In episode 087 we are making Scalloped Potatoes and Ham for dinner. This is not your average Scalloped Potato recipe, it is absolutely deluxe. I literally tested this recipe over 10 times to get it just right. It has layers of tender potatoes in a really delicious onion cream sauce, and topped with cheese that gets a golden crust as it bakes.
Serve this Scalloped Potato dish with some roasted veggies and dinner rolls. It’s a great way to use up leftover ham or have as a Sunday Family Dinner.
Transcript
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Intro: Hey, hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.
Susie Weinrich: Okay, we’re going to have a real-time discussion. So if you listen to this episode in real-time, then we literally just had Easter. So Easter Sunday was this past Easter.
Also, if you’re a part of my newsletter community from Mom’s Dinner, then you know that we are in the process of finishing our basement. We had a nice large basement space that was unfinished, and we have kids that are just on the verge of becoming teenagers and we want to be the cool house that all the teenagers want to hang out at.
We decided to finish our basement space. The plan is, is that we will also have a three-quarters kitchen down there, and so I will do a lot of work down there for this podcast, Let’s Make Dinner, and my website Mom’s Dinner. I guess the point of me telling you that is that there’s really good potential that you’re going to hear some construction noise in the background. I normally try to record this when they are not here and they’re not pounding and banging. But I waited a little bit too long this week to record my podcast episode, so here we are. You might hear some nail guns and some pounding, but that’s okay.
All right, so let’s get onto this recipe that we’re making. So, just like I said before, we just had Easter. If you have a traditional Easter brunch or dinner or lunch, you probably have some ham left over. We talked about this last week in last week’s episode of the Double Dip to save that ham and use it for dinners either this week or pop it in the freezer. You can chop it up, pop it in the freezer, save that ham bone, pop that in the freezer, and then you can make some really delicious recipes with that leftover ham.
But today we’re making scalloped potatoes and ham. I did not mess around with this recipe, you guys. I tested this recipe probably 15 times. By the end of all of the testing for scalloped potatoes and ham, I had had it. I was like, I don’t ever want to eat scallop potatoes and ham again. But, what I will tell you is that I did perfect the recipe. What I wanted was really creamy and flavorful scalloped potatoes. So I wanted a really good ratio of potatoes to cream sauce. I didn’t want it to feel like a dry potato dish. I definitely wanted that flavor of ham mixed in. Then, sometimes when you have scalp potatoes and ham and you get that kind of golden crust on top that is so delicious. I wanted that on the top and the bottom of this dish. I think that we really nailed it.
Tips and Tricks: So let’s go over a couple of tips and tricks for making scallop potatoes and ham. We’re going to talk about a few different ingredients. First of all, the potatoes that you’re going to use. You definitely want to use a russet potato.
A russet potato is going to hold up to the cooking time, so we have a really pretty long cooking time here. You don’t want your potatoes to crumble and cook down into a mashed potato or a casserole. You want them to stay in their cut shape. A peeled Russett is going to be perfect. Now if you’re listening to this and you’re like, I don’t have any leftover ham, what I like to do in that case is to buy a ham steak at the grocery store and then chop that up, dice it up, and that works perfectly too.
This recipe also calls for heavy cream. Do not substitute skim milk. You need the heavy cream. You need the fat in the heavy cream that will thicken with the starch of the potatoes during the cooking time, and it will make that creamy sauce that you want in your scalloped potatoes and ham.
Another ingredient that may not be totally traditional in scalloped potatoes is adding onions. We actually add two medium to large-sized yellow onions that you’ll slice, and that just adds a layer of flavor. So instead of just being cream, potatoes, and ham, you just add a little extra flavor in there that enhances the whole entire experience.
All right. Now, before I told you that I like to have my scalloped potatoes and ham be really creamy. We’re going to achieve that with obviously like a cream sauce where we’re using butter, flour, chicken broth, and heavy cream. We’re also going to add a little bit of cream cheese into the mix and it makes it so creamy and so perfect. So don’t skip that one and make sure that you get a full-fat cream cheese. Not that I don’t even know what it’s called, like Neufchatel cheese. That’s not what you want here. You want the full-fat cream cheese. Then the last two things. Number one, if you can stand it, shred your own cheese. It’s my least favorite kitchen job, but I will still fresh shred my cheese because it will make your dish way more creamy and way more flavorful, and that cheese just melts a little bit smoother.
