Southern Baked Ham Recipe with 3-Ingredient Brown Sugar Glaze
Set this Southern baked ham recipe on the holiday table and watch everybody try to guess what’s in that shiny brown sugar glaze. It comes from my great-grandmother Lela, and her 3-ingredient glaze is just brown sugar, yellow mustard and a splash of Coke. A bone-in smoked ham bakes wrapped in foil for an hour, gets a second coat of glaze and bakes 30 minutes more uncovered, so you’re looking at about 1 hour 45 minutes plus a short rest before slicing.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Baked Ham With Brown Sugar Glaze
- Serves: 4
- Main Ingredients: approx 8-lb. smoked, ready-to-cook, bone-in ham, packed brown sugar, coke, yellow mustard
- Why You'll Love It: This recipe for baked ham features the easiest and tastiest 3-ingredient brown sugar glaze that makes your ham positively shine. Also, save that ham bone for other delicious recipes!
There’s no honey, ground cloves or pineapple rings in this ham glaze, and nobody misses them. A good baked ham is a wonderful main course for Easter, Christmas or any Sunday dinner, and the leftovers usually give me at least three more meals. One of my favorite ways to use them is to warm up some Jordan rolls the next morning, split them and layer in warm slices of ham for a quick breakfast with a cup of coffee. Save that ham bone with a little meat still on it, too. Pop it in a gallon-size bag in the freezer and it’ll flavor the best pot of pinto beans or Senate bean soup you’ve ever had.
There’s another great ham recipe in my cookbook that you won’t find on SouthernPlate.com, so be sure to check it out.
Why This Baked Ham Recipe Works
The Coke turns the brown sugar and mustard into a glaze that’s a lot looser than you’d expect, so it brushes right on and coats every part of the ham you can reach. Wrapping the ham in foil for the first hour keeps it juicy while it heats through, and then the second coat of glaze bakes uncovered so it can brown on the outside.
What You Need for Brown Sugar Glazed Ham
- Smoked ham: I use an 8-pound smoked, ready-to-cook, bone-in ham. Spiral-cut and boneless hams are out there too, but bone-in is the one I recommend for this recipe, and you get that ham bone for later.
- Brown sugar: Light or dark, whatever you have in the pantry.
- Coke: Any cola works, including Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper. For a more traditional glaze, swap in orange juice, or try ginger ale if you dare.
- Yellow mustard: Just a tablespoon of plain yellow mustard balances out the sweetness.
Helpful Tips Before You Start
- Use a baking pan with sides. The ham juice will leak out, and if it gets in the bottom of your oven you’ll have quite the smell in your house.
- Heavy-duty foil is great if you have it, but regular foil works fine. No sense spending extra money when you don’t have to.
- No basting brush? Spoon the glaze over the ham in big gobs and smear it around.
- If the glaze doesn’t loosen up after stirring, add another tablespoon of Coke.
- I slice my ham with an electric knife I got for about $25, but a sharp regular knife works just fine.
How to Make a Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Glaze
1Stir the glaze
In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, Coke and mustard. It will turn a lot more liquid than you expect.
2Glaze and wrap the ham
Line a rimmed baking pan with foil and set the ham in the center. Brush half of the glaze over every part of the ham you can reach, then wrap the foil up and seal it well.
3Bake for 1 hour
Bake the wrapped ham at 350°F for 1 hour.
4Glaze again and bake uncovered
Peel the foil back without moving the ham and brush on the rest of the glaze. Return it to the oven uncovered for 30 minutes more, or until lightly browned.
5Rest and slice
Let the ham sit for about 10 minutes before slicing. If you need to serve it later, cover it with foil to keep it warm, but I suggest slicing within half an hour, because that’s about as long as anybody can stand waiting once they smell it.
What to Serve with Baked Ham
For a holiday or Easter ham, I like it with homemade mashed potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes, a pot of fresh green beans and a plate of Southern deviled eggs. Cheesy hashbrown casserole, candied sweet potatoes and a basket of homemade dinner rolls round it out nicely, and a cool tomato, onion and cucumber salad keeps things light. Planning a big holiday dinner? My holiday menu ideas have plenty more sides to pick from.
Baked Ham FAQs
How long do you bake a ham at 350 degrees?
For an 8-pound smoked, ready-to-cook, bone-in ham, I bake it wrapped in foil for 1 hour, then uncovered for 30 minutes more after the second coat of glaze. Hams vary, so check the label on yours for its heating instructions too.
Can you make a ham glaze without honey?
This one doesn’t use any honey at all. Brown sugar, yellow mustard and Coke make a sweet, tangy glaze that’s simple to stir together from what’s already in your pantry.
What can I use instead of Coke in ham glaze?
Any carbonated soda works, including Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper. Orange juice makes a more traditional glaze, and ginger ale is fun if you want to try something different.
