This honey baked ham recipe is a holiday must! Everyone will love this deliciously sweet, oven baked ham for Christmas, Easter, or any other holiday feast. This copycat recipe is such an easy way to make that spiral ham extra flavorful!
Oven Baked Ham Recipe
This easy baked ham is covered in a delicious honey glaze, baked to perfection, and then caramelized to create that crunchy, sweet crust on the outside. It tastes just like a classic honey baked ham, and it’s simple to make at home!
This oven baked ham recipe will be your new go-to for any holiday gathering or special occasion. Serve it along with all your favorite side dishes!
Why You’ll Love this Honey Baked Ham Recipe:
- HOLIDAY HAM: Baked ham is the perfect main to serve for any holiday. Make this for Christmas, Easter, or as an alternative to turkey on Thanksgiving.
- OVEN BAKED: This copycat honey baked ham recipe is so easy! Baking it in the oven is simple and creates the most amazing flavor.
- FLAVORFUL: Speaking of amazing flavor, that honey glaze is delicious! And the caramelized dry rub packs in a sweetness to the crust that everyone will love.
Prefer to use a pressure cooker? Try this easy Instant Pot Ham recipe instead!
How to Make Honey Baked Ham in the Oven
You can jump to the recipe card for full ingredients & instructions!
- Preheat oven to 325 and prepare the ham to bake.
- Combine ingredients to make the honey glaze, then rub it over the entire ham.
- Pour apple cider into the baking pan with the ham, and cover with foil.
- Bake ham in the oven for 2-3 hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 140F.
- Remove from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes while you make the dry rub mixture.
- Rub the sugar mixture into the skin of the ham. Then use a kitchen torch of the broiler to caramelize the skin.
- Make the glaze and serve it alongside the honey baked ham. Slice and enjoy!
Use a pre-cooked spiral ham for this honey baked ham recipe. We’re just adding lots of delicious flavor and warming through to serve.
With a boneless ham, you should estimate about ⅓ pound of ham per person (up to ½ pound if you want to be on the safe side). An 8 pound ham will be plenty for most holiday gatherings!
Estimate 20 minutes of cooking time per pound of ham. For example, an 8-pound ham will most likely need about 2 ½ hours to bake in the oven.
If you have leftovers, it’s best to reheat them in the oven. Place ham in the oven at 325F, and bake until fully heated through. Make sure the internal temp reaches 140F, even if just reheating.
Yes, you can freeze leftover ham. I recommend slicing it up first, then placing it in freezer-safe bags. Freeze up to 12 weeks. Thaw and reheat to 140F.
Serving Suggestions
This delicious honey baked ham recipe goes so well with all your favorite side dishes! Add potatoes, veggies, and rolls to the table for the perfect holiday meal.
- Red Wine Glazed Carrots
- Instant Pot Sweet Potato Casserole
- Crockpot Twice Baked Potatoes
- Homemade Hawaiian Rolls
If you have leftovers, you can eat slices of cold ham straight from the fridge. The flavor makes a great cold sandwich! Otherwise, you can reheat it and enjoy it warm for another round of dinner or lunch!
All the Holiday Sides
60+ Holiday Side Dish Recipes
This holiday season be sure to check out our sides guide for all the recipes plus tips and tricks for entertaining.
Tips!
- Even though the spiral ham is pre-cooked, it should be fully heated through to an internal temperature of 140F.
- The ham should be baked in the oven flat-side down.
- Be sure to rub the honey glaze all over the outside of the ham, and between slices, for best flavor.
- Cover the ham with foil while baking. This will keep it from drying out, so it stays juicy and moist.
- I like using a kitchen torch to create the caramelized coating on the ham. But if you don’t have one, you can just broil it in the oven for a similar effect.
- Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for 3-5 days, or frozen for 12 weeks.
What is a dry rub?
A dry rub is a mixture of dry spices and seasonings that is rubbed into meat to add more flavor. We’re using a mix of sugar, cinnamon, paprika, and more to add a caramelized coating of flavor to the skin of this oven baked ham.
What kitchen torch do you recommend?
We love this Kitchen Torch from Amazon (affiliate link). It’s well priced, easy to use, and pretty heavy duty. It does a great job!
Can I use brown sugar in the dry rub?
Yes! Brown sugar can be used in place of regular granulated sugar in the dry rub mix. Brown sugar adds such a nice sweetness and goes really well with ham.
