These country ham biscuits are tender, flaky, and packed with salty, smoky flavor—all with just three ingredients. No rolling pin, yeast, or complicated prep required. You’re going to love how quickly they disappear from the tray.
Why You’ll Love It
- Just three ingredients — self-rising biscuit mix, cold buttermilk, and country ham.
- No complicated prep — no rolling pin, yeast, or extra bowls needed.
- Big country ham flavor — salty, rich cured ham makes these biscuits feel like a meal.
- Perfect for breakfast or dinner — serve them with eggs, beans, greens, or coffee.
Ingredient Notes
Use a self-rising biscuit mix here—the kind intended specifically for biscuits. It already has the flour, leavening, and salt figured out, which is what keeps this a true three-ingredient recipe. A familiar yellow box works well, but any self-rising biscuit mix will do the job.
Cold whole buttermilk matters. Don’t warm it up or leave it on the counter. Cold buttermilk helps keep the dough tender, and tender is what we’re after. Start with the smaller amount, because biscuit dough can go from “soft and shaggy” to “why is this on my elbows?” pretty fast.
For the ham, you want fully cooked country ham, finely chopped, with the big pieces of excess fat trimmed away. Country ham is naturally salty—wonderfully salty, though it can call for a gallon of water afterward. If yours seems especially aggressive, you can rinse it briefly under cool water, pat it dry well, then chop it. A quick rinse can help when needed.
Ingredients
- 2 cups self-rising biscuit mix
- 3/4 to 1 cup cold whole buttermilk, starting with 3/4 cup and adding more only as needed
- 1 1/2 cups finely chopped cooked country ham, about 6 to 8 ounces, with excess fat trimmed away
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or lightly grease it. Parchment helps avoid scrubbing browned biscuit bits off pans.
- Put the finely chopped cooked country ham in a small bowl and set it aside. Try to keep the pieces fairly small so you get ham in every bite instead of a giant salty chunk.
- Add the self-rising biscuit mix to a medium mixing bowl, then make a little well in the center with your fingers or the back of a spoon. Pour in 3/4 cup of the cold buttermilk.
- Stir gently from the center outward using a fork or your hand, just until the dough begins to come together. If you still see dry pockets of mix, add more buttermilk a tablespoon at a time until you have a soft, shaggy dough. It should be moist but not soupy—think slightly untidy, not pancake batter.
- Sprinkle the chopped country ham over the dough and gently fold it in until it is distributed throughout. Don’t work the dough to death here, or the biscuits can come out tough.
- Lightly dust the countertop or a large cutting board with a spoonful of biscuit mix, then turn out the dough. Pat it gently into a rectangle about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. If it sticks to your hands, dust your hands with a little more mix—but don’t keep adding flour until the dough turns dry and sad.
- Fold the dough in half like a book, then pat it back out again to about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. That one simple fold makes a difference; it gives you those flaky little layers without turning this into an all-day biscuit project.
- Cut the dough with a small round biscuit cutter, around 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide, or use the rim of a floured small glass. Press straight down and lift straight up—don’t twist the cutter.
- Gather the scraps gently, pat them together, and cut more biscuits until you have used all the dough. The last couple may look a little scrappy around the edges. They still taste just fine, and those are usually the ones to “test” before serving.
- Arrange the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet so they are just barely touching. That helps them rise upward and keeps the sides soft while the tops and edges get nicely golden.
- Bake on the center rack for 10 to 14 minutes, until the biscuits are puffed and deeply golden on top, with lightly caramelized bits where the ham meets the dough. Start checking around 10 minutes; ovens have personalities and can run hot.
- Let the biscuits rest on the pan for 5 minutes before moving them to a serving plate. They will be hot inside, and that short rest gives the crumb time to settle without losing that soft, steamy center.
Variations
If you have rendered fat from cooking country ham, you can replace part of the buttermilk with a little of that cooled-but-still-liquid fat for an even richer biscuit. It doesn’t add a new ingredient in the spirit of things, though it does stretch the definition a little.
Make these a little larger and use them for breakfast sandwiches. Slice them open and add eggs, which is perfectly delicious, though it does turn a nice simple biscuit into an event. For smaller biscuits, watch the baking time closely, since they can bake faster than expected and turn a touch dry.
If your country ham is especially salty, that quick rinse and thorough pat-dry can soften it a bit. And if you don’t have self-rising biscuit mix, you can make your own blend with flour, baking powder, and salt—but then we have wandered right out of three-ingredient territory, haven’t we?
Storage & Reheating
Let leftover biscuits cool completely, then keep them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 to 4 days. Because of the ham, don’t leave them sitting out longer than 2 hours, especially if they’ve been hanging around a buffet table.
To reheat, put them in a 300°F oven until warmed through. Set them directly on a small baking sheet and give them maybe 8 to 12 minutes, depending on their size. The microwave will warm them, sure, but it can make the biscuit part a little rubbery. The low oven is better.
Final Notes
There is something comforting about a recipe that doesn’t ask much of you. Three ingredients, one bowl, a warm tray of biscuits. That’s it. No fancy garnish, no drizzle, no little herb sprig balanced on top like we’re auditioning for television.
Make these when the kitchen feels quiet, or when it feels too loud. Make them with coffee, with eggs, with beans, or just because there’s country ham in the refrigerator and you need something warm. The edges will brown, the ham will perfume the whole house, and the warm biscuits will draw everyone toward the kitchen.
Southern 3-Ingredient Country Ham Biscuits
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Ingredients
- 2 cups self-rising biscuit mix
- 3/4 to 1 cup cold whole buttermilk Start with 3/4 cup and add more only as needed.
- 1 1/2 cups cooked country ham Finely chopped, about 6 to 8 ounces, with excess fat trimmed away.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or lightly grease it.
- Put the finely chopped cooked country ham in a small bowl and set it aside.
- Add the self-rising biscuit mix to a medium mixing bowl, make a well in the center, and pour in 3/4 cup of the cold buttermilk.
- Stir gently from the center outward using a fork or your hand until the dough begins to come together, adding more buttermilk a tablespoon at a time if dry pockets remain, until you have a soft, shaggy dough.
- Sprinkle the chopped country ham over the dough and gently fold it in until it is distributed throughout.
- Lightly dust the countertop or a large cutting board with biscuit mix, turn out the dough, and gently pat it into a rectangle about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick.
- Fold the dough in half like a book, then pat it back out to about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick.
- Cut the dough with a small round biscuit cutter about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide, pressing straight down and lifting straight up without twisting.
- Gather the scraps gently, pat them together, and cut more biscuits until all the dough is used.
- Arrange the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet so they are just barely touching.
- Bake on the center rack for 10 to 14 minutes, until the biscuits are puffed and deeply golden on top, with lightly caramelized bits where the ham meets the dough.
- Let the biscuits rest on the pan for 5 minutes before moving them to a serving plate.