Southern Baked Ham with 3-Ingredient Brown Sugar Glaze
Ingredients
- 1 approx 8-lb. smoked, ready-to-cook, bone-in ham
- 1 cup packed brown sugar light or dark, whatever you have
- 2 tablespoons coke or your favorite carbonated soda
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
Instructions
- Line a large pan with a lip around it with aluminum foil. Place the ham in the center of the foil.1 approx 8-lb. smoked, ready-to-cook, bone-in ham
- In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, coke, and mustard to make your glaze. Brush half of the glaze over the ham. Wrap the entire ham well in foil. Place in a 350-degree oven for 1 hour.1 cup packed brown sugar, 2 tablespoons coke, 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- Remove the ham from the oven and peel back the foil, but don't move the ham. Brush the remaining glaze over the ham and return to the oven, uncovered, for another 30 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Allow it to sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes or so before cutting. If you need to serve it later you can cover it with foil to keep it warm and let it sit on your stovetop. I suggest cutting it within half an hour of removing it from the oven because that is about as long as you'll be able to stand waiting once you smell it.
Notes
- Storage: Keep leftover ham in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Serve it cold or reheat it quickly in the microwave. Freeze leftovers in a freezer-safe container or bag for up to 3 months and thaw overnight in the fridge.
- Soda swaps: Any cola works, including Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper. Use orange juice for a more traditional glaze, or ginger ale for something different.
- Use a pan with sides: The ham juices will leak, and they’ll smoke if they drip into your oven.
- Ham: This recipe is written for a bone-in smoked ham. Check your ham’s label for its heating instructions.
- For a festive touch: Decorate the ham with maraschino cherries.
Nutrition
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Christy, love that dinner. What do you do with your leftover bone, or even leftover ham. Sounds like a good upcoming post to me. BTW, picked up an Oct issue of Southern Living in my Drs office. Guess who I recognized? Brady. So I passed it around. You have such a cute family. Hugs! June
Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables from the garden…fried corn, English peas or butter beans, green beans, or field peas, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and green onions and cornbread , usually Lemon Icebox pie, or a berry cobbler and sweet tea.
My mother would get up early and kill a chicken and clean it, and the kids would go to the garden and pick whatever was in season, bring it in and shell, shuck or snap. The older ones would peel the potatoes.m Mamma would make gravy for the potatoes from the chicken drippings….My dad worked hard all week, so all he did was show up at the table to eat…lol
I can never duplicate the taste of her fried chicken because the chicken was so fresh.
We did not have Sunday dinners that were any more special then the rest of the week. However, this meal looks like our annual Easter meal!
My great-grandma was known for her wonderful cooking as well as her wonderful manners. At one of her family dinners everyone was complimenting her on how tasty everything was when she sent them all into shock as she stood up, hiked up her skirt, put her knee up on the table and leaned over to reach her gravy boat!! “Grandma, why didn’t you ask us to pass you the gravy!” Sitting back down in her chair she replied, “I DID ask…THREE times, but you were so busy talking and I got tired of asking!”
My favorite Sunday meal has to be Easter Sunday. Mimmaw would make her ham and I would help her score it and put the little cloves in the corners. She wold also make my great-grandmothers green beans, you know the ones that are really greasy and not really good for you after they have been cooked all day. She would also have her Cheesy Potatoes which are like a mix of your Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole and your Sour Cream Hash Brown Casserole, but with a corn flake cereal topping. Then of course we would have 7 Layer Salad, Broccoli Salad, fried cornbread, maccaroni salad, corn of some sort, Deviled Eggs, Broccoli Casserole, and then some sort of dessert, but you had to wait for that because there just wasn’t enough room right after. She also would have some pickled eggs that were in a huge jar that had turned pink from the beets that were in there with them. I think me and my Pa-Pa were the only ones that ate them. 🙂
I love pickled eggs with beets….matter of a fact I am getting mine ready to pickle for Easter..
I remember coming home from church and my Momma in her best dress would jump from the car and chase a chicken down and wring its neck …just right there.. Then she would clean it and have it ready to fry along with biscuits and gravy in no time..and the sweet tea…It may gross some of you out, but that was how it was done on a back dirt road farm in Southern Tennessee…Really good fried chicken too.
I love this post as it brought back some fond memories of my childhood. I was born in Tennessee, but raised from 3mo old in California. My parents were country through and through and your post made me think of how they did country things in the middle of the city. Thanks, Cee,Cee
Did you ever watch the chicken run around after she had wrung its neck? That was part of the “fun” back in the good ole days and that, of course, is where the old saying “running around like a chicken with its head cut off” comes from
My mom was not southern, but my favorite Sunday dinner (not necessarily served always on Sundays, but on Sunday-like days such as when I would visit from afar), was her roast whole chicken. She roasted her chicken very, very slowly in a cast iron frying pan so that the meat would be incredibly tender, and loosely tented the chicken until the last part of its cooking time with foil to keep it moist. She usually seasoned the chicken with salt and garlic powder and poultry seasoning, and sometimes with other seasonings. With the chicken pan juices she made fabulous gravy using Lipton’s dried soup mixes, such as a combination of mushroom soup and onion soup. All this was served with cooked carrots tossed with butter and lots of finely chopped parsley, mashed potatoes or rice to eat with the superb gravy, and often some other vegetable such as buttered asparagus or green beans with bits of bacon. Dessert would be something such as an outstanding store-bought vanilla ice cream with fresh raspberries on top. The aroma of that chicken roasting all afternoon was beyond description, and so was the extra tender, fabulously flavorful chicken when we finally got to dig into it.