Number two, you have to cut your russet potatoes really thin. About an eighth of an inch thick. When you’re making a potato dish like this, you want all of your potatoes to basically be the same thickness so that the dish cooks through evenly, and you don’t have one thick potato in the middle of your dish that didn’t get cooked, and then you’re crunching down on potato. That would be terrible.
So what my recommendation is, is that you use a mandolin. I resisted getting a mandolin for a very long time because I thought they were very expensive and maybe even difficult to use. That is not the case at all. So the mandolin that I got, I believe was $30, and it’s an OXO brand and it works perfectly. I will link the mandolin that I have, right in the show notes for you so you can click through and check it out. If that’s something you want to have in your kitchen, go for it. Otherwise, just try to slice your potatoes the same size. The best way to do that is to cut a little piece off the bottom of your potato so it sets firmly. Then use your fingers to guide that knife to cut even potato slices.
All right, so those are all of my tips for this recipe. So let’s go ahead and talk about making your scalloped potatoes and ham. First of all, you want to allot quite a bit of time to make scalloped potatoes and ham because they do cook for quite a long time.
You’re going to need almost once the prep is done, you’re going to need almost three hours for your scalloped potatoes and ham. I know it’s a lot. It’s a long time. It’s just like a lasagna. It’s a labor of love and a labor of deliciousness.
What you’re going to need is a nine by 13 baking dish. You’re going to need some kind of saucepan, and what I do recommend is using a large rimmed baking sheet underneath your baking pan in case your scalloped potatoes and ham boil over in the oven. Then, as we talked about in the tip section, Amanda Lynn is a great tool to chop your potatoes.
So let’s go ahead and get started. You’re going to preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and then you’re going to take one tablespoon of softened butter and smear it all over your 9X13 pan. What I like to do is either just use clean fingers and do it, or I’ll grab a paper towel and put that butter in there and then just spread it all over the pan.
Now you can set that aside and then you’re going to peel and slice your potatoes. Three pounds of rustic potatoes to about an eighth of an inch thick. If you’re using a mandolin, use the eight-inch thick slicing blade. Place all of those sliced potatoes into a bowl. What I like to do is toss them with half a cup of that heavy cream. This will basically coat the potatoes and help to prevent them from browning while you make your cream sauce.
So over on the stovetop in a skillet or a saucepan over medium heat, you’re going to go ahead and melt the rest of the butter. So that’s four tablespoons of butter. You’ll add the sliced onions and saute them for about five minutes so that their softened and even slightly browned is delicious. So if you want to take them longer than five minutes and get a little caramelization on them, you can absolutely do that. Then you’re going to add three chopped garlic cloves and two teaspoons of Lawry’s seasoned salt and one teaspoon of black pepper. Then you’ll sprinkle in three tablespoons of all-purpose flour and stir that around the pan for about one minute.
Now you’re going to add some ingredients to make your cream sauce. You’re going to whisk in one cup of chicken broth and two and a half cups of heavy cream. Give that a whisk, then you’re going to add four ounces of cream cheese and whisk that in and let it melt into the sauce.
You want to stir this occasionally and let it simmer for just a couple of minutes until it’s nice and thickened. Now it’s time to assemble your scalloped potatoes and ham. For assembly, you also will need two cups, two heaping cups really, of cooked diced ham and then two cups of shredded cheddar cheese.
So to layer the scalloped potatoes, what you want to do on the very bottom of that prepared nine by 13 baking dish, you’re going to put one cup of that onion cream sauce across the bottom. Then you’re going to top that with a layer of potatoes. Then you’re going to spread another generous cup of that onion cream sauce across the top of the potatoes. Then sprinkle on half of the ham. Then you’ll do another layer of potatoes, another generous cup of that onion, and cream sauce, and then finish with the remaining ham.
Then you’re going to finish everything with all of the remaining potatoes, and all of the remaining cream sauce, and then top it with the two cups of freshly shredded cheddar cheese. Now your pan is going to be really full, but it’s going to make it really delicious. So what you want to do, either with clean hands or with a piece of parchment paper or a spatula, just press down lightly on the dish so that it all lays flat in the pan and fits into the pan.
