Filling enough to be a satisfying
weeknight dinner but versatile enough to be a side to your Easter meal, this cheesy ham and potato casserole is a must-have recipe when you’re looking for an extra-special helping of comfort food. Whether you’re serving it as a holiday main or as a post-holiday meal to use up the rest of those leftovers, this casserole is the perfect easy, hearty dish that everyone will be reaching for. Here’s everything you need to know:
How to make the best ham & potato casserole:
— The sauce. We start by cooking onions in butter, and then add flour to form a roux (a mixture of butter and flour stirred together until smooth). Then we add our milk, and the starch in the flour thickens the milk to make a creamy base sauce. From there, we can fold in our ham and layer with our cheese and potatoes. Our recipe walks you through making the roux for this casserole, but if you want more info, check out our guide for how to make a roux.
— The cheese. When choosing your cheese, you’ll want something that melts well and brings a lot of forward flavor to the sauce. Our go-to is cheddar, but you could also throw in Swiss, gouda, or fontina. It’s your casserole, so feel free to make it how you like it!
— The ham. We used diced cooked ham in this recipe, making it a perfect post-holiday meal to use up any of that leftover ham.
Serving ideas:
We would absolutely eat these as our main course, and if you wanted to go that route, we’d recommend pairing them with roasted asparagus and a farro salad. If you’re using this as an Easter dinner side, serve alongside your hearty main of choice, from braised lamb shanks to our copycat Honey Baked ham.
Make it ahead:
You can make the base sauce ahead of time (we recommend no more than up to 2 days in advance), let it cool, and store it in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to bake, just bring out the sauce, rewarm it gently in a pot on the stove, and proceed with the recipe.
You can also bake the entire dish up to 2 days ahead of time. After it’s baked, let it cool and then cover the whole dish with foil and place it in the refrigerator. When you’re ready, just put it in the oven and reheat it at 375°. In this case, we recommend leaving the top layer of cheese off until the day you’re reheating to serve it; if you bake it twice, the cheese might separate and leave puddles of grease on the top of your casserole, which isn’t exactly appetizing.
Tried making them? Let us know how they came out in the comments below.