Our easy baked ham glaze recipe with honeyorange juice, and brown sugar makes your pork taste good!! With 3-ingredients, you can make this in 5 minutes to make your holiday meal sweet.

Ok so it's Easter, or Christmas and you're ready to make a big meal for everyone. We don't know about you but we're not interested in spending more time than we have to on anything but also want to impress our guests. Yours will think you spent hours on this one!

Easy is key in our opinion when it comes to cooking good food for the holidays, and our Old Fashioned family recipe for ham glaze is that! Some come with the mysterious “packet” to pour on top after mixed with water with tastes like chemicals, throw that away and try this right now!

We have tried that and quite frankly it tastes like sugar poured on top and doesn't give it a lot of other flavors. Whether you're slicing it yourself or following our Spiral Ham in the Oven recipe, this will work!

Ingredient notes

We think orange juice is great way to start with this but any juice will do. Pulp free is best. Now we have used pineapple juice before and that was a hit too with our kids who love all Hawaiian flavors, choose your favorite.

You are going to add light brown sugar that is lightly packed for a deep sweetness with a tinge of a molasses flavor to it.

You will then use honey for added sweetness. Alternatives would be either agave nectar or maple syrup. We like organic varieties of all of these myself as it has a richer flavor.

Swaps

This is super easy to adjust as we mentioned above a little bit but beyond that a few tweaks you can make would be to: add 1 tsp red pepper flakes to make a bit spicy and/or we have heard that the sugar free splenda version of “sugar” is a good substitute to this too especially when using this to make our crockpot ham recipe.

Do you glaze a ham before or after baking?

Most people will add it about 45 minutes before it is done. Baste with additional glaze every 10-15 minutes until the cook time is up. This helps build up a nice, sticky, flavorful crust. If you want an extra caramelized finish, you can briefly broil for a few minutes at the end.

Can we glaze an already cooked ham?

Absolutely. Most hams are pre-cooked / smoked when you buy them at the store. Whether you are baking, air frying or Smoking a Cooked Ham you will likely expect to have some sort of sweet and tangy sauce over the top. You will want to baste throughout the heating process for best results.

Even without more poured on top of your cut slices the orange juice and sweetness makes it's way into your meat and permeates it to taste good. Some like a bit more added on top and you should have plenty. Mine was 2.5 lb. so if you cook a large one you might want to double the recipe but it's easy to make and we've been doing it for years.

What can we do to remedy a ham glaze that got to thick?

Gently reheating it can help to thin it out especially if there is sugar or honey in it. Gradually add a liquid while stirring to reach the desired consistency or warm in a pan over low heat. Choices include; water, juice or apple cider vinegar can add a pop of flavor.

3 Ingredient Ham Glaze Recipe

By Baked ham glaze recipe with orange juice and honey is simple and makes your ham taste good!! 3 ingredients, you've got to try this ham glaze next time. Prep: 5 minutes minsCook: 0 minutes minsTotal: 5 minutes minsServings: 6 Save Recipe Saved! Pin Recipe Comment Print Recipe

Equipment

1 Bowl

Ingredients

1/2 cup orange juice, pulp free is best, or pineapple juice works
1 cup brown sugar not packed
1/2 cup honey, maple syrup or agave nectar

Instructions

Whisk your 3 ingredients together. Taste and adjust the sweetness to your liking.
Pour on top of your ham, bake as you like in the oven, crockpot or make Instant Pot Ham

Nutrition

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Side DishCuisine: American Tried this recipe?Mention @thetypical_mom or tag #thetypicalmom!

Best way to cook a ham with glaze

We have several recipes on our site depending on which cooking method you prefer. We have included slow cooker, smoker and Instant Pot above but there are a few others. You can make a Ninja Foodi Ham with this sauce. To use a boneless (smaller version) try our Air Fryer Ham directions. Last but not least our Dutch Oven Ham is super popular at Christmas time.