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5-Ingredient Honey Baked Ham Recipe

No need to spend a lot of money or time on your favorite holiday ham; this year, make your own version with this 5-Ingredient Honey Baked Ham Recipe. It’s ridiculously easy and always a hit.

honey baked ham spiral sliced on a plate.
Honey Baked Ham is unbelievably easy to make at home, with just 5 ingredient; the honey mustard sauce is a winner!

Video: Watch Us Make This Recipe

5 Ingredient Honey Baked Ham Recipe   Chew Out Loud

Why This Honey Baked Ham Stands Out

  • So Easy: Not only is this honey baked ham unbelievably easy to make, it’s restaurant-quality ham for a fraction of the price.
  • Holidays: Perfect for Christmas, Easter, or anytime your family craves a simple yet amazing ham.
  • Cheap: This Honey Baked Ham tastes like you’ve spent much more time on it than you really did; expect requests for the recipe.
  • Family and Friends: This is the easy honey ham recipe you’ll return to over an over again because your family will request it on repeat. We love it paired with this Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes or this Garlic-Butter Roasted Potatoes

Key Recipe Ingredients

You’ll need just 5 simple ingredients:

  • Brown Sugar provides a warm molasses sweetness to the sauce. Be sure to pack it down tight when measuring.
  • Whole Grain Mustard, sometimes known as country style mustard, is key to the delectable honey mustard sauce. It’s not your average yellow mustard.
  • Honey works together with the brown sugar to bring a tantalizing sweetness to the salty ham. This honey is my favorite, as it’s raw, unfiltered, organic, and affordable.
  • Apple Cider or Juice brings a sweet acidity to the basting sauce. Be sure you’re getting juice and not vinegar.
  • Spiral-Sliced Ham is easies to use, as it will already be pre-sliced. However, you can use a regular ham and slice it thinly yourself.

    Tip: Here’s a tidbit about coarse ground or country style mustard, with visible mustard seeds within. It makes a notable difference in flavor. We use it for this Honey Mustard Chicken with Curry, which tastes amazing.

Substitutions and Variations

  • Mustard: We highly recommend using the whole grain mustard with whole seeds, as it has the best depth of flavor, but you can also use dijon mustard or honey mustard, if you prefer.
  • Ham: We’ve found spiral-sliced, bone-in ham to work really well. However, you also use boneless ham and slice it thinly yourself. Similarly, you can use a regular bone-in ham and slice it thinly prior to using in the recipe.

Step-By-Step Recipe Instructions

  1. Make Sauce: Mix together apple cider, brown sugar, mustard, and honey in a bowl. Mix well to fully incorporate basting sauce.
  2. Bake: Place ham in a 13×9 or similar-sized baking dish. Coat ham with a generous amount of sauce. Bake for 60-70 minutes, basting thoroughly every 15 minutes.
  3. Serve: To serve pre-cut slices of ham, arrange slices neatly on a serving dish and brush more sauce all over ham slices. Serve with leftover sauce.

Pro Tips

  • Ham: Be sure to get the spiral sliced ham if you want ease of slicing; plus, the juices really sink in with the pre-sliced ham cooking in the oven.
  • Sauce: Basting sauce can be made several days ahead of time and reheated when ready to use.
  • Baste: Don’t skimp on the basting sessions – baste ham every 15 minutes during baking, for juicy results.
  • Serving: If you’d like to serve the ham with slices arranged in a dish for easy serving, simply arrange the slices in your choice of serving dish and brush the sauce in between slices and on top. This ensures that every slice will be juicy and flavorful.
honey baked ham spiral sliced.
Baste your honey baked ham every 15 minutes, for juicy, golden brown results.

What to Serve With Ham

Potatoes

Grains

Breads

Vegetables

honey baked ham spiral sliced
For ease of preparation, use a spiral sliced ham, or you can thinly slice your own ham prior to cooking.


Commonly Asked Questions

Can I use an unsliced ham instead of a spiral-sliced ham?

For ease of slicing and basting, we do recommend using a spiral-sliced ham. However, you can also thinly slice your own ham prior to cooking.

How long do you bake ham for?

For a 4-5 pound ham, bake at 350F for 60-70 minutes or until edges are nicely browned.

What should you serve ham with?

A few favorite side dishes to serve with ham include Garlic Herb Roasted Potatoes and Best Broccoli Apple Salad.

What can I do with leftover ham?

We love using leftover diced ham in Chinese Fried Rice or making use of the ham bone and ham meat in this Ham Potato Vegetable Soup.

Is this ham recipe gluten-free?

Yes, this ham recipe is naturally gluten-free. Just make sure the ham you buy doesn’t have any wheat listed in the ingredients label.

Did you make this?

