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This succulent Baked Ham stands out from the crowd with a spiced brown sugar glaze and a crunchy crumb topping, the perfect antidote to salty smoked ham. You’ll love the leftovers too, if you happen to have any left!
Of all the ways to bake ham in the oven, this is my most-requested baked ham recipe for Easter, Christmas, or Thanksgiving.
I use a bone-in ham that’s spiral sliced, then cover it with a sweet balsamic, mustard, and brown sugar glaze. What takes this holiday ham recipe over the top, though, is a thick, crunchy topping of herbed breadcrumbs patted onto the glaze and toasted in the oven.
Table of Contents
Ingredient notes
- Bone-in ham: For the most flavor, look for a shank end (or shank portion) ham, which has a fattier meat, more flavor, and has one long bone for easier carving. A butt-end (or butt portion) ham is delicious, too. It just is a little leaner and is a little more work to carve.
- Spicy brown mustard: Or substitute Dijon mustard.
- Panko breadcrumbs: This Japanese-style breadcrumb is commonly used as to coat for deep-fried foods for the crispiest result. You can buy them at the store or make your own panko crumbs.
Step-by-step instructions
- Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil; set wire rack in sheet. Place 12-inch square of foil in center of rack. Set ham on foil, flat side down, and cover it with oven bag, tucking bag under ham to secure it. Let ham sit at room temperature for 1 ½ hours.
- Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Bake ham to 100 degrees, about 2 hours (lift bag to take temperature; do not puncture). Meanwhile, combine sugar, brown mustard, vinegar, dry mustard, ginger, and cloves in medium saucepan and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until reduced to ¾ cup, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool while ham cooks.
- Combine panko, parsley, oil, salt, and pepper in bowl. Remove ham from oven, discard oven bag, and let ham cool for 5 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Brush ham all over with brown sugar-mustard mixture.
- Press panko mixture against sides of ham to evenly to coat.
- Bake until crumbs are deep golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Transfer ham, flat side down, to carving board and let rest for 30 minutes. Carve and serve.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes generous portions for 8 adults. Estimate about ¾ pound per person for a bone-in ham and ½ pound for boneless ham. If you want extra for leftovers, buy a larger ham than the math above suggests.
- Storage: Store leftover ham covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: The glaze can be made one day in advance and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature during the first phase of baking the ham.
- Freezer: Baked ham can be cooled and frozen for up to 6 months. Double-wrap, label, and date the ham. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before use.
Recipe FAQs
If you don’t have an oven bag, wrap the ham tightly in two layers of aluminum foil during the first stage of cooking.
Save your ham bone for soup! Slow cooker ham and bean soup is always a favorite. A meaty ham bone makes for a better soup.
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Baked Ham With Crumb Topping
Equipment
- 1 Oven bag
Ingredients
- 8-9 pound ham bone-in, spiral sliced
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup spicy brown mustard
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons mustard dry
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
- ½ cup fresh parsley minced
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil; set wire rack in sheet. Place 12-inch square of foil in center of rack. Set ham on foil, flat side down, and cover it with oven bag, tucking bag under ham to secure it. Let ham sit at room temperature for 1 ½ hours.
- Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Bake ham to 100 degrees, about 2 hours. (Lift bag to take temperature; do not puncture.)
- Meanwhile, combine sugar, brown mustard, vinegar, dry mustard, ginger, and cloves in medium saucepan and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until reduced to ¾ cup, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool while ham cooks.
- Combine panko, parsley, oil, salt, and pepper in bowl. Remove ham from oven, discard oven bag, and let ham cool for 5 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees.
- Brush ham all over with brown sugar-mustard mixture. Press panko mixture against sides of ham to evenly to coat. Bake until crumbs are deep golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Transfer ham, flat side down, to carving board and let rest for 30 minutes. Carve and serve.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Bone-in ham: For the most flavor, look for a shank end (or shank portion) ham, which has a fattier meat, more flavor, and has one long bone for easier carving. A butt-end (or butt portion) ham is delicious, too. It just is a little leaner and is a little more work to carve.
- Spicy brown mustard: Or substitute Dijon mustard.
- Panko breadcrumbs: This Japanese-style breadcrumb is commonly used as to coat for deep-fried foods for the crispiest result. You can buy them at the store or make your own panko crumbs.
- Yield: This recipe makes generous portions for 8 adults. Estimate about ¾ pound per person for a bone-in ham and ½ pound for boneless ham. If you want extra for leftovers, buy a larger ham than the math above suggests.
- Storage: Store leftover ham covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: The glaze can be made one day in advance and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature during the first phase of baking the ham.
- Freezer: Baked ham can be cooled and frozen for up to 6 months. Double-wrap, label, and date the ham. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before use.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is the Executive Chef and CEO of Culinary Hill, a popular digital publication in the food space. She loves to combine her Midwestern food memories with her culinary school education to create her own delicious take on modern family fare. Millions of readers visit Culinary Hill each month for meticulously-tested recipes as well as skills and tricks for ingredient prep, cooking ahead, menu planning, and entertaining. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the iCUE Culinary Arts program at College of the Canyons.
Meggan … Yes, we have learned to do these too. We used to buy hams that were pre-made, but they have got very, very expensive. Some around us are like $60 or $70 for this type of Sugared Candied Ham (as we call it). So, we looked online and found a similar recipe, and we made it the prior Christmas in 2019. Honestly, I do think it was as-good or BETTER THAN the store-bought one. I could tell no difference, even had a sweeter and crispier taste. So, we won’t be buying them anymore and just making them ourselves. So, I do plan to try your recipe when we have a Holiday event in the months ahead. Thanks for sharing.
Yesterday was the 3rd time I have made this ham. My husband and I LOVE ham and this is our absolute favorite for a spiral ham. We will never go back to the glaze that comes with the ham. It’s just unbelievable and I can’t emphasize that enough.
We didn’t have fresh parsley, so we did it with 4 tablespoons of dried instead. Honestly, I probably will just do it this way from now on because it’s so much easier, and it wasn’t really any different.
Will continue to make this one over and over and over again!! THANKS!