Bourbon Glazed Ham

Glazed ham with bourbon and maple syrup on white plate with red ribbon.

5 from 2 votes

Bourbon Glazed Ham needs to be the star of the show! Be it Easter, Christmas or special occasion an oven baked ham is crowd pleasing.

Prep Time15

Cook Time1 15

Total Time1 30

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: Western

Keyword: bourbon glazed ham

Servings:

Calories: 490kcal

Author: Adrianne

Ingredients

Glaze

1 ½ cups brown sugar
½ cup/125 ml maple syrup
½ cup/125 ml honey
½ cup/125 ml bourbon
1 tbs djion mustard
1 tbs cinnamon sugar

Ham

5 kg/ 11 pound bone in half leg of ham
cloves

Garnish (optional):

rosemary sprigs

Instructions

Preheat the oven: preheat the oven to 180°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5.
Prepare the ham: remove the packaging from the ham and place it onto a clean dry cutting board. Use a small knife to make a cut around the exposed bone end. Then starting at the exposed ham end, gently slide your fingers under the skin and pull it back and off the ham. The skin can then be discarded. Wrap the bone with tin foil. Next use a small knife and cut across the surface of the ham, as lightly as you can not cutting too deeply. Then make cuts in the opposite direction in a diagonal manner. Next push a clove into the diamond formed by the cuts across the ham.
Glaze: place a medium sauce pan onto the stove top and add the brown sugar, bourbon, maple syrup, honey, mustard and cinnamon sugar. Then turn the heat to high and stir as the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar has dissolved and the glaze has thickened, turn the heat off on the stove top.
Glazing the ham: use a pastry brush to coat the surface and exposed ham edge in the glaze. Then place the ham into the oven and let it bake for 15 - 20 minutes. Once the time is up, use oven mitts to remove the baking rack from the oven, place it onto a heatproof surface and reglaze the ham. Then repeat this process every 15 to 20 minutes for the next hour.
To serve: once the ham has been cooking for 1 hour and 15 minutes, turn the heat off. Then you can let it sit in the oven as it starts to cool. Once the ham has say for 5-10 minutes, use oven mitts to remove the baking tray and rack from the oven and place it onto a heatproof surface. Then transfer the glazed ham onto a cutting board. Use a sharp knife and prongs to carve the ham into slices.

Notes

Note 1 - Brown sugar: the sugar gets dissolved in the liquids on the stove top. So we don't actually notice the granulated texture. However we taste it in the top surface of each slice of ham.
Note 2- Maple syrup: another sweet and sticky ingredient perfect to use in Christmas cooking. The maple syrup is a complimentary flavor to the bourbon, brown sugar and honey.
Note 3 - Honey: sweet, sticky and rich. This lovely ingredient is for both flavor and texture.
Note 4- Bourbon: the bourbon gives a great rich flavor to the glaze. We only need a small amount of it and it does not overwhelm the flavor of the ham itself.
Note 5 - Mustard: we use a small amount of Dijon mustard in the glaze. This is smooth and you will notice it won't fully dissolve even with high heat.
Note 6 - Cinnamon sugar: sweet and festive. This aromatic spice is a great addition to a glaze for ham as it brings a cinnamon fragrance and flavor.
Note 7 - Ham: we want to use a bone in half leg of ham as shown in the photo above.
Note 8 - Cloves: these get pushed into the ham before it is covered in the glaze and oven baked.

Nutrition