Decades ago, a friend showed up at a holiday party with a standout Honey Baked Ham that got everyone’s attention. It was and continues to be the ONLY homemade honey baked ham recipe I’ve ever liked.
Not only is this honey baked ham unbelievably easy to make, it’s restaurant-quality ham for a fraction of the price. Perfect for Christmas, Easter, or anytime your family craves a simple yet amazing ham.
This Honey Baked Ham tastes like you’ve spent much more time on it than you really did; expect requests for the recipe. This is the easy honey ham recipe you’ll return to over an over again. We love it paired with this Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes or this Garlic-Butter Roasted Potatoes! ✨
HOMEMADE HONEY BAKED HAM INGREDIENTS
Just look at the golden brown goodness. You’ll need just 5 simple ingredients:
- Brown Sugar provides a warm molasses sweetness to the sauce. Be sure to pack it down tight when measuring.
- Whole Grain Mustard, sometimes known as country style mustard, is key to the delectable honey mustard sauce. It’s not your average yellow mustard.
- Honey works together with the brown sugar to bring a tantalizing sweetness to the salty ham. This honey is my favorite, as it’s raw, unfiltered, organic, and affordable.
- Apple Cider or Juice brings a sweet acidity to the basting sauce. Be sure you’re getting juice and not vinegar.
- Spiral-Sliced Ham
- Here’s a tidbit about coarse ground or country style mustard, with visible mustard seeds within. It makes a notable difference in flavor. We use it for this Honey Mustard Chicken with Curry, which tastes amazing.
HOW TO MAKE HONEY BAKED HAM: KEY TIPS
- Be sure to get the spiral sliced ham if you want ease of slicing; plus, the juices really sink in with the pre-sliced ham cooking in the oven.
- Basting sauce can be made several days ahead of time and reheated when ready to use.
- Don’t skimp on the basting sessions – baste ham every 15 minutes during baking, for juicy results.
- If you’d like to serve the ham with slices arranged in a dish for easy serving, simply arrange the slices in your choice of serving dish and brush the sauce in between slices and on top. This ensures that every slice will be juicy and flavorful.
Ingredients:
- 4-5 lbs ham, spiral-sliced, fully cooked
- 1 cup apple cider, juice (not vinegar)
- ¼ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- ¼ cup whole grain mustard, prepared mustard jar with whole mustard seeds
- ¼ cup honey
Instructions:
- Preheat: Heat oven to 350F with rack on lower position.
- Make Sauce: Mix together apple cider, brown sugar, mustard, and honey in a bowl. Mix well to fully incorporate basting sauce.
- Bake: Place ham in a 13×9 baking dish. Coat ham with a generous amount of sauce. Bake for 60-70 minutes, basting thoroughly every 15 minutes.
- Serve: To serve pre-cut slices of ham, arrange slices neatly on a serving dish and brush more sauce all over ham slices. Serve with leftover sauce.
If serving ham whole, be sure to have sauce available for drizzling. The sauce is what makes this ham so great!
Equipment
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Basting Brush
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Baking Dish, Oven Proof
Notes
- Honey mustard sauce is more of a saucy au jus consistency, rather than a thicker gravy texture.
- If you prefer your sauce thicker: place sauce in a saucepan and bring to a low boil. In a small bowl, stir and dissolve 1 TB cornstarch in 2 TB cool water to make a cornstarch slurry. Stir in slurry a little at a time to the boiling sauce, adding only as much as needed until sauce is thickened to your liking.
- This ham is amazing with Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes or Garlic-Butter Potatoes!
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