This recipe is my take on a homemade baked Spanish tortilla with ham and jalapeños. I love making Spanish tortillas – they’re very satisfying and of course very versatile: a tortilla can be served for many different occasions and is easily customized. As you might have realized I really like adding my own twist to classic dishes. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy the classic Spanish tortilla version made with just olive oil, potatoes, eggs, and onions. However, I’ve had it enough times and wanted to make something a little bit different, so I added ham and spiced it up with some jalapeños. If you’re not a fan of spicy food you can use a milder pepper like Anaheim peppers or just good old green bell peppers. And if you live somewhere where it’s easy to find Spanish Padron peppers then you also use those instead of jalapeños.
Easy recipe to prepare a homemade Spanish tortilla with ham. This baked tortilla style omelette is made with potatoes, eggs, onions, ham, garlic, and jalapeños (or bell peppers).
Ingredients
- 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 lb of potatoes, peeled and sliced
- 1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced
- 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 12 ounces of sliced ham, cut into thin strips
- 1-2 jalapeños (can also use milder Anaheim peppers or green bell pepper), seeds and veins removed, thinly sliced or diced
- 8 eggs
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Chopped parsley
- Crumbled queso fresco
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet, frying pan or sauté pan. Add the potato slices and stir to coat with oil. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the sliced onions and crushed garlic. Mix well and continue cooking for another 10 minutes – stirring occasionally.
- Add the ham strips and sliced jalapeños, mix and cook for another 5 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Taste and season with salt – the ham is naturally salty so you probably don’t need to add much salt.
- Remove from the heat and let the potato ham mix cool for about 5 minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 375F.
- Beat eggs with some ground black pepper using a whisk or fork until you have a smooth mix.
- Add the potato ham mix to the eggs and stir gently.
- The tortillas can be baked in greased baking molds or an oven proof skillet(s). For easy removal, you can line the baking mold with parchment paper.
- Pour the tortilla mix into the baking molds and place in the pre-heated oven.
- Bake the potato and ham tortillas until they are fully cooked and they start to get golden on top. Exact baking time will vary based on the size of the baking pan and thickness of the tortilla. The smaller ones made in 5 inch cast iron pans (at less than 1 inch of thickness) took about 18-20 minutes to be done. The larger one made in a rectangular 9 inch by 5 inch pan , and about 1.5 inch thick, took about 30-35 minutes to be done.
- Remove the baked Spanish tortilla from the oven. Let it cool down a little before removing from the baking mold. If lined with parchment paper you can just gently lift it out of the pan. If prepared in small individual serving molds then they can be served directly as is. Can be served warm or cold.
- Sprinkle with chopped parsley (or cilantro) and crumbled queso fresco.
Spanish tortillas can either be fried or baked. I prepared this tortilla using a hybrid method, where I cooked the potatoes with the onions, garlic, ham and jalapeños in a frying pan – with a lot less oil than is usually used to prepare the traditional Spanish tortilla. Then I mixed the cooked potato mix with the eggs and baked it in the oven until the eggs were fully cooked. You can also cook it in the pan, but I personally prefer the oven because it cooks it evenly and you don’t have to worry about messing up the tortilla when you flip it over.
This Spanish tortilla with ham can be prepared for breakfast or brunch. You can also serve it as an appetizer; it can be served warm right out of the oven or also cold. For regular meal sized servings you can cut into large slices or bake it in individual molds. I baked it in a rectangular baking pan, but it can also be baked in a round baking pan, and sliced the same way as a pizza or pie.
For appetizer or tapas style servings you can cut it into small square bite size pieces. For a fun brunch meal you can bake it in small cast iron skillets or large ramekins. You can serve this Spanish tortilla with ham directly as is or also sprinkle it with chopped parsley and/or queso fresco.
Step by step preparation photos for this baked Spanish style tortilla with ham
*Disclosure: This Spanish tortilla with ham recipe was created for Smithfield and I received compensation for this sponsored post. All photos, recipes, opinions and ideas are 100% my own.
This was such a great recipe. Great for a nice Sunday breakfast!
I made this for dinner with a salad and my family loved it! I had tried a similar recipe that was cooked on the stove (and in a lot of oil), then transferred to ta broiler to cook the top. Baking it is a much better option and the texture is lovely. Great recipe! :)
Beautiful way to use up leftover ham!