Honey Baked Ham

Published December 15, 2022

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A Honey Baked Ham recipe made at home for a fraction of the price you’d pay at a store with a flavor that’s just as delicious! The salty, hickory smoke flavor of the ham is perfectly balanced with a sweet and sticky honey and brown sugar glaze, which also has delicious hints of warm spices to compliment it.

Honey Baked Ham

Honey Baked Ham Recipe

A go-to method for spiral sliced ham. In the past I’ve hated how I’d always ended up with some dry slices, but not here.

I like Cook’s Illustrated’s method for spiral sliced ham so I used the same method here and just added different glaze rather than the orange maple one they used.

So many ham recipes (at the same weight) are cooked at 375 degrees for up to 3 hours but why? The ham is already fully cooked, it just needs to be warmed through for serving.

Here the ham is first brought up to room temperature in warm water so it heats more evenly in the oven. From there it’s wrapped in an oven bag for faster cooking, and moister end result.

And then finally at the end it’s unwrapped and coated with the glaze and heated at a higher temperature to help brown and caramelize it a bit.

It’s the perfect protein for a holiday feast!

Brushing glaze over honey baked ham in roasting pan

Homemade Honey Baked Ham Recipe Ingredients

  • Fully cooked spiral sliced ham
  • Unsalted butter
  • Honey
  • Light brown sugar
  • Dijon mustard
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Ground cinnamon
  • Ground ginger
  • Ground cloves
  • Fresh orange zest (optional)
  • And you’ll also need 1 oven bag

Scroll below for full printable recipe.

How to Make Honey Baked Ham

  1. Let covered ham rest in warm water for 90 minutes, changing water halfway through.
  2. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Unwrap ham then transfer to oven bag.
  3. Bake ham in roasting pan in oven until center registers 100 degrees on an instant read thermometer, about 1 – 1 1/2 hours (about 10 minutes per pound).
  4. Meanwhile prepare glaze and let cool slightly.
  5. Remove ham from oven. Increase oven temperature to 375 degrees. Cut oven bag and roll down to expose ham. Brush all over with 1/2 of the glaze.
  6. Bake in oven 5 minutes then remove and brush with remaining glaze. Bake 10 minutes longer. Remove from oven, tent with foil and let rest 10 minutes before carving and serving.

Honey Baked Ham after baking in oven

The Perfect Holiday Ham

It’s such a delicious holiday ham, trust me! Chances are everyone will be heading back for a second slice, and luckily there’s plenty.

If you don’t like a hint of orange then I do suggest omitting the orange zest because it does add a noticeable orange zip, other than that though I definitely recommend leaving everything else the same.

Honey Baked Ham on a serving platter garnished with a wreath of fresh rosemary, bay leaves and cranberries.

What If I Don’t Own a Roasting Pan?

And if you don’t own a roasting pan (I know they are such a pain to store) you could just use one of the disposable ones the grocery stores sell this time of year. They are very flimsy though so transfer carefully.

It may be tempting to just use a large pot but I wouldn’t recommend it because the ham won’t be able to brown very well at the end.

Close up image of honey baked ham slices

What Should I Serve with This Ham?

And then why not finish with Vanilla Bean Cheesecake or Peppermint Bark Cheesecake?

Honey baked ham slices on white serving platter garnished with fresh herbs and cranberries

