while you're slicing them, so drop them in a bowl of cold water once they're sliced and drain when you're ready to assemble the dish.
Are you making this recipe? I’d LOVE to see it! Post a photo of your creation on Instagram and use the hashtag #MyLGWRecipe. It may just get featured!
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Now I know what to make with all the ham I have leftover in my fridge:). I am so excited to make this and that I don’t have to go to the store because I already have all the ingredients!!! Looks delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe Liz! I might have to try that easy off too…my oven looks like yours did in the first pick:)
Yummy! Will have to make this soon – my husband would love it!
This was a homerun with my husband! I substituted the flour for 3 tablespoons of cornstarch. The 20-30 minutes of baking uncovered turned into 50 minutes to get my potatoes soft
This is really very good, have been doing this for years. Another good dinner is: Meal in a Pot-
Line the bottom of a 3 qt pot with Bacon slices.
Follow with cut of pieces of Ham.
Follow with sliced carrots, cover the ham.
Slice a Large Onion(I use sweet onion)
Layer over the carrots.
Slice 2-3 potatoes and layer on top of onion.
NO SEASONINGS
Add 1 cup cold water.
Place Lid on Pot.
Heat on medium -medium high for 1 hour.
Use fork to determine tenderness.
Let sit for 5 minutes.
Serve and then season to taste.
This is so good and easy your family will ask for this!!!
Yum yum!!
Do we stir this at all while it’s cooking?
It sounds really good!!
Nope, just let it do its thing in the oven! No stirring required. 🙂
I made it! I used my food processor to cut the potatoes, a little thick for the recipe (standard blade) so I had to cook it longer, about 10 extra minutes. A lot of good flavor, I wouldn’t add any extra salt, I did use extra sharp cheese, not sure if it makes a difference. I will definitely make it again.
This is my kind of dinner! Thanks for linking up with What’s Cookin’ Wednesday!
Simple, fast and extremely delicious. Thank you for the great idea Liz!
Great recipe! I’ll surprise my bf tonight. However, I’m thinking of adding eggs too. I’ll add them to the sauce just before pouring it on the potatoes. Do you think it’s a good idea?
Add eggs? Like sliced hard boiled eggs–or crack a couple eggs and add them raw?
Interesting!!
Did you do it?
First time trying home made scallops and these were awesome! Thank you! Love the cheese sauce. I used a mandolin and sliced my potatoes thin, turned out perfect! My son loved them too!
Awesome dish and so tasty..had ham left over from new years dinner
You can’t go wrong with this dish
Happy eats
I am adding more cheddar cheese when I hear it it. Wasn’t as cheese as I would like. Do you think that will be ok?
Super excited to try these out! My husband has been begging for me to make scalloped potatoes for weeks now since he last had them at his mamaw’s house. This looks like the perfect recipe for me to try!
Hi Liz, I’m wondering if I could put this dish together the night before and then bake it in the morning? Do you know if anyone has tried this?
Hi, My family enjoyed this recipe. I will cook it maybe 10 / 15 minutes longer, as my potatoes were not as soft as I would have liked. I used Havarti cheese and some cheddar cheese. The taste was wonderful. Will definitely make again. Thanks for the recipe.
I made these last week. I left the cheese out as I wanted scalloped potatoes not au gratin potatoes. They were excellent! The sauce was just the right consistency. Not too runny and not too thick. Leftovers are great warmed up. Will make this again.
My sauce was is thick i already prepared it, its in the oven wondering if i shoukd add milk to the pan..after about 20 mins
This is a very tasty recipe! I used a mandolin to slice the potatoes nice and thin, and it still took much longer to cook (almost an hour longer) than the recipe states.