5-Ingredient Honey Baked Ham Recipe

Name: Honey Baked Ham
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 60 min
Ingredients: 4-5 lbs ham (spiral-sliced, fully cooked); 1 cup apple cider (juice (not vinegar)); 1/4 cup brown sugar (firmly packed); 1/4 cup whole grain mustard (prepared mustard jar with whole mustard seeds); 1/4 cup honey

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 on a plate with sauce — Honey Baked Ham is unbelievably easy to make at home; the sauce is a winner!

Honey Baked Ham, IN Action

Easy Honey Baked Ham Recipe

Decades ago, a friend showed up at a holiday party with a standout Honey Baked Ham that got everyone’s attention. It was and continues to be the ONLY homemade honey baked ham recipe I’ve ever liked.

Not only is this honey baked ham unbelievably easy to make, it’s restaurant-quality ham for a fraction of the price. Perfect for Christmas, Easter, or anytime your family craves a simple yet amazing ham.

This Honey Baked Ham tastes like you’ve spent much more time on it than you really did; expect requests for the recipe. This is the easy honey ham recipe you’ll return to over an over again. We love it paired with this Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes or this Garlic-Butter Roasted Potatoes! ✨

Homemade Honey Baked Ham Ingredients

Just look at the golden brown goodness. 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
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.

Honey Baked Ham Sauce Ingredients — Use whole grain mustard for the basting sauce

Use spiral sliced ham — Use whole grain mustard for the basting sauce

How to Make Honey Baked Ham: Key Tips

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.
Basting sauce can be made several days ahead of time and reheated when ready to use.
Don’t skimp on the basting sessions – baste ham every 15 minutes during baking, for juicy results.
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 recipe, easy honey ham — Use spiral sliced ham and baste often, for juicy results.

Honey Baked Ham
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.

More to Cook and Eat

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes Recipe – this comforting potato dish is absolutely scrumptious.
Wild Rice Pilaf – this is hands-down our favorite rice pilaf ever. Tender, hearty, nutritious, and delicious!
Ham Potato Vegetable Soup – Here’s what we do with leftover ham. It’s always a hit!
How to Make Sliders (Ham and Cheese Sliders Recipe) – a favorite party appetizer or finger food, for all the game days and fun gatherings.

Honey Baked Ham

4.88 from 88 ratings

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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 mins

Cook Time: 1 hr

Servings:

Ingredients

4-5 lbs ham, spiral-sliced, fully cooked
1 cup apple cider, juice (not vinegar)
¼ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
¼ cup whole grain mustard, prepared mustard jar with whole mustard seeds
¼ cup honey

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

Basting Brush
Baking Dish, Oven Proof

Notes

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!

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