Cheesy Mexican Potatoes Recipe

These cheesy Mexican potatoes with ham are one of our most requested breakfast recipes. They’re great on their own or served as a delicious Mexican potato side dish to eggs or pancakes. Next, you’ll have to check out papas a la Mexicana.

These cheesy Mexican potatoes are also known as papas con jamón y queso. Which translates to potatoes with ham and cheese.

There are many versions of this dish and in our opinion ours is the best way! It can be easily adapted to what you like and what you have in your kitchen at the moment. So there’s no reason why you shouldn’t give them a try!

Ingredients needed for these Mexican style potatoes

These cheesy Mexican potatoes or papas con jamón y queso are super easy to make. You only need a few ingredients and here are the key ones:

Potatoes

Potatoes are a staple in our kitchen. We use them in a variety of recipes including Mexican steak and potatoes as well as potato taquitos.

We’re using Yukon Gold potatoes for our dish. There’s no need to parboil the potatoes because they’ll cook up nicely in our skillet with a little oil.

You can also choose to leave the skin on just make sure to clean your potatoes well and pat them dry before sauteing.

Chopped Ham

We like to keep ham available in our house because we use it quite frequently. You can do so many things with ham besides your typical torta de jamón (ham sandwich). Some great ways to use ham include Mexican pasta salad with ham, huevos con jamón and Mexican white spaghetti.

The chopped ham adds a layer of richness to our dish since the ham is extremely savory with a slight sweetness to it. If you don’t have ham, any kind of leftover deli meat or bacon will be a good swap for this recipe.

Cheesy bacon potatoes are also really yummy! You can also try using cooked chorizo. But definitely make sure you add one of these because it will provide that flavor-punch.

Mozzarella Cheese

We like to use mozzarella in our cheesy Mexican potatoes for its mild flavor and super melty powers. We like to use pre-shredded mozzarella. We use it in many dishes including molletes, quesadillas and rajas.

Serrano Pepper

Typical in Mexican cuisine, serrano peppers will add that fiery heat to our potatoes. Serrano peppers are similar in taste to jalapeños but on the Scoville scale, they’re up to five times spicier. We only use one serrano pepper in this recipe and don’t find it overwhelmingly spicy.

However if you are sensitive to spicy foods you can always reduce the amount of serrano or you could even replace it with a jalapeño. Another option is to completely omit the spicy green peppers from this recipe entirely.

Seasoning and Aromatics

We’ll let the simple flavors of the potatoes shine in the dish. The ham will lend our savory flavors while our aromatics – granulated garlic and onions will deepen it. Salt, pepper and olive oil will all play a part by adding a subtle taste that will surely make you want more.

How to make cheesy Mexican potatoes (papas con jamón y queso)

Heat up the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes while stirring ocassionally.

Next add the sliced onion and the chopped serrano pepper to the skillet. Season with salt and black pepper.

Then add the granulated garlic and stir. Cook for 4 more minutes or until the onion has softened.

Now it’s time to add the chopped ham. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes while stirring frequently.

Then reduce the heat to medium low and cover. Cook for another 5 minutes.

Remove the lid and add the shredded mozzarella. Cover and let cook for about a minute or until the cheese has melted.

The cheesy Mexican potatoes are now ready to serve! They only took about 20 minutes to fully cook.

I know some cooks like to parboil the potatoes before adding them to the skillet. I however don’t.

To me it’s easier this way as I don’t have to dirty up another dish. Plus these Mexican style potatoes really don’t take that long to cook in a skillet as long as the potatoes are chopped into small bite sized pieces.

What to serve with it

You can serve these cheesy Mexican potatoes as a side to many dishes. It doesn’t have to be for breakfast only. Try them inside of homemade taco shells. I like to serve them with a side of Mexican pinto beans.

This potato dish also goes well with many other main dishes such as cajun seasoned chicken or chicken milanesa. Move aside potato gratin, cheesy Mexican potatoes will make your Sunday meals shine brighter.

These potatoes also go great with some salsa or topped with sour cream and green onions much like baked potatoes – only cheesier!

Did you give this recipe a try? Let us know what you think of it in the comments below and don’t forget to rate it!

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