This brown sugar glazed ham is coated in a sweet brown sugar and honey glaze, then baked until golden brown and caramelized. The ultimate holiday ham that’s super easy to make and always gets rave reviews.
You can never go wrong with ham for the holidays and this glazed version is both beautiful and delicious. Serve your ham with loaded mashed potatoes and bacon wrapped green beans for a festive meal that your family and friends will love.
Ham is a classic main course around the holidays. The nice thing about buying a ham is that most of the work is already done for you. Hams come pre-smoked, fully cooked and spiral cut, all you have to do is add some flavorings and you’re ready to go. This glazed ham has a rich and delicious glaze that caramelizes in the oven. Best of all, it’s super easy to make!
When you want a main course for a holiday like Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter, try this one or some of my other favorite Christmas recipes like honey baked ham, smoked turkey or slow roasted prime rib.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy: This recipe pairs a store bought pre-cooked ham with a homemade glaze. The only work involved is to cook the glaze ingredients together, then slather it onto the ham and bake!
- Classic: There’s nothing more traditional for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner than a glazed spiral cut ham.
- Elegant: The glaze creates a shiny caramelized coating on the outside of the ham, which makes it look and taste like it was prepared by a professional chef! You can also add festive garnishes on the serving tray to up the elegance factor.
Glazed Ham Ingredients
To make this simple glazed ham recipe you will need a handful of ingredients.
- Spiral Cut Ham: Choose your favorite brand of pre-cooked spiral cut ham. I typically buy a ham at Costco. You will want to discard the seasoning or glaze packet that comes with the ham.
- Butter: Add some richness to your glaze with a healthy dose of butter. Both salted and unsalted butter work well in this recipe.
- Brown Sugar: I typically use light brown sugar. You can use dark brown sugar for a stronger flavor in the glaze.
- Honey: I find that a mild honey such as clover or wildflower honey works well in this dish.
- Apple Cider: Choose fresh apple cider if you can find it for the best flavor. If you can’t locate apple cider, apple juice will work just fine. Do not use apple cider vinegar in this recipe.
- Cinnamon: A sprinkle of cinnamon adds warmth and flavor to the glaze. Be sure to store your bottle of cinnamon in a cool, dark place so that it maintains its potency.
- Nutmeg: Use freshly grated nutmeg for maximum flavor. You can purchase whole nutmegs, and use a rasp to shave off what you need for this ham.
You may want also want to purchase fresh herbs or cranberries for garnish.
How Do You Make Glazed Ham?
Start your glazed ham by making a glaze for your ham. To make the glaze, place butter, brown sugar, honey, apple cider, cinnamon and nutmeg in a pan and simmer until a thick, syrupy mixture forms. Preheat the oven and place the ham in a roasting pan. Brush half of the glaze over the ham before putting it in the oven. Be sure to cover the ham with foil initially so that the glaze doesn’t burn. When the ham is almost done, heat up the remaining glaze and pour it over the ham. Increase the oven temperature, uncover the ham and cook the ham a few more minutes for a perfect caramelized glaze.
Tips For The Perfect Dish
- You’ll need to reserve half of the glaze to use after your ham mostly cooks through. You can store the glaze at room temperature or in the fridge. The glaze may start to harden as it sits – simply microwave the glaze in 30 second increments until it’s liquid when you’re ready to use it.
- While I prefer to use a spiral cut ham for this recipe, you can also use an uncut bone-in ham and score it in a cross hatch pattern before you glaze it.
- Leftovers will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for 2 months.
- First time making a ham? Check out my full tutorial on how to cook a ham!
- Keep any leftover ham and make one of my leftover ham recipes like ham bone soup, scalloped potatoes and ham or ham casserole.
Quick Tip
This recipe calls for apple cider the juice, do not use apple cider vinegar as it is not the same thing.
Recipe FAQs
A ham needs to cook for about 20 minutes per pound in the oven at 325 degrees F. This is for a standard half ham around 7-8 pounds.
You can plan on serving about 3/4 pound of ham per person for a standard bone-in half ham. If you’d like a lot of leftovers at the end of your meal, you can increase this amount to 1 pound of ham per person.
The overwhelming majority of hams are already cooked. All you’re actually doing is warming your ham through to the proper food safe temperature. A ham is ready to eat when a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the ham reads at least 145 degrees F.
