This post contains affiliate links.
This traditional Baked Ham recipe with a pineapple brown sugar glaze is so flavorful, delicious, and perfect for Easter, Christmas, or any special occasion!
The Holiday-worthy Baked Ham we come back to year after year.
The Holiday-worthy Baked Ham we come back to year after year.This is the best Baked Ham recipe with a sweet pineapple glaze that perfectly complements the savory, smoky flavor of the ham. It tastes like something you'd get at a fancy holiday dinner, but it’s incredibly simple to make. Since the ham is already pre-cooked, all we’re really doing is reheating it and adding the glaze, which makes it practically foolproof. One of my favorite parts is the leftovers! I always freeze the ham bone for Ham Bone Soup, and use leftover slices in Ham and Cheese Sliders, Ham Fried Rice, Charro Beans, or even Chicken Cordon Bleu.
What Ham to Buy: My favorite ham is a pre-cooked, bone-in, spiral sliced ham. The bone-in hams are more flavorful and it's nice that it's already sliced. I usually buy the Kirkland hams from Costco – they are delicious and a great price!
If you want more special occasion meals, try Rack of Lamb, Baked Parmesan Crusted Chicken, Seared Scallops, or Baked Salmon!
How to make Baked Ham:
Make the Glaze: Combine all glaze ingredients in a saucepan and stir until smooth. Simmer on low heat until thickened to a syrup-like consistency.
Bake and Serve: Let the ham sit at room temperature for 1–2 hours. Place it in a foil-lined roasting pan, brush with a little glaze, cover tightly with foil, and bake at 300°F for 1½ to 2 hours. Uncover, brush with remaining glaze, increase oven to 400°F, and bake for 15 more minutes. Tent with foil and rest 15 minutes before serving. Serve with Funeral Potatoes or Mashed Potatoes, a wedge salad, and Homemade Rolls!
Follow me for more great recipes
Recipe
Baked Ham
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8-10 pounds bone-in fully-cooked, spiral-cut ham
- 20 ounce can pineapple tidbits , or crushed pineapple
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Instructions
- Remove ham from refrigerator 1-2 hours before baking, to allow it to come to room temperature.8-10 pounds bone-in fully-cooked, spiral-cut ham
- Make Glaze: Meanwhile, make the glaze. In a saucepan combine pineapple tidbits, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until mixture has thickened.20 ounce can pineapple tidbits, ¾ cup light brown sugar, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Remove ham from packaging and throw away the glaze packet and the plastic disk that covers the bone.
- Glaze ham: Place the ham flat/cut side down, in a deep baking dish or roasting pan. I like to line my pan with aluminum foil to make for easier clean-up. Brush just a few spoonfuls of the glaze onto the ham, all over the outside. Reserve the remaining glaze for later. Cover the ham tightly with a tent of aluminum foil. This will help keep the ham from drying out.
- Bake at 300 degrees F for 1 ½ to 2 hours, or until internal temperature reaches 110 degrees. Note, the ham is already cooked, so we’re just just trying to reheat it.
- Remove the ham from the oven and remove foil tent (set it aside for later). Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Brush the remaining glaze all over the ham. Return to the oven and continue to bake for another 15 minutes.
- Rest: Remove from oven, tent with foil and allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Follow Me
I originally shared this recipe March 2018. Updated August 2019 and December 2021, November 2023 and October 2025.
Can I use this recipe on a bone-in country ham if I cook it through first?
Top the ham with the glaze just like you would with a spiral cut ham. Maybe reserve a bit of the glaze for the last 5 minutes of warming.
This is the only spiral ham glaze I will ever use! I have used several and they didn’t touch this glaze. Thanks so much for making my ham SING!
Hi! Rather than buying a spiral ham (the least I could find was 8 lbs which was too much) I bought 4 lbs of pre-sliced ham tonight from the deli for Christmas dinner. Would this same recipe with a cooking time of 1.5 hours still work in this situation? I really appreciate any advice; we aren’t ham connoisseurs 😉
Hi Valerie, here is a good resource for cooking times (based on if yours is bone in or not). I’m assuming it’s precooked so you just need to warm it. https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/hamcookingchart.html Enjoy!
Has anyone made this in the crockpot? It sounds delicious (Lauren’s recipes never disappoint).
Can I make this in a roasting pan and what would I do different?
Yes that’s fine–nothing different 🙂 Enjoy!
Has anyone tried this recipe using a crock pot? It sounds delicious, but I’m trying to save oven space for other dishes.
Sure, that would work! Cook for about 3-4 hours on low heat (for an 8lb ham), or until warmed to 140 degrees.
I’m a ham virgin looking forward to glazing and enjoy the sweet morsels
In my mouth!!!
Wish me luck
Why do you take the ham out for 2hours before cooking
You want to take it out 1 -2 hours beforehand to let it come to room temperature so that it cooks evenly. (Rather than the outside cooking faster than the inside).
To keep it from drying out when you cook it!
If you was to place a cold ham into hot oven will take longer to get ham hot and with that it drys out the ham…
Therefore having ham at room temp will take anywhere from an hour to 2 hours to heat and ham will remain moist!!!
Hope that helps you.
Chef Sue
I used this recipe tonight for dinner family loved it. I wish the ham was more caramelized any suggestions? Thanks again.
Made this for Easter this year and it was a big hit. Great recipe- easy to follow and very clear instructions for us first-timers. Thanks so much.
This will be my 2nd time making baked ham in 7 yrs. Recipe looks awesome for an xmas dinner =)