16 Quick & Easy 30 Minute Recipes! (plus weekly recipe updates)

Honey Glazed Ham
4.95 from 18 votes

Honey Baked Ham

An amazingly delicious holiday ham! Baked in an oven bag and cooked at a low temperature so you don't end up with dry slices. And that sweet honey glaze is the perfect finish to the salty hickory smoked ham.
Servings: 16
Prep15 minutes
Cook1 hour 50 minutes
Ready in: 3 hours 45 minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Leave ham's plastic or foil covering intact and place ham in a large container (or a clean sink that plugs up well) and cover with hot tap water. Let rest 45 minutes. 
  • Drain water then cover with hot tap water again and let rest 45 minutes longer. Near the end adjust oven rack to lowest position and preheat oven to 250 degrees. 
  • Unwrap ham and remove plastic disk below ham bone. Place ham in oven bag and wrap bag so it fits snugly around ham. Tie bag and cut away excess plastic on top. Cut 4 small slits in top of bag.  
  • Set ham cut-side down in a large roasting pan and bake in preheated oven until center registers 100 degrees on an instant read thermometer, about 1 - 1 1/2 hours (about 10 minutes per pound).  
  • Near the end of baking, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add in brown sugar, honey, mustard, pepper, cinnamon, ginger and cloves and cook, whisking constantly, just until sugar dissolves, about 2 - 3 minutes. Stir in orange zest and let cool just until it's about the consistency of honey, about 10 minutes (when ready to glaze ham rewarm glaze as needed if it has thickened too much). 
  • Remove ham from oven. Increase oven temperature to 375 degrees. Cut oven bag and roll down to expose ham. Brush all over with 1/2 of the glaze. Bake in oven 5 minutes then remove and brush with remaining glaze. Bake 10 minutes longer. Remove from oven, tent with foil and let rest 10 minutes before carving and serving.
  • Recipe source: cooking method adapted from Cooks Illustrated

Notes

*Buy a ham that doesn't have water added.
Recipe originally published titled “Honey Glazed Ham”.

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55 Comments

  • Stephanie

    I had already purchased a spiral sliced ham and was only looking for a better, more flavorful glaze than the one it came with…. However, I decided to try the entire recipe…. The method used to heat the ham very slowly in a cooking bag (I always have at least one left over from Thanksgiving so I didn’t even need run out and grab a box of them ????) after letting it warm to room temperature, made the ham very, very moist and the overall flavor was truly better than any ham we’ve ever had (including the very, very expensive $100 Honey Baked Ham we purchased for Thanksgiving. Basically I wasted $90 plus an hour of my time waiting just to pick it up even though I’d preordered and prepaid for a very dry and by far inferior in almost every way you could imagine ham… The ham we used to make this was on sale for $10.00!) I did omit the orange zest simply because we like the sweetness of the honey/cinnamon flavor as it offsets the saltiness of the ham and I used more brown sugar and cinnamon (and in the future will probably make other adjustments to find the perfect balance of salty/sweet) but overall I did more or less use this recipe. The key is definitely the method this recipe uses to slowly warm up the ham combined with the sweetness of the glaze. I will never again pay high dollar for a ham, this recipe is going to be added to my favorites. Hands down the BEST HAM we’ve ever had! We had expected to have leftovers for our small New Years Eve party but our ham was completely devoured even though it was one of 4 different meat dishes prepared by others for our family Christmas get together (celebrated 12/29) so I guess we’ll probably be grabbing another ham to prepare for our party with friends tonight????

  • jennifer collinsg

    My family couldn’t believe how delicious was the Honey glaze ham.

  • April

    This was delicious! I made it for our Christmas dinner and everyone loved it. The glaze was very easy to make and so good.

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      I’m so glad it was enjoyed April! I hope you had a great Christmas! Thanks for your review!

    • Hillary

      Hi! I only have foil as well, can I put foil
      Over the top or wrap the entire ham in foil? Thanks

      • Jaclyn

        Jaclyn Bell

        I would just wrap the baking dish tightly with foil then increase bake time slightly to reach proper temp.

  • Nancy Lee

    There really is no ham better than a honey glazed ham! The sweetness of the honey pairs so perfectly with the saltiness of the ham.

  • Laurel

    Well, this settles it! I’ve been pondering for two weeks what to serve to a large post Christmas family gathering. This ham recipe looks just perfect, and easy enough that I won’t be tied to the kitchen. Thank you!

  • Carol R

    We have been heating our spiral sliced hams the Cook’s Illustrated way for a long time now. It is the ONLY way to make it! Every slice is so moist! I will be trying your glaze. Sounds delicious! Merry Christmas!

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Glad to hear you love their method too! And I hope you love this glaze. Happy Holidays Carol!