More Easy Ham Recipes We Love
- Orange Honey Glazed Ham
- Air Fryer Cranberry Glazed Ham
- Honey Mustard Maple Glazed Ham
- Apple Ginger Glazed Ham
- Instant Pot Honey Baked Ham
This oven baked ham is so full of flavor! It’s definitely a favorite for the holidays, but it tastes just as good no matter when you make it. So be sure to make this honey baked spiral ham recipe at home for a main dish everyone will love!
More Holiday Dinner Recipes to Try:
- Stuffed Pork Loin
- Honey Baked Pork Tenderloin
- Air Fryer Garlic Rosemary Turkey
- Sheet Pan Easter Dinner with Lamb
- Sheet Pan Christmas Dinner with Ham
- Air Fryer Meatloaf
- Deep Fried Turkey Breast
If you make this recipe be sure to upload a photo in the comment section below or leave a rating. Enjoy! You can also jump to recipe.
Honey Baked Ham (Oven) Recipe
Ingredients
For the Ham and Honey Glaze
- 8 pounds spiral cut ham fully cooked, unsmoked or smoked
- ¼ cup salted butter melted
- 4 tablespoons honey mustard
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoon whole grain mustard
- 1 ½ cups apple cider
For the Dry Rub
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg or ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
Instructions
For the Ham and Honey Glaze
- Preheat the oven to 325°F and adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position.
- Cover a roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet with foil and coat the metal rack insert with cooking spray. Unwrap the ham and remove the plastic cap over the bone (if there is one). Place the ham, flat-side down, on the metal roasting rack. Set aside.8 pounds spiral cut ham
- Make the honey glaze. In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, honey mustard, honey, and mustard.¼ cup salted butter, 4 tablespoons honey mustard, 2 tablespoons honey, 2 teaspoon whole grain mustard
- Rub the honey glaze over the entire ham and in between the slices.
- Pour the apple cider into the pan and cover the ham and pan tightly with foil.1 ½ cups apple cider
- Cook the ham for 2-3 hours (20 minutes per pound of ham) or until the internal temperature registers 140°F on an instant-read food thermometer. (The ham is fully cooked but this will ensure the ham is properly heated throughout.)
- Remove the ham from the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes.
For the Dry Rub
- While the ham cools, prepare the dry rub. Whisk all of the dry rub ingredients together in a medium bowl. Pour half of the dry rub into a small saucepan (to be used for the serving glaze) and use the remaining half for the ham.½ teaspoon table salt, 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¾ teaspoon ground ginger, ½ teaspoon ground allspice, ½ teaspoon sweet paprika, 2 cups granulated sugar
- After the ham has cooled for 15 minutes, uncover it and brush with the pan juices. Press the remaining dry rub all around the ham one handful at a time. Use all of the remaining dry rub. The sugar will eventually form a crust around the ham.
- Once fully coated with dry rub, use a kitchen torch or broil in the oven to achieve the crunchy, crusty ham coating. If using the broiler, adjust the oven rack to the lowest position and watch the ham very closely, turning it often so it doesn’t burn. If using a kitchen torch, keep the torch flame about 1 inch away from the ham. Continuously move the flame in small circles until the surface becomes bubbly, then move the torch to the adjoining area until the entire ham has been caramelized. Before you know it, the entire ham will have a gorgeous, sugary, crispy coat.
- Cover the ham very loosely with foil; set aside until ready to serve.
- Make the serving glaze. Add the remaining pan juices to the dry rub mixture in the saucepan. Bring the glaze to a boil over medium heat, stirring often, and reduce the temperature to medium-low. Boil the mixture for 4-6 minutes or until it has reduced to a thin, syrupy consistency. Remove from the heat and serve alongside the ham. If the glaze begins to harden, just warm slightly over very low heat.
- When ready to serve, divide the ham slices and drizzle the glaze on top.
Last step! Don’t forget to show me a pic of what you made! Upload an image or tag me @thecookierookie on Instagram!
Nutrition Information
I made this for Christmas dinner. It was very good, but the honey-baked ham I am trying to make. So far I have not been able to find a copycat recipe that makes a homemade ham taste like the honey-baked ham you can buy for a zillion dollars. Close but no cigar. So I will still be on the hunt for the ham that tastes like the honey-baked ham I want. Wish me Luck!
I’m sorry it wasn’t the taste you were looking for!
Thank you for recipe mine didn’t look as good as yours but it was so delicious! Terri Neice
That looks mouth-watering, Terri!