The holidays are over but what to do with all that leftover ham? My favorite way to use leftover ham is in a warm, rich chowder. The recipe uses only a few ingredients so each one has a chance to shine. This Ham Chowder is rich, creamy, and bursting with delicious ham flavor.
The holidays are over but what to do with all that leftover ham? My favorite way to use leftover ham is in a warm, rich chowder. The recipe uses only a few ingredients so each one has a chance to shine. This Ham Chowder is rich and creamy, and bursting with delicious ham flavor.
I like to model my ham chowder after a loaded baked potato. That means generous amounts of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, butter, a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of sliced green onions or chives. Each of these individual flavors compliments one another so deliciously! When a soup utilizes so few ingredients, each of them has to absolutely taste great on its own.
For the cheese, I prefer a good, strong New York or Wisconsin Sharp Cheddar. I want the flavor of the cheese to really stand out instead of shrinking into the background of the creamy soup base. If your palette does not prefer sharp cheddar cheese, try a mild shredded cheddar or even a Colby jack. If you’d like to add a hint of spice go for a jalapeno jack (pepper jack) cheese. It’s your soup, dress it up how you please!
For the potatoes, I typically use Russet but Idaho or Yukon Gold are also very good choices for baking potatoes. You could opt to forgo baking the potatoes and boil them instead – in that case, reach for Yukon Gold, fingerling or red-skinned potatoes as they hold their shape best when boiling. The ease and quickness of boiling the potatoes is very tempting but baking them in the oven does impart a much richer potato flavor. If you have leftover baked potatoes those are perfect in this soup, too. I just slice them in half and scoop them out of the skins.
Now, add in that delicious, salty, leftover ham and pull all those delicious flavors together into a soul-warming soup. Yum.
Looking for more ham recipes?
- Loaded Ham and Cheese Breakfast Biscuits
- Broccoli-Ham Mac and Cheese
- Chicken Stuffed with Ham and Swiss
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©Kitchen Dreaming by KitchenDreaming.com
Creamy Ham Chowder
Equipment
- Dutch oven
- Cheese grater
- Sharp Knife
Ingredients
- 4 Potatoes Idaho, Russet, or Yukon Gold [See Note 1]
- 16 oz Ham diced
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- ½ Onion , diced fine
- ½ tsp Garlic , minced
- ½ cup All-purpose flour
- 4 cups Chicken stock low sodium [See Note 2]
- 2 cups Half and half [See Note 2]
- 8 ounces Cheddar Cheese sharp, grated [See Note 3]
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Ground black pepper
- 3 Green onions chopped, green part only [see note 4]
Optional garnishes
- Grated cheese
- Bacon
- Green onions
- Chives
- Sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Place the potatoes on a sheet tray or directly onto the oven rack and bake for 45 minutes - or until done. The potatoes are done when a fork or tip of a knife inserted into the potato goes into the center of the potato easily.
- Into the bottom of your stock pot, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and the diced onion. Sauté until softened and translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Then add the minced garlic and cook for another minute.
- meanwhile, slice the ham into small cubes, removing any excess fat; set aside.
- Now, add the flour to the onions and garlic and stir to combine. Continue cooking for another minute or two - but do not brown.
- Pour in the chicken stock and milk while you stir well to incorporate. Cook over medium heat until the soup has thickened, stirring quite frequently, about 10-15 minutes.
- While the soup is thickening, slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and then scoop the potatoes out away from the skins and then add them to the soup. With a fork or the back of your spoon, break up the potatoes a bit.
- Add the 3/4 of the ham pieces (reserving ¼ for garnish) and half of the grated cheese to the soup. Stir until the cheese has melted. Taste and adjust the seasonings well with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and ladle into bowls. Garnish with extra ham, grated cheese and green onions.
First time making this soup….delicious and will definitely make again. Only thing is I did add shredded carrots and chopped celery- only as they were in fridge and needed to be used. Also added fresh dill for same reason.
This is my second time making this and it is delicious! I didn’t add the onion because not all family members like it, and it was still amazing!
Great recipe. Yummy on a snowy winter night! We’ll definitely make this again. Thanks for sharing.
What a delicious chowder. I added little extra seasonings to spice it up but we thought it was great
10 stars!!! I added a few radishes cut up and some chia for more nutrition. I used more onion and ham and forgot the cheese. I also used 4 cups of heavy cream and 2 cups milk. I added bacon also. DELICIOUS!!!
Each flavor really shines. This soup was delicious