How to Cook Spiral Ham and Best Ham Glaze Recipe (2024)

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Learn how to cook a ham and how to make glaze for ham. This ham glaze recipe is the perfect Easter or Christmas ham a long with classic cheesy potato casserole or my favorite green bean casserole.

How to cook spiral ham in the crock pot, instant pot, or baked in the oven.

We always do an Easter ham and this maple glazed ham is so quick and easy you might have to pull it out for Thanksgiving or Christmas as well!

Make these delicious potato croquettes to go with it when you serve it for brunch. And for dinner of course it’d delicious with classic mashed or rosemary potatoes but if you want want a lighter option this mashed cauliflower recipe gets rave reviews and it’s so easy!

If you are doing more of a buffet type of meal definitely make a batch of my popular spinach artichoke dip or buffalo chicken dip!

What We Love About this Spiral Ham Recipe

There are a lot of things we love about this glazed ham recipe.

• This is the best hame recipe. It makes delicious spiral ham complete with a flavorful ham glaze.
• It is easy to bake, slow cook, or pressure cook. Whatever your time constraints or kitchen space available you will definitely be able to find a place and time to make this ham.
• The brown sugar glaze is has a great flavor paired with the maple syrup. Nice change from traditional honey baked ham.
• It makes for delicious leftovers perfect for adding to your favorite ham recipes.

Leftover Ham Recipes You’ll Love

While ham is great my favorite part is are all the yummy ham recipes you can make with the leftovers. Here are a few to save for after you have your main meal!

• Split Pea Soup – this is the BEST split pea soup with ham recipe. Seriously I worked hard for this and it is so so yummy!
• Quiche – we do quiche with leftovers of all sorts. Just swap the turkey for ham and you’ll have a super tasty ham quiche.
• Macaroni and Cheese – make this awesome Mac and cheese a full meal by stirring in a cup of chopped ham at the end. SO GOOD.

Brown Sugar Glaze For Ham

This is the most delicious ham glaze recipe! It makes cooking spiral ham so tasty.

• Spiral Sliced Ham – you will want a slice ham that weighs 6-9 pounds
• Apple Juice – whatever kind of apple juice you will drink is great. You can even use one of those individually sized bottles.
• Brown Sugar – either light or brown will work for this recipe. Whatever you have on hand!
• Maple Syrup – don’t worry about using fancy maple syrup just regular stuff will be fine.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat combine the apple juice, brown sugar, and maple syrup. Bring to a bubble and reduce heat to medium low. Reduce mixture until it is thickened and glazy, about 10-15 minutes.

You will also want a meat thermometer. This is the thermometer I have in my kitchen. It has a magnet on it which is so convenient since I can always find it on my fridge!

How to Cook a Ham

Remember that when you get a your spiral sliced ham it is already precooked. So really you just need to reheat the ham. This spiral ham recipe will work great for cooking ham in the oven, cooking ham in the Instant Pot or even making a slow cooker ham.

They all work great. It just depends on how much time you have or space in the oven or counter!

Baked Ham Recipe

Once you know how to bake a spiral ham looking for sliced ham every trip to the market!

1. Preheat oven. Warm the oven to 350 F.
2. Make Glaze. In a medium saucepan over medium heat combine the apple juice, brown sugar, and maple syrup. Bring to a bubble and reduce heat to medium low. Reduce mixture until it is thickened and glazy, about 10-15 minutes.
3. Coat ham. With your ham in an oven safe baking dish cover it with half the glaze mix. Make sure to reserve the rest of the glaze for later.
4. Bake. Bake the ham for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until internal temp of ham reaches 140 F with an instant read thermometer.
5. Pour reserved glaze. Carefully pour the rest of the maple ham glaze over the ham.
6. Broil. Put the ham under the broiler for about 5-7 minutes. Make sure to watch it because it will quickly go from beautifully caramelized to burnt!

Crockpot Ham Recipe

Using your slow cooker for your ham is a great option especially the you plan on making sides, bread, and desserts in your oven. Also it’s super easy!

If you plan on cooking your ham in the slow cooker make sure to keep the size in mind when you are purchasing your ham.

If your ham is too large for the crock pot I have heard that you can cover the top of the pot with the ham in it with foil and then add the lid on top, although I have not tried it myself.

1. Spoon glaze into crock pot. Place one spoonful of glaze onto the bottom of the crock pot and spread around.
2. Add spiral cut ham. Place the ham in to the crock pot on top of the small portion of glaze.
3. Top with glaze. Coat the ham with half the remaining glaze. If you plan on broiling after it’s done. Otherwise just use all at the glaze now.
4. Cook. Cook on low for 4-5 hours.
5. Broil. Place in oven safter dish and top with the remaining glaze. Broil for 5-7 minutes making sure to watch it closely as you want to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Instant Pot Ham Recipe

When cooking ham in a pressure cooker you need to make sure to pick a ham that fits. A 6 quart pot will usually hold a 5-6 pound ham. Where as an 8 quart pot will normally be able to hold a 7-8 lb ham.

1. Add Water: Add 1 cup of water to the liner of your Instant pot.
2. Glaze Ham. Cover the ham with half of the glaze. If you are not boing to broil when it’s done use all the glaze.
3. Add the ham. Place the trivet into the pot and then add the ham on top.
4. Cook. Cook on manual pressure for 30 minutes allow for a natural pressure release of 30 minutes. Test that the internal temperature of the ham is 140.
5. Broil. If you have an air frying attachment then add the remaining glaze. otherwise transfer to an oven safe dish. Broil for 5-7 minutes making sure to pay attention as it will quickly go from caramelized to burnt.

What If My Ham Doesn’t Fit?

Whether you’re cooking ham in the oven, slow cooker or pressure cooker you may run into a time when your eyes are too big for your container. No stress!

Just cut part of your ham off. When you use your sliced ham just slice a little off. If it fits in your pot or pan you an nestle it on the side or just save it to use in a ham recipe later on!

What to Do With Ham Leftovers

I think the best part of ham are the leftovers. You can serve them on sandwiches with homemade rolls or Hawaiian rolls.

Or my favorite use is to make a batch of my favorite soup. It’s so good and leftover ham makes it so easy.

Scramble it up in eggs, make an omelet, throw some on top of homemade pizza, or even in with ramen. You can do so much with leftover ham.

I have even chopped it up and stuck it in the freezer for easy use in ham recipes down the road.

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