This Maple Glazed Ham is a show stopper. The sticky maple glaze and warm holiday spices make it the BEST Christmas Ham recipe. It’s easy to prepare and can even be made ahead of time.

 

Skip the glaze packet that is included in your store-bought ham this year. Make this Maple Glazed Ham for Christmas, the easy glaze recipe has so much more flavor. Not to mention, it results in a juicer and more flavorful ham. The sticky glazed crust will have your guests swooning over its presentation.
If you are looking for other holiday ham recipes, consider making Bourbon Glazed Ham or Pineapple Glazed Ham both are great holiday ham options too!

Maple syrup gives this ham glaze it’s special flavor and amazing crust. Don’t skip it, it’s really needed for the BEST Maple Glaze. You will not need a fancy high quality brand but, don’t use pancake syrup. The flavor profile would be totally different.

The brown sugar in our maple glaze for ham adds the caramelization, sticky exterior and additional flavor that mingles with the maple syrup perfectly. The two ingredients really make this Christmas Ham stand out from all others.
For warm spice, the Maple Ham glaze includes cinnamon and nutmeg. Both of these spices really make this holiday ham cozy and festive. You could also add a dash of all spice if you would like.

This Maple Ham recipe includes fresh squeezed oranges. We squeeze the juice of a couple oranges over the entire ham before basting with the homemade maple glaze. The orange flavor works it way down into the ham but, the ham does not taste orangey in any way. The orange juice just adds a touch of natural sweetness, so much better than plain water.

Maple Glazed Ham Ingredients

It’s worth it to pick up the few ingredients you need to whip up the Maple Syrup Ham Glaze for our ham recipe. It’ll taste better than any packet glaze you’ll get along with your store-bought shank ham. You’re ham glaze ingredients- and all the other glazed ham ingredients you’ll need- are as follows:

• Brown Sugar – While we could go all in on the maple syrup, maple syrup is expensive. It’s easier and still tasty if you use some brown sugar instead. Go with light brown sugar for best results.
• Maple Syrup – It’s hard to beat the taste of maple syrup, especially if you’re making a Maple Ham. You don’t need premium maple syrup or anything but don’t use butter syrup for pancakes or anything like that.
• Dijon Mustard – Do not use yellow mustard as a dijon substitute. Totally different flavors and we need that dijon flavor here. The only dijon mustard substitutes that would work here are stone-ground, whole grain, or brown mustard.
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Shank Ham – We used a 10 pound ham for this recipe and all of our ingredients and cook times reflect that. These are also sold as ham shanks, bone-in ham, and half hams.
• Whole Cloves – lots of them!
• Oranges – We prefer using whole fresh oranges for a recipe like this. We’re going to squeeze fresh orange juice and use the spent oranges for a bit of extra aromatics in the roasting pan.
• Water

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Maple Ham

It’s almost as easy making Homemade Glazed for Ham as it is to make a store-bought glazed ham packet. You can even prep the glaze ahead of time to save time for your other holiday baking. Here’s a quick visual recipe guide:

• First, we need to make Maple Syrup Ham Glaze. For that, combine brown sugar, maple syrup, dijon mustard, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a medium mixing bowl. Stir until blended– if you need heat to mix, add to a pot over low heat on the stovetop or microwave in 30 second bursts and/or at half power.

• Set Maple Ham Glaze aside and set ham in roasting pan or on cutting board. Use a sharp kitchen knife to score several 1/4-inch deep cuts across the top of the ham 1 inch apart from one another. Repeat again on the opposite diagonal to make a cross-hatch pattern.

• At the corner of each diamond or cross-hatch, stud a whole clove into the ham. Repeat for as many corners as possible before setting ham, cut side down, on a rack in a roasting tray.

• Adjust oven racks to ensure ham fits before preheating oven to 320 degrees. While oven preheats, cut oranges and squeeze juices over ham. Put spent oranges in the bottom of the roasting pan.

• Use up to half of your Maple Syrup Glaze to generously coat ham. Make sure you work some of that glaze into the crosshatch cuts to help flavor get into the ham. Lastly, add water to the bottom of the roasting pan.

• Transfer ham in roasting pan over to preheated oven. Roast at 320 degrees for 2-3 hours, adding more Maple Glaze every 30 minutes. Once internal temperature reaches 165, remove from oven and baste with pan juices while Maple Glazed Ham rests for 20 minutes before serving.

Storage / Freezing

Storage: Any leftover ham can be kept on the bone or cut into ham slices for easier storage. Either cover ham with plastic wrap and/or foil or put in a Ziploc bag before transferring to the fridge. Maple Glazed Christmas Ham will keep in the fridge for 3-5 days.

Freezing: After cooking, you can also try keeping your Maple Ham frozen for long-term storage. Let cool completely before wrapping tightly in plastic wrap and aluminum foil or cutting into slices and transfering to a freezer bag. A Frozen Glazed Ham should last 3-4 months in the freezer- for best results, reheat low and slow in the oven.

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