Now what you want to do is take a large piece of foil. I like to spray the underside with a little non-stick spray so that the cheese doesn’t stick to the foil. Cover up that pan really tightly because you want that steam and that heat to stay in the pan to cook those potatoes. Like I said before, I highly recommend that you place that 9×13 pan on a really large rimmed baking sheet because I can almost promise you it will slightly boil over, all that cream sauce, will boil over a little bit in the oven. Now you’re going to bake it for a really long time. You’re going to bake it for 70 minutes. Then you’re going to remove the foil and you’re going to bake it an additional 30 minutes at least. You want to be able to slide a knife into the center of the dish and meet no resistance. I mean, there will be some resistance just because of the thickness of the potatoes, but you shouldn’t have to really press, and there definitely should not be any crunch. So if you’re finding any crunch or any hard resistance, you want to place your dish back in the oven for about 10-minute increments until you feel like it’s cooked through.
Now, if you feel like the top is browning a little bit too much after you’ve had to put it back in the oven, you can cover the top with just a little bit of foil, and that will prevent the cheese on top from burning.
I know we keep comparing the scalloped potatoes in ham to lasagna, but they’re very, very similar. So when these scallop potatoes come outta the oven, you do want to let them cool for about 20 minutes. It is going to be like molten lava when it comes out of the oven. It is so incredibly hot and it’s going to be really bubbly. It may even be a little soupy, but as it cools, the sauce is going to thicken up and get so creamy and delicious. It will all kind of come together.
All right, so when we serve scalloped potatoes and ham for dinner, what we like to do is just kind of cut it into squares like you would a lasagna. Here we go again, talking about lasagna. This dish will serve six to eight people. It actually makes quite a bit.
Then as far as side dishes go, we usually just like to do maybe a roasted vegetable or a salad, maybe some dinner rolls. If you want to do a bigger dinner, you could do this, roasted broccoli or roasted asparagus, or a broccoli bacon salad would be delicious. I’ll link that one in the show notes. Then a raspberry jello fluff salad would be great as well.
So that does it for this full episode of Let’s Make Dinner. I hope you guys make this recipe. It is just, it is one of my favorite recipes on my website, momsdinner.net. So if you do make it and it turns out spectacular for you and you just absolutely loved it, I would love to have you give the recipe five stars and comment that you made it and how it turned out, and how much you loved it. That would be great.
Outro: So I will link all of these recipes for you in the show notes. Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.
Double Dip: Oh my gosh, you guys, now it’s time for the Double Dip. All right, so if you’re enjoying these episodes and they are helping you get dinner on the table, then wait around for the Double Dip every week, and I will tell you what we’re making the next week. You can be prepared with the groceries that you need to make dinner and cook along with me on Thursday.
So next week, this is going to be for all of my instant pot lovers. We are making Instant Pot Carnitas so that you. So good, so, so, so good and so simple. This is not like making Carnitas in the oven. We’re making it in the Instant Pot. So fast, so delicious, and has really simple ingredients. It is made with pork butt or pork shoulder, which is a super economical cut of pork. Low cost too, which is great because groceries are stupid expensive right now.
Okay, so let me tell you what ingredients you need to get to make your carnitas next week. This one has a super surprising ingredient in the mix. All right, you ready? You’re going to need a four to five-pound pork shoulder, kosher salt, black pepper, and canola oil. That’s standard. Then you’re going to need one cup of lemon-lime soda. So this is going to be Sprite, 7Up, or something in that family. Six garlic cloves. You’ll need an orange and a lime. Chili powder or Ancho chili powder, Mexican oregano. Now Mexican oregano and Oregano are not the same thing. I find my Mexican oregano near dried chilies and things in the produce section at my grocery store. Then you’re going to need garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, smoked paprika, a bay leaf, white onion, and your instant pot. You’re going to absolutely love this recipe. Now, we love to eat our carnitas either in enchiladas, in tacos, on a salad, in a rice bowl, you know, something like that. You could even just make nachos with your carnitas. So I hope you guys will join me next week when we make Instant Pot Carnitas for dinner.
So until then, I hope you guys have a great week. See ya.
Recipes Mentioned
Next Thursday
I hope you will join me every Thursday for a new dinner idea! Next week we will be making Instant Pot Carnitas for dinner! (It’s a good one to save for Cinco De Mayo) Grab the ingredients and join me then.
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