Please give us a rating and comment below. We love hearing from you!

honey baked ham recipe, easy honey ham

Honey Baked Ham Recipe

4.92 from 133 ratings
This is a homestyle Honey Baked Ham, rich with savory sweetness of ham mixed with honey. The sauce is more of an au jus, rather than a gravy. See notes if you want a thick sauce. Spoon plenty of it over the slices of ham, and watch it disappear! Great for holidays.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Servings: 20
Author: Amy Dong

Ingredients  

Instructions

  • Preheat: Heat oven to 350F with rack on lower position.
  • Make Sauce: Mix together apple cider, brown sugar, mustard, and honey in a bowl. Mix well to fully incorporate basting sauce.
  • Bake: Place ham in a 13×9 baking dish. Coat ham with a generous amount of sauce. Bake for 60-70 minutes, basting thoroughly every 15 minutes.
  • Serve: To serve pre-cut slices of ham, arrange slices neatly on a serving dish and brush more sauce all over ham slices. Serve with leftover sauce.
    If serving ham whole, be sure to have sauce available for drizzling. The sauce is what makes this ham so great!

Equipment

Notes

  • We like bone-in, spiral sliced ham best. You can also slice ham yourself and arrange it neatly on a baking dish and proceed with the recipe. 
  • Honey mustard sauce is more of a saucy au jus consistency, rather than a thicker gravy texture.
  • If you prefer your sauce thicker: place sauce in a saucepan and bring to a low boil. In a small bowl, stir and dissolve 1 TB cornstarch in 2 TB cool water to make a cornstarch slurry. Stir in slurry a little at a time to the boiling sauce, adding only as much as needed until sauce is thickened to your liking. 
  • This ham is amazing with Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes or Garlic-Butter Potatoes!
  • If you enjoyed this recipe, please come back and give it a rating. We ❤️ hearing from you!

Nutrition (per serving)

Serving: 1g | Calories: 239kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 20g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.001g | Cholesterol: 56mg | Sodium: 640mg | Potassium: 281mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 3IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 12mg | Iron: 1mg
Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: American
Diet: Gluten Free, Low Lactose
Method: Bake

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Recipe Rating




127 comments

    • Terri
    • 5 stars

    Absolutely delicious, love the apple cider combination with whole grain mustard. So easy, it’s my go to any time!

    • Kim
    • 5 stars

    I make this every Christmas and the family loves it! So easy!

      • Amy Dong

      So happy your family loves this, Kim!

    • Jamie
    • 5 stars

    Oh my, this ham recipe looks incredibly delicious and yummy! The best part is we only need 5 ingredients for this amazing recipe! Perfect for this Holiday season! Loved it!

    • Ann
    • 5 stars

    Ham is one of my favorite meats. A five ingredient ham sounds perfect for the holiday season. Excited to give it a try!

    • Maggie

    We’re changing things up this year and having ham for Christmas instead. Looking forward to trying your recipe.

    • Laura Campbell

    Do I put the ham on it’s side or facedown
    In the baking dish?

      • Amy Dong

      Place ham right side up – hope you love it, Laura!

      • Kindra
      • 5 stars

      I cooked mine on it’s side so the flavors were basted between slices while cooking. I also added some seasoning/spices (my husband likes everything “seasoned”) and I didn’t hear one complaint from our 7 children (almost unheard of). And it’s extraordinary when you throw slices in a pan to fry in the juices and caramelize.

    • Tracy
    • 5 stars

    This was so delicious! My whole family loved it. Thanks for another great recipe!

    • tdchinges
    • 5 stars

    I made honey baked ham according to your recipe, it took only a short time to make and it tasted great, my daughter loved it, thanks for sharing!

    • Sherry Shelton

    Delicious trying to make a note about this wonderful sauce!

    • Linda
    • 5 stars

    Never thought making ham is actually super easy!

    • Addie
    • 5 stars

    This ham is so easy, healthy and delicious! Love this for Easter and family dinners.

    • Magali
    • 5 stars

    I always enjoy a juicy ham for easter. This recipe looks perfect for the occasion.
    Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!

    • Nancy
    • 5 stars

    I can’t believe ham could be so easy to make.

    • Shelly
    • 5 stars

    Taste just like Honey Baked Hams! My family loved this ham. Didn’t have any left overs. Please keep giving us your tasty recipes!

      • chewoutloud

      You’ve got it, Shelly! 🙂

    • alfredo zamora
    • 5 stars

    This is the perfect recipe!! I just added a little more honey.
    Ham Came out delicious.

    • Camila @ Microwave Choice

    OMG! What a recipe! I will try it at weekend. Thanks for sharing such an amazing.

    • Freya
    • 5 stars

    The meat eaters in my family will go crazy for this recipe! It looks so delicious and simple!

    • Adriana
    • 5 stars

    Simple recipe yet delightful. I am making this for my Christmas brunch with my family. I am sure they will love this ham.

    • Kaitlin
    • 5 stars

    I love making this super simple and sweet recipe for ham! I made it for a potluck and it was devoured.

    • Kayla DiMaggio
    • 5 stars

    I loved this honey ham! The caramelization was excellent and the flavors were spot on!

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