These easy step-by-step instructions will guide you through How to Cook a Spiral Ham that is juicy, moist, and super flavorful. Add our honey glaze, a couple of your favorite sides and you’ll have yourself a perfectly simple and delicious holiday dinner.
Preheat oven to 300°F. Remove ham from packaging and place in a roasting pan or glass baking pan, and cover completely with foil. Bake ham for 10 minutes per pound or until the internal temperature reaches 125°F. Remove from oven and let rest until internal temperature registers 135-145°F.
Step-by-Step Instructions: How to Cook a Spiral Ham
- Prepare the ham. If youre wondering how to cook a spiral ham, begin by removing all of the packaging, including the plastic disk on the underside of the ham. Place the baked spiral ham in a 9″ x 13″ glass baking dish, or similar shallow roasting pan, and cover tightly with foil or a lid.
- Add to a preheated oven. Place in a preheated oven and cook for 1 hour 20 minutes – 1 hour 50 minutes, or about 10 minutes per pound of ham.
- Make your glaze. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the brown sugar, honey, orange juice, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. While stirring, bring to a rapid boil and boil for about 5 minutes.
- Glaze the ham about 20 minutes before it is done. Remove the sauce from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes, then brush or drizzle the glaze over the ham about 20 minutes before it has finished cooking.
- Return to the oven to finish. After glazing, return the ham to the oven, uncovered, and bake for an additional 20 minutes until the glaze is a little crispy and the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees F.
- Remove from the oven. Once the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees F in the thickest spot, remove the ham from the oven.
- Let it rest. Let the ham rest for 15-20 minutes before slicing.
- Serve. Spoon the juices over the ham just before serving. Enjoy!
Your spiral ham cooking time will depend on how large it is. If you cook it at 275 degrees as our recipe calls for, you can generally assume about 10 minutes per pound. So, if your spiral ham is 8 pounds, you can figure about 80 minutes, or 1 hour and 20 minutes. You’ll want to be sure that once the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees, you remove it from the oven so it doesn’t get the chance to dry out or become tough on the edges.
Be sure and keep an eye on the internal temperature so that you don’t overcook it! Remember – spiral hams come fully cooked so all you are doing is warming it up. You can also warm it covered in a baking dish with foil wrap and occasionally baste the ham to redistribute the juices while it heats up.
Yes! Just apply the honey glaze, then cook on low for about 4 hours. Halfway through, you may want to stop and baste the ham with the juices at the bottom of the crockpot.
For boneless hams, we suggest serving about ½ pound of ham per adult, and more like ¼ pound per child. For bone-in ham, increase that to about ¾ pound of ham per adult to account for the weight of the bone. Note that it’s a good idea to add another pound or two to the total just to be safe.
Ingredients Needed to Cook a Spiral Cut Ham
- Spiral Sliced Ham – you’ll want to be sure and buy a precooked spiral ham (it will say on the packaging). You can find them at Costco year-round, or in your grocery store or meat market around the holidays.
- Brown Sugar – we usually use light brown sugar for this recipe. If you want a slightly stronger flavor, you can do with dark brown sugar.
- Honey – the better the honey, the tastier the glaze. Try to find pure honey. Or, substitute maple syrup to make a maple glaze instead.
- Orange Juice – you can use fresh squeezed or bottled orange juice.
- Spices – for this recipe, we use cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Other options to try would be using pumpkin pie spice, ginger, or even a little cardamom.
EASY Honey Baked Spiral Ham | The Recipe Rebel
FAQ
Can you bake a ham in a Pyrex dish?
Should ham be baked covered or uncovered?
Can you cook a ham without aluminum foil?
Should you use a rack when baking a ham?
How do you glaze a ham?
Place your ham in the center of your foil, and brush ham with ½ the glaze. Be sure to cover the ham completely, adding the glaze between the slices as well. Place glazed ham on the foil, flat side down, and wrap tightly. Place ham flat side down on your roasting rack or in baking pan. Bake ham until the center registers 100-110 degrees F.
Is honey baked ham as good as regular ham?
The addition of honey will affect the calorie content of the food. One tablespoon of honey contributes to approximately 64 calories. In addition, the use of heat when making baked ham will reduce the quality of the honey.
How do you cook a Ham in a roasting pan?
Allow the ham to come to room temperature. Pour apple juice (or apple cider) into the bottom of a roasting pan. Place the roasting rack inside the roasting pan and set the ham on top of that, cut-side down. Loosely tent or cover the ham with aluminum foil. Remove from oven and let rest 15 minutes. Slice and serve.
How long do you cook a glazed ham?
Place glazed ham on the foil, flat side down, and wrap tightly. Place ham flat side down on your roasting rack or in baking pan. Bake ham until the center registers 100-110 degrees F. This will take about 10-14 minutes per pound, so at least 80 minutes for an 8-pound ham. Remove ham from oven and increase oven temperature to 400 degrees F.