Spiral Ham is the perfect main course for when you’re serving a crowd. Serve it with our cheesy green bean casserole, some smoked baked beans, and dinner rolls and you’ll have made the quintessential holiday plate. For more meal inspiration, check out all of our favorite side dishes to serve at your holiday dinner.
This is one of our favorite recipes to make when the whole family comes over because it’s simple, a crowd pleaser, and we can use the leftover ham throughout the week in ham bone soup, ham & cheese sliders, or in our ham & egg cups. Follow along as we share how to turn bone-in ham into a family favorite.
What You Will Need
- ham – Find a 8-10 lb ham, as this is what we tested this recipe with and it feeds around 16-18 people.
- water or apple cider – Helps to make the ham nice and juicy.
- brown sugar – Just a touch of brown sugar to pair with the savory ham
- butter – Adds so much flavor and allows the glaze to coat every inch of your ham.
- dijon mustard – We love this ingredient for it’s complex flavors that adds depth and interest.
How To Cook A Spiral Ham
While your ham comes to room temperature and your oven preheats to 325 degrees F, mix together the 3 ingredient ham glaze.
Now pour 3-4 cups of water or cider into the bottom of the pan and place the roasting rack inside the pan. Unwrap your ham and be sure to place the cut side down on the roasting rack. Brush about half of the homemade glaze over the ham, saving the rest for later. Now place it all on the middle rack of your preheated oven and let it cook for 20 minutes. Then cover it with aluminum foil and return it to the oven.
How Long To Cook A Spiral Ham
Cooking time really depends on the size of your ham. We’ve found 18-22 minutes per pound works the best. So do the math and then add an additional 20 minutes of cook time that you’ll see in the next step. Use an internal meat thermometer to make sure that the internal temp reaches 140 degrees F.
When there is approximately 15-20 minutes of cook time left, remove the ham from the oven and brush it with the second half of the sweet glaze. And really get it in there, being sure to coat every nook and cranny. Now turn your oven up to 400 degrees and return the ham to the oven, uncovered, to let it finish cooking. This will help the glaze to get caramelized. Now remove your ham for the oven and let it rest for 10-15 minutes to really allow all those flavors to seep through. Carve your ham, serve, and dig in!
Recipe FAQs
You certainly can, but just know that this will thin out the glaze a bit.
Just add a bit of water, one tablespoon at a time until you’ve reached your desired consistency.
It can be if you use dairy-free butter.
Yes! When you’re short on oven space, this is the perfect solve and we’ve got the whole recipe right here.
Made this easy spiral-cut ham 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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Other Ham Recipes You Might Like
Spiral Ham Recipe (how to cook a spiral ham)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 16–18 servings 1x
- Category: Dinner/Entree
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
The BEST Spiral Ham Recipe – A classic and tried and true recipe for perfectly cooked ham to serve at Easter or your next gathering.
Ingredients
Spiral Ham:
- Approx. 8-10lb spiral ham
- 3 cups water or apple cider
3 Ingredient Ham Glaze:
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
Instructions
- Prep: Allow ham to sit out and come to room temp. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Make Glaze: Add Glaze ingredients to a small bowl; whisk to combine. Set aside.*
- Prep Pan + Initial Glaze: Pour 3-4 cups of water in the bottom of a roasting pan. Place roasting rack inside. Unwrap your ham and place it cut side down on the roasting rack. Brush all over approx. 1/2 the glaze (reserve the remaining glaze for later). Place in oven, middle rack, and let cook 20 minutes then cover with foil and return to oven.
- Cook Time: Bake approximately 18-22 minutes per pound (include the 20 minutes from Step 5 in this total cook time) or until it reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees F.
- Glaze: When there is approximately 10-20 minutes of cook time left, remove from oven and brush with Glaze all over (feel free to layer it on pretty thick) – ensuring you get it in every nook and cranny. Turn oven up to 400 degrees. Return to oven, uncovered, and let finish cooking. The glaze should get tacky and caramelized and turn a bit brown.
- Rest: Remove from oven and let rest 10-15 minutes.
- (optional) You can use a kitchen torch to caramelize the glaze after cooking if you want a crispier/browner skin – that is what I did in the photos shown).
- Serve: Carve, serve and enjoy!
Notes
- *you can place the glaze in a small saucepan and put on low heat on the stove – this will thin it out. I didn’t do this during testing and I liked the way the glaze was thicker so it went on nice and thick on the ham. But, if you are used to heating up your glaze first – please don’t let me stop you!
- Water to thin: if you feel the glaze is a little too thick you can add water (a tablespoon at a time) to it and whisk to combine.
- Dairy-Free: feel free to use a plant-based butter in the glaze.
- Double it: you can easily double the ham glaze recipe, if needed.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6 oz
- Calories: 513
- Sugar: 3.7 g
- Sodium: 155.8 mg
- Fat: 23.6 g
- Trans Fat:
- Carbohydrates: 3.8 g
- Protein: 66.7 g
- Cholesterol: 218.9 mg
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