A few days ago I saw a post on Facebook from Mandy Rivers for her South Your Mouth – Ham Salad
I looked at her recipe and it’s the wonderful, classic ham salad recipe, so I shared it with my Facebook followers at Julia’s Simply Southern Facebook . A little while later I received a comment, from Susan, on the shared recipe posts suggesting that I try a modification of the recipe and was intrigued.
Susan is a great cook and soon to be a member of our family. Her suggestion sounded so good I had to get her recipe to share with you all. I tried it and loved it and Susan’s Ham Salad went quickly. That got me to thinking, again, so I had to to a variation on both recipes and came up with a new one.
The variation brought together parts of both recipes I loved and was necessary because at this point, I had run out of leftover baked ham. Yikes. I wasn’t going to bake a ham just to make ham salad knowing that Easter is right around the corner and I would have leftover ham then. I had to come up with something easy and using what I had on hand.
Susan’s Ham Salad:
1 cup Ham, chopped, recommends using 3/4 country ham and 1/4 regular ham if you’ve got it
2-3 tbs Red Onion, finely chopped
1 Jalapeno Pepper, chopped with seeds and ribs removed
2 tbs Duke’s Mayonnaise , more if needed
Off to the store I went to get cubed ham and a jalapeno pepper to see what I could come up with. I took the cubed ham out of the package and put it in a small pot, covered with water and boiled it for about 30 minutes. The cubed ham was pre-cooked but I wanted to boil it to heat it up, and to break down the texture a bit more. Drain the ham and allow to cool a few minutes, then add to a food processor. Pulse the ham 6-8 times to give it the consistency you need. Don’t pulverize it! Haha, just 6-8 times will do the trick.
While the ham was cooling I chopped a small yellow onion, which I had on hand, and a jalapeno pepper. Remove the seeds and ribs from the jalapeno unless you want it to be fired up spicy. I added this to a mixing bowl with some dill pickle cubes while the ham cooled.
Then add your ham, mayonnaise, and seasonings and combine. It turned out great and everyone loved it. Serve with crackers as a dip or make a sandwich out of it. I tried both so I know they are both good. Below is the recipe I came up with after being inspired by two great recipes. I hope you enjoy it. Please note that the only reason I’ve added salt in my recipe is because I’m not using leftover baked ham which is typically salty enough.
Julia’s Ham Salad:
1 – 16 oz package Diced Cooked Ham
1 small Yellow Onion, finely chopped
2 tbs Dill Pickle Cubes
1/4 c Duke’s Mayonnaise
1/4 tsp Salt
Black Pepper to taste
About Julia
Hey Y’all! I’m Julia, the cook and writer behind the recipes here at Julia’s Simply Southern. I began my website so that I could share easy to follow recipes that anyone can use to put a home cooked meal on the dinner table. Thanks so much for stopping by!
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