The Best Ham Biscuits

You may know these as ham and cheese sliders, but where I grew up, we knew and loved them as plain old ham biscuits or poppy seed party ham biscuits. They are seriously the best little sliders in all the land. I am not even kidding about how great they are!

These are one of my favorite retro appetizers and one that my mom used to make pretty frequently for parties, along with her cheese olive puffs.

For ease of browsing, here are all of my appetizer recipes in one spot. Thanks for stopping by!

Ham Biscuits, At a Glance

✔️Skill Level: Beginner
✔️Skills: mixing, slicing, heating
✔️Type: Appetizer sandwiches
✔️Number of Ingredients: 9
✔️Prep Time: 15 minutes
✔️Cook Time: 15 minutes
✔️Yield: 24 sliders

Jump Straight to the Recipe

All I can say, is if you haven’t made these yet then why the hell not?! They are awesome. Seriously awesome. Nothing more I can say about then expect make them. Really put the ingredients on your shopping list and go home and make them. Thanks Jenni.

Reader Deon

Poppy Seed Party Ham Biscuits

These little guys seem to be making a comeback, and I am here for it.

And I say hooray, because while they might be new to many folks, I’ve been enjoying these little dudes for probably 45 years at our neighborhood Christmas Eve Party.

Yes, this is another retro recipe, and since it is exploding in popularity on social media, I wondered if it was even worthwhile to post this version. I asked my readers, and many of them had still not heard of these guys, so I figure it’s my duty to share.

I’ve had other people’s ham biscuits, but honestly nothing I’ve had so far has compared to what I (and probably my entire old neighborhood) consider the best poppy seed party ham biscuits.

What Makes These the Best?

I’m here to tell you that I’m not really sure. Here are some ideas.

• It might be the ratio of mustard to butter
• It could be the amount of Worcestershire sauce
• It may even be the finely chopped onion<
• It could also be the Very Very Lot of poppy seeds

Whatever it is, though, they really are the best. Please give them a try, and you’ll see.

Reader Rave

I had low expectations for these because I’m not a ham sandwich kind of person, but even I was won over by them (I personally think it’s the mustard/butter ratio), but OMG my eaters are absolutely bonkers for them. I’ve been making them ever since you first posted them, and at least once a month I MUST make a dinner of these with soup and a salad, or I never stop hearing the end of it. They’re a massive crowd pleaser!

Reader MaggieToo

Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make these guys:

• butter: Use salted or unsalted. This is the main spread for the rolls that carries all the flavor and soaks into the bread
• minced onion: You don’t need a ton. I usually just cut *some* onion and mince it finely
• poppy seeds: If yours have been sitting around for a long time, buy fresh ones. Poppy seeds go rancid pretty quickly, and rancid poppy seeds will ruin your rolls. They should smell slightly sweet. You will know if they’re rancid, because they’ll smell like old, stale oil
• yellow mustard: You can experiment with other mustards, but yellow is what I always use, because that’s how mom made them
• Worcestershire sauce: Adds some salt and lovely umami flavor
• salt: (omit if you use salted butter)
• deli ham: (boiled ham, honey ham, or your favorite)
• Swiss cheese:
• Hawaiian rolls: My preference is for the Savory Butter variety, but the standard, sweeter rolls work just fine as well

Making Party Ham Biscuits in the Oven

This is definitely my preferred way to make party ham biscuits, you guys. Follow the instructions in the recipe or in the video, but here they are in shortened form:

1. Slice an entire tray of Hawaiian rolls horizontally. (We used to make these on Pepperidge Farms Petite Dinner Rolls, but I haven’t seen those in years. I prefer the King’s Hawaiian Savory Butter Rolls to the sweet rolls for this recipe.)
2. Spread each cut side with half the butter/poppy seed mixture
3. Layer on Swiss cheese, followed by ham and more cheese.
4. Put the top of the package of rolls back on top.
5. Place the whole shebang back in the original paper sleeve–yes, the paper tray can go in the oven!
6. Cut between the individual rolls to separate them and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. If you need to leave them in longer for the cheese in the center to get melty, cover the rolls loosely with foil so the tops don’t get too brown.
7. Enjoy!

Process Shots

If you’re ready to make these, please just jump straight to the recipe.

If you are a visual learner, read on to see some photo collages showing the process.

Making the Poppy Seed Spread

Cube your butter and make sure it is very soft. It’s okay to microwave it for a few seconds, but you don’t want it melted.

Mix everything together evenly with a spatula.

Spread each side of the cut rolls with the poppy seed mixture. Note how thoroughly it’s spread. You really want every square inch coated with the butter so it soaks evenly into the rolls.

Building the Biscuits

My preferred way of building these biscuits is to add 1 layer of Swiss cheese on one side of the rolls and 2 layers on the other side.

Then pile on the ham. If you have rectangular or square slices, don’t bend them. Just lay them on in 2 layers. If you have “round ham,” just pile it on evenly. In this photo I used 8 oz of ham to fill the biscuits.

Carefully put the top half of the flat of rolls, along with its spread and cheese, back on top of the “ham side” and line up all the edges inside the paper tray the rolls came in.

Take a bread knife and slice between each roll for easier removal when it’s time to bake.

Store the filled biscuits back in the wrapper the rolls came in. They’ll be fine in the fridge for up to a week.

Heating/Baking

Remove the number of rolls you want to bake and place them on a baking tray to bake either in your oven at 350F or in your toaster oven at 350F.

Space them about an inch apart so they will heat evenly.

Cover the tops with foil and bake for 15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

After 15 minutes, if the cheese doesn’t seem to be completely melted, remove them to a microwave-safe plate or tray and microwave for a few additional seconds.

How To Keep These Guys Warm for Serving

Generally, these fly off the table so quickly that we’ve never had to worry about keeping them warm. But if you are serving a Suspicious crowd, they may hang out on the buffet a bit longer.

My mom had a very cool, lidded, warming server back in the 1970s, and it was used almost exclusively for these guys or her cheese olive puffs.

I have found something similar that works well:

Reheating Ham Biscuits In the Microwave

The good news about heating your ham biscuits in the microwave is that it only takes a few seconds and the rolls stay nice and squishy.

If you like your rolls squishy, stick with the microwave for reheating.

If you prefer your sliders to have a bit of crunch to the rolls, then bake them in the oven.

I would not try to heat the entire tray of biscuits in the microwave at one time, so reserve the microwave for reheating individual servings of a roll or two and bake whole trays in a conventional oven or a good toaster oven.

More Retro Appetizer Recipes

These are some of my all-time favorite appetizer recipes. I hope you’ll enjoy them too!

• Smoked Pimento Cheese (because: pimento cheese!)
• Spicy Queso Dip (this recipe makes a ton so it’s great for parties)
• Bread Pretzels with Beer Cheese (even if you don’t want to bake your own pretzels, make the beer cheese. Seriously.)

You ready to make these guys? And seriously, you don’t have to share if you don’t want to!

Questions?

If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.

Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.

If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.

Thanks so much for spending some time with me today.

Take care, y’all.