This made from scratch Cheesy Ham and Potato Chowder is thick and creamy and the perfect way to breathe new life into your leftover ham. Bacon, carrots, onion, and potato make this one hearty and delicious soup!
Do you make a ham for the holidays and tend to have leftovers? Well, this soup along with Easy Ham and Cheese Quiche are great for using up bits and pieces of leftover Easter or Christmas ham. Serve with some Buttermilk Cornbread Muffins and you’ve turned a little bit of leftovers into another filling meal.
This Cheesy Ham and Potato Chowder has lots of fantastic flavor and it all starts with bacon. Hard to go wrong when you start with bacon. 🙂
The bacon grease gets used to cook some onions and carrots. I love the extra flavor the bacon grease adds and you know we southerners don’t like to put anything to waste! 🙂
Flour, milk, and water are added plus Better Than Bouillon for flavor, along with garlic powder and white pepper. Some diced russet potatoes are added and simmered until soft.
The ham and cheese gets added just before serving. The cheddar cheese is what really makes this soup as delicious as it is. It’s hard to resist cheesy goodness. Plus it helps give the soup a really thick and hearty consistency.
All said and done, you can have this Cheesy Ham and Potato Chowder on the table in under 30 minutes.
Be Sure to Try These Other Chowder Recipes:
Watch the short video below to see how easy this recipe is to make.
Cheesy Ham and Potato Chowder
Ingredients
- 4 slices thick cut bacon, diced
- 1 medium yellow or sweet onion, diced
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 2 teaspoons better than bouillon
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 2 cups diced ham
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Cook diced bacon in a Dutch oven until crispy. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Leave about 3 tablespoons bacon grease in the Dutch oven.
- Add onion and carrots to bacon grease and cook over medium heat until soft.
- Sprinkle flour over onions and carrots. Stir and cook for 1 minute.
- Gradually stir in milk and water. Add Better Than Bouillon, black pepper, white pepper, garlic powder and potatoes and bring to a simmer.
- Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
- Turn heat to low and stir in ham and cheese until cheese is melted. Sprinkle bacon on top. Serve.
Nutrition
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Originally published March 29, 2017
How do I make this in a slow cooker?
Can this be frozen?? Wondering if it would separate after thawing. TIA.
i don’t have any Better Than Bouillon, Is it okay i can use chicken bouillon cube?
I used sharp cheddar myself, and I went with beef better than bouillon as a personal preference, but other than that I followed the recipe exactly. Served this in some homemade bread bowls, and it was absolutely fantastic, this has earned a permanent place in my recipe book, thanks for the delicious meal!
Tweaked a bit … family LOVED it… Less milk and water and added 1.5 cup chicken broth,, 1 can can cream chicken soup, 1 can cream celery, 3 tblspoon sour cream, 2 cups leftover kernel corn , 2 tblspoon butter simmered until potatoes soft, then added ham and cheese velveeta and sharp cheddar YUM!! Absolutely terrific, and fat free, jk… lol
Why don’t you just submit your own recipe?
Lol!!!!
Used sharp cheese
Absolutely delicious
Didn’t have a big enough Dutch oven, so had to improvise with a regular pot. However, still turned out amazing and delicious perfect for a snow covered day. Definitely will use this recipe again in the future.
What is the calories ???
Wow!! Tweaked a little not much! Added corn!! Fabulous!! Definitely a keeper for winter nights!!
If you don’t have the ham or bacon the cheesy potato soup is heaven!
This was amazing!
I added broccoli! Loved it thanks for sharing ❤️
Just curious. Do you all use regular, mild or sharp cheddar for the recipe?
Made this tonight for tomorrow nights supper and just taste testing it so far, it’s great! Twicked it by making 1 1/2 of the recipe. Gonna be yummy good!
Enjoy Jackie!!
Great recipe! I doubled it and added 8 oz cream cheese. I also used 1/4 cup less of milk (2%). I did add some salted, chicken-flavored seasoning from our favorite restaurant. My husband loved it and his only recommendation was to add some corn next time.
Anyway to let this cook in the crockpot? Or could I cook the night before, then heat up in the crockpot while at church with out messing up the texture? Thinking about serving this after church on a Sunday.
Making this tonight. Used minced garlic. A dash of turmeric. Smoked ham from Thanksgiving. Chicken broth. Sliced baby carrots, vidalia onion. I will let you know how it goes.
I use the frozenl country style hashbrowns
Could u use a chicken stock/broth in place of the water and bullion?
Yes.
There is a ham Better Than Bullion, Turkey, mushroom, and several more.
There. Are three different varieties of Better than Bouillion; beef, chicken, and vegetable. Which did you use?
Chicken, but Vegetable would be fine too.
i ordered then ham better than bullion from Amazon.
It’s a really good recipe but count on more time to prep the ingredients! Love the taste! I tweak a few things for personal preference! Thanks for a great recipe! Yay!
I made this today. I saved sometime by buying pre cut carrots because they were on sale. I find the prep time estimate fairly accurate myself. But I also skipped peeling the potatoes just as preference. Overall I’m a fan of the recipe.
Thanks for the feedback Jen!
Can you use bagged shredded cheese for this or do you need to shred your own? I know some times store bought shredded cheese won’t melt the same.
This recipe does NOT take 25 minutes to cook, I don’t care how amazing your stovetop is, and unless you are a gourmet chef, more than 10 minutes is needed for prep… honest times would be more like 30 minutes prep, and 45-60 minutes to cook… however—the finished product is to die for, and my guests said it was well worth the wait! I would definitely adjust the recipe times, and you’ve got yourself a winning blog post! 🙂
Took me a lot longer than 10 minutes to prep everything. Wish I knew that before I started it so late but my kitchen smells delicious 😋 just about to sit down and eat it now! The tastes I snuck during cooking were amazing. Can’t wait for hubby to dig in.