Deviled Ham Salad

Ham salad just sounds weird, I know. Chicken salad and tuna salad not so much, despite that they too, are creamy meat-based concoctions. For some reason ham + salad just doesn't seem right. And yet right it is, very right indeed. This lightly spicy deviled ham salad is good on rye bread or a crusty sourdough, and makes a satisfying picnic treat. For best texture results, I prefer to get thin sliced deli ham, like Saag's Black Forest—even though it's going in the food processor later, I still think this gives you a better result. Of course left over Easter ham is okay to use too. Mmmm, ham.

Deviled Ham Salad
adapted from Food and Wine Magazine

1 pound sliced deli ham
¼ cup sliced shallot
1 tsp serrano chile, chopped
1 Tbsp jalapeno pepper, chopped
½ cup parsley
¼ cup mayo
¼ cup sour cream
1 Tbsp spicy or whole grain mustard
1-2 tsp hot sauce
pinch of kosher salt

Add shallot and peppers to the food processor* and pulse until finely chopped. Tear the meat into manageable pieces and add it to the mix with the parsley, pulse until the ham mixture is as fine as you'd like it. Transfer meat mix to a bowl, add mayo through kosher salt and stir until ingredients are well mixed.

*You don't absolutely need a food processor for this—you can always just chop all the ingredients and mix them, however I prefer this method and more importantly it's easier and I'm lazy.