There are two common ways to cook a ham. You can bake a ham in the oven, or cook it in a crock pot. Either way you will make a glaze and pour it over the ham before cooking. In an oven, after you bake it most of the way, pour more glaze on top and increase the heat until done. If you choose to cook your ham in a slow cooker, check out my crock pot ham recipe.
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Glazed Ham Variations
I typically make this recipe as written, but sometimes I use other ingredients depending on what I have on hand.
- Juice: Instead of apple cider, try using pineapple juice, cranberry juice or orange juice.
- Spices: Skip the cinnamon and nutmeg, and try pumpkin pie spice, allspice with a pinch of cloves, cinnamon with a pinch of ginger or even a bit of cardamom.
- Sweetener: Feel free to use maple syrup or molasses instead of honey. If you don’t have a liquid sweetener on hand, use an extra 1/4 cup of brown sugar instead.
- Tangy: Add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard for a tangy glaze.
- Toppings: Use toothpicks to adhere some pineapple rings and maraschino cherries onto your ham before you add the glaze.
This glazed ham is sure to become a favorite with your family as it has been with mine!
What To Serve With Ham
Glazed Carrots
20 mins
Slow Cooker Creamed Corn
3 hrs 10 mins
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
1 hr 20 mins
Pomegranate Brussels Sprouts
30 mins
Cranberry Jello Salad
6 hrs 10 mins
Glazed Ham Video
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Glazed Ham for the Holidays
Ingredients
- 8 lb bone in spiral cut ham
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup apple cider
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of nutmeg
- cooking spray
- cranberries and herbs for garnish optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Coat a baking pan with cooking spray.
- Add the butter, brown sugar, honey, apple cider, cinnamon and nutmeg to a pot. Place the pot over medium heat.
- Bring the pot to a simmer and cook for 5-7 minutes or until glaze is syrupy.
- Place the ham in the pan and pour half of the glaze over it. Cover the ham with foil. Reserve the remaining glaze for later user.
- Bake the ham for 2 1/2 hours. Uncover the ham.
- Pour the remaining glaze over the ham. If the glaze has started to harden, you can microwave it for a few seconds to loosen it back up.
- Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees F.
- Place the ham, uncovered, in the oven. Bake for another 15-20 minutes or until glaze is caramelized and browned.
- Transfer the ham to a serving platter and garnish with fresh herbs and cranberries. Spoon pan drippings over the ham. Slice the ham, then serve.
Notes
- You’ll need to reserve half of the glaze to use after your ham is mostly cooked through. You can store the glaze at room temperature or in the fridge. The glaze may start to harden as it sits – simply microwave the glaze in 30 second increments until it’s liquid when you’re ready to use it.
- This recipe calls for apple cider the juice, do not use apple cider vinegar as it is not the same thing.
- While I prefer to use a spiral cut ham for this recipe, you can also use an uncut ham and score it in a cross hatch pattern before you glaze it.
I’m making my 9.5lb ham tonight. Cooking for 3hrs. How do I reheat it tomorrow without drying it out?
It’s best to reheat it covered with foil at 325 degrees F!
Thanks for this easy recipe Sara – it was a big winner for dinner! I was hoping to bring this to a Christmas event but was thinking the intensity of the sweetness would be a bit overwhelming for the older folks (sorry Grandma!). If I were to pull back on the brown sugar and/or cider, by how much would you recommend? 25%?
I would just cut the glaze recipe in half and use half the amount of glaze!
Should I let the ham sit out before i bake? I ask cause many recipes I’ve glanced through say “Let it sit at room temp for —“
You do not need to let it sit out!
Is this recipe for a Ham that has already been fully cooked and just needs to be reheated? I’m cooking a 8.66 lbs ham that has already been fully cooked.
Yes for a fully cooked ham!
What kind of fresh herbs do you use to decorate? Do you just place around?
You can put the ham on a serving platter, and add herbs tucked around it like rosemary, sage and parsley. This is optional though, it’s just for a prettier presentation!
Tried this recipe for the first time as wanted to try something different from my usual recipe which uses beer, cloves, sliced pineapple, pineapple juices and honey. To my surprised, this recipe turns out well. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
If I make a 16 pound ham, do I need to cook it for 5 hours?
Yes that’s correct!
Hi , can I make this the day before and serve at room temperature
You can make it the day before but I really recommend serving it hot!