Follow along to learn how to make a Simple Baked Ham and so much more! This is your ultimate guide to baking a tender and juicy ham every time. The perfect dish for your next holiday get together or special occasion!
An Easy Baked Ham Recipe
Our family typically bakes a ham for a variety of different special occasions or holidays. It is a popular choice for feeding a crowd! This foolproof recipe will result in a juicy and tender ham every time. We love serving it for Easter dinner, Christmas dinner, or Thanksgiving dinner alongside a variety of delicious side dish recipes, dessert, and a cocktail or two for an amazing dinner that everyone is going to love!
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Moist and Juicy – The way we bake the ham in this oven-baked ham recipe ensures it stays moist and juicy!
- Holidays – A delicious ham roasting in the oven is a staple for any holiday in our house.
- Family Friendly – This is a tried and true recipe that the whole family is guaranteed to love!
What You Will Need
- Half ham – typically every fresh ham at the local grocery store or butcher shop will be a pre-cooked ham. We love using a bone-in ham for the best flavor, but any kind of ham works – boneless ham or spiral-cut ham, if you want.
- Apple juice or apple cider – this just goes in the roasting pan to keep everything moist!
Recipe FAQs and Tips
- How long to bake your ham? you will be baking your ham for 18-24 minutes per pound or until the ham reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees F.
- Is a ham pre-cooked or raw when you buy it? When you purchase a ham from the store most have been cured, smoked or baked so it is considered precooked ham (it should also say so on the package). Here is a nice rundown of how to tell if your ham is pre-cooked or not.
- Bring to room temp: we highly recommend bringing your ham to room temp before baking but if you don’t have time that’s fine the cooking time will just be a little longer.
- Can I add a sweet glaze? Absolutely! We love using our Honey Bourbon Ham Glaze to make it the perfect glazed ham!
- What if it gets done early? depending on the size of your ham, cook time can vary and it could possibly get done before you are ready to eat. If that’s the case, simply wrap it in aluminum foil and then again with a large kitchen towel until you are ready to carve.
- Ham taking too long to cook? If you are getting close to time to eat and your ham temperature seems to have stalled, simply turn the temp up to 350 or even 375 for a little while to finish it off.
- Covering the ham: you will want to loosely cover the ham with aluminum foil while baking. Only remove to baste the ham and then cover again.
- Roasting pan: You can skip the roasting pan + apple cider and simply place your ham, cut-side down, on a roasting pan. You will still need to tent it with foil – otherwise you can follow the same instructions above.
How to Bake a Ham
Remove the ham from the fridge and bring to room temperature. Rinse your ham and pat it dry with clean paper towels. Preheat the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.
Whole30 Compliant Ham Brands (Paleo)
If you are looking for a ham brand that is Whole30 compatible and paleo this option at Pederson Farms is the best one I have found!
Then place the ham on a shallow roasting pan and pour apple juice/cider in the bottom. Roast at 325 degrees F until internal temp reaches 140 degrees F at the thickest part of the ham.
Slice the fully cooked ham with a large, sharp knife and serve!
Holiday Side Dishes You Might Like
Dairy Free Green Bean Casserole
Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
Gluten Free Cornbread
The BEST Deviled Eggs
What To Do With The Leftovers
After every holiday we are always left with the feeling of what do we do with all these leftovers!? First, place you can place the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the fridge for 3-5 days. Then, when you feel up to it, we have some favorite leftover recipes that we might love even more than the holiday meal itself (if that’s possible) – Leftover Ham Bone Soup and Split Pea and Ham Soup.
Other Recipes You Might Like
Goat Cheese Potatoes Au Gratin
Sweet Yam + Apple Bake
Easy Sweet Potato Mash Recipe
Instant Pot Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Made this recipe and loved it?! We would love it if you would take a minute and leave a star rating and review – it is also helpful if you made any substitutions or changes to the recipe to share that as well. THANK YOU!
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Baked Ham Recipe (How To Bake A Ham)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 14 servings 1x
- Category: Dinner/Entree
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Baked Ham Recipe (How To Bake A Ham) – an easy, simple recipe for your classic baked ham! Great for any special occasion!
Ingredients
- (1) 6-8 pound, half of ham, bone-in, pre-cooked
- 1–2 cups apple juice or apple cider
Instructions
- Allow the ham to come to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Pour apple juice (or apple cider) into the bottom of a roasting pan. Place the roasting rack inside the roasting pan and set the ham on top of that, cut-side down.
- Loosely tent or cover the ham with aluminum foil.
- Place in the preheated oven, middle rack, and bake for 18-24 minutes per pound of ham or until the ham reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees F.
- Remove from oven and let rest 15 minutes.
- Slice and serve.
Notes
- Bring ham to room temp: If you forget to take the ham out of the fridge, you can still bake it according to this recipe, but the cooking time will be longer.
- Internal temp: the best way to track how close your ham is to being done is to use an internal meat thermometer to test the very center of your ham. Once it reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees F. it is done.
- Ham done too early: Sometimes, depending upon the thickness of your ham, it may get done early. If so, simply remove it from the oven, wrap it in foil and then wrap it again with a large kitchen towel and set it aside. Carve before serving.
- Ham temperature not rising fast enough: If you are getting close to time to eat and your ham temperature seems to have stalled, simply turn the temp up to 350 or even 375 for a little while to finish it off.
- Large Roasting pan: You can skip the roasting pan + apple cider and simply place your ham, cut-side down, on a roasting pan. You will still need to tent it with foil – otherwise you can follow the same instructions above.
Keywords: baked ham recipe, how to cook a ham, how to bake a ham
Carol Short says
HI Erin,
I have been making your recipes for a while now, and they are all delicious. Thank you for developing and sharing very yummy food! I am curious, though, about this ham recipe being classified as Paleo. Any/all processed meat is frowned upon in the true version of the Paleo Diet. Ham is cured with sugar and is also quite salty. Bacon is also not considered Paleo, along with cold cuts etc.
Carol
Erin says
Hi Carol! So this would only be Paleo/Whole30 if you used the ham I have linked in the body of the post from Pederson’s farm that is Whole30 approved, made with no sugar, etc. Otherwise if you use a regular, run-of-the-mill ham it wouldn’t be paleo, but I will expand upon that in the post since it must not have been clear enough! Thanks! (link to paleo/whole30 ham: https://pedersonsfarms.com/products/spiral-sliced-no-sugar-added-boneless-smoked-uncured-ham-1-pack?_pos=1&_sid=e5c0e190d&_ss=r )