Honey Baked Ham Recipe (2024)

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Impress your friends and family with this delicious homemade Honey Baked Ham recipe! It’s perfect for holiday dinners, like Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas, or special occasions throughout the year. It’s roasted with a sweet honey glaze, then finished with a caramelized brown sugar crust on the outside. This ham is juicy, sweet, flavorful, and surprisingly easy to make at home!

Create the perfect centerpiece for any holiday dinner table, with this honey baked ham recipe. For years, my family would pick up a store-bought honey glazed ham for holiday meals. Then one Easter we decided to make our own with a spiral ham from the grocery store. And the game was changed forever!

This homemade copycat recipe of a honey baked ham is actually really easy to make, and it’s a fraction of the cost of buying it premade. Now, this perfectly sweet and juicy ham sits on the middle of the dinner table for every Easter and Christmas meal, and it’s everyone’s favorite dish!

A tasty honey glaze with dijon mustard and pineapple juice adds a hint of tangy, tart flavors and a delicious sweet layer of flavor on the ham. But the real secret here is the caramelized brown sugar crust at the end. This is the signature step that creates a true copycat version of the honey baked ham classic!

Ingredients

For the full ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

• Bone-In Spiral Sliced Ham – this recipe will work for any size ham, but using the measurements in this recipe, you’ll want a ham that’s 8-12 pounds. If your ham is smaller, around 4-6 pounds, you’ll want to cut the ingredients in half for the glaze. I recommend using a spiral sliced ham, as it’s already sliced, and it’s what you’re most likely to find at a traditional grocery store. The ham will also be fully cooked, so you’re not glazing and “cooking” the ham, you’re basically glazing and heating the ham up in the oven.
• Pineapple juice (optional) – the pineapple juice is poured in the bottom of the roasting pan, and will keep the ham moist during the cooking process. You’ll also use the drippings from the ham that combine with the pineapple juice in the bottom of the pan, to make the glaze to finish the ham. You can use water instead, but the glaze won’t have as much flavor.
• Butter – melted and combined with the honey and mustard, this ingredient gives the ham a rich, buttery flavor as it roasts in the oven.
• Honey – the key ingredient to making this sticky sweet honey glazed ham.
• Dijon mustard – the acidity and tanginess of the dijon mustard helps balance out the sweetness in this dish. It’s asecret ingredientthat you should always add to your honey baked ham!
• Brown sugar – to create the sweet caramelized crust on the outside of the ham.
• Spices – salt, garlic powder, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, ground cloves, paprika and allspice combine to season the glaze for the ham.

Instructions

I’ve included step by step photos below to make this recipe super easy to follow at home. For the full detailed recipe instructions, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

1. Line the bottom of a roasting pan with a large piece of aluminum foil (for easy clean-up). Pour pineapple juice, or water, into the bottom of the lined roasting pan. Place a spiral ham, flat side down, on a rack in the roasting pan.
2. In a small bowl, combine melted butter, honey and dijon mustard.
3. Use your hands to massage the honey butter mixture over the entire ham, including in between the slices. Cover loosely with a piece of foil. Bake in a preheated 275°F oven for 12-15 minutes per pound of ham. For a 10-12 pound ham, this will be between 2-3 hours.
4. While the ham is cooking, combine brown sugar, salt, garlic powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, paprika and allspice in a bowl. Set this mixture aside.
5. After the cooking time on the ham is complete, remove the ham from the oven. Turn the oven from bake to broil on low. Move one rack in the oven to the lowest position. Remove the other racks, so that you can place the ham backin the oven on the lowest possible rack.
6. Tilt one corner of the roasting pan up, so that the liquid flows to the other corner. Reach a tablespoon or small measuring cup in the roasting pan and remove ¼ cup of the liquid from the bottom of the roasting pan. Place this liquid in a small saucepan, along with half of the brown sugar spice mixture.
7. Cover the tops and sides of the ham with the remaining half of the brown sugar mixture. (I like to use heat-proof gloves for this.) Place the ham back in the oven on the lowest oven rack to broil for 2-3 minutes, or until the sugar starts to caramelize over the ham, but does not burn. Watch the ham in the oven during this time. Do not walk away! Remove the ham from the oven when it’s light brown and bubbling on the outside.
8. Place the saucepan with the drippings and brown sugar mixture on the stove over high heat. Stir and bring the mixture to a boil. After the mixture boils, let it simmer for 1 minute, then remove it from the heat.
9. Brush this mixture over the ham, then place the ham back in the oven on the lowest rack, under the broiler for 2-3 minutes. Once again, watch the ham during this time to make sure that the glaze caramelizes on the ham without burning.
10. Remove the ham from the oven and let it rest for 15-20 minutes at room temperature before serving.

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originally published March 11, 2024 — last updated May 20, 2024 0 Comments

Posted in: Christmas Recipes, Dinner Recipes, Easter Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Pork Recipes, Recipes, Thanksgiving Recipes, WB Favorites