Hot honey baked ham is a perfect holiday or Sunday meal. Made with hot honey and a spiced sugar crust, this ham is my take on the classic ham recipe. Enjoy with some of your favorite sides and the leftovers make for the perfect sandwich.
Whenever you hear honey baked ham the first thing that comes to mind are those quite expensive ones you can buy. However, this is my take on that signature ham recipe. It keeps the sugar crust but with a few extras. Plus, with the addition of hot honey you will get a nice spicy kick to your ham. One of my favorite parts is that the left-over slices make for incredible sandwiches for the next couple of days. Serve this at your next gathering and you will be asked to bring it every time.
In this recipe
If you don’t have any hot honey, then you will want to check out my recipe here. However, almost all of the rest of the ingredients will be in your kitchen, if not they are easy to grab.
Ham: this recipe works better when you get a spiral sliced ham than just a shank as you will be able to get the flavor in each slice.
Brown sugar: will add sweetness and a nice rich caramel like flavor that will go will with the hot honey.
Hot honey: this will add both sweetness and a bit of heat. The spicier the hot honey the more of the heat that will come through in the ham.
How do I cook ham?
One of the things that I have found when cooking a ham is to cook it with, he cut side down and just cover the top with foil. This will help to keep the ham moist since there are already slices in it exposing more of the ham to the hot air. You also want to cook the ham about 10-13 minutes per pound or until the internal temperature is 140°F or 60°C if it is a precooked ham and 145°F or 63°C if it is uncooked.
Won’t the hot honey burn?
One of the important things about honey is that it will burn at 250°F or 121°C. A way to help prevent that is to cook the ham almost all the way to completion before adding it over the ham. Then when you pour it in between the slices the internal temperature will not get hot enough for it to burn. After you add the sugar crust it will only cook for another 5 minutes. By adding the honey at the end, you will not have to worry about it burning and leaving your ham ruined.
Hot honey baked ham takes a little effort.
While it isn’t too much work there are a couple of steps that by doing so you will get a great hot honey baked ham. The first is to cook the ham cut side down with foil over the top. The next is to rotate the ham so the fat side is up. This will allow you to get the honey in all of the slices, and then place the ham cut side down again. When it is time to add the remaining glaze, you want to repeat the same process.
The trick with the sugar crust
Now here is the secret weapon. There are a couple of ways that you can do this but here is mine. After I add the second round of hot honey, I sprinkle about a third of the sugar crust into the slices of the hot honey baked ham. Then I will flop back to the cut side down. Now from there I will coat the rest of the ham with the remaining sugar mixture. This gives maximum flavor throughout the ham, also by putting it cut side down it will keep everything inside the slices instead of just dripping down the ham.
After the ham is baked
Once you take it out of the oven you will want to go ahead and place the ham on your platter and tent the ham with oil and let it rest for at least 20 minutes. You want to treat it like you would steak or any other protein after pulling it from the oven. While it is resting, I like to take the drippings from the pan and heat them in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and let it reduce to your desired thickness. This is where all of the remaining sugar crust ended up and you don’t want to miss out on that.
Looking for other holiday main course recipes?
Hot Honey Baked Ham
Equipment
- Roasting pan
- Saucepan
- Mixing Bowl
Ingredients
- 8 pounds ham spiral sliced bone-in
Honey glaze
- ½ cup honey
- 4 tablespoons butter melted
Sugar crust
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon clove ground
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F, 165C, or gas mark 3.
- Combine the honey and melted butter and set aside.
- Place the ham cut side down in the roasting pan, cover with foil, add 1 cup of water and bake for 1 hour.
- Remove the ham from the oven and turn it on its side. Pour half of the honey onto the ham making sure it gets in-between the slices, put the ham back down with the cut side down and cook for another 20 minutes.
- While the ham is cooking combine all of the sugar crust ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix.
- Remove the ham from the oven and place it back on its side and repeat the process the with remaining honey. Then pack all of the crust around the outside of the ham. Place the ham cut side down and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the ham from the roasting pan and place it on a platter.
- If you would like a flavorful glaze/sauce, then place the liquid from the roasting pan into a saucepan and cook on medium high heat until it has reduced by half.
Nutrition
