Cranberry Bourbon Glazed Ham

Cranberry Bourbon Glazed Ham – if you are looking for an incredible Thanksgiving or Christmas Ham, this is it!  Whole cranberry sauce, brown sugar, bourbon, and horseradish makes the best ham glaze!  This is the ultimate Glazed Ham recipe!

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Amazing Christmas Ham!

This is the story of the amazing Christmas Ham that got lost in the world of food blogging.

In 2007, I made this Cranberry Bourbon Glazed ham and the family immediately declared it the best ham ever!  We vowed to eat it every year for Christmas.

Christmas of 2008 came along, and being a food blogger, I had to make something new, and the amazing ham was forgotten about.

Fast forward to 2018.  I was going through my old posts doing a little blog clean up and I stumble upon the Amazing Christmas Ham!

This will be on the Christmas menu for this year!  I will have new photos then.  But this ham was so good, I felt the need to revise this post NOW, crappy 2007 photos and everything.  Because you need to know about it!

Best Ham Glaze

If you are looking the Best Ham Glaze – you have come to the right place!  Brown sugar, cranberry sauce, bourbon and horseradish are amazing together.  A little tart, a little sweet, a little hint of bourbon.  It would be perfect for a Thanksgiving Ham (you know some people don’t like turkey, crazy, huh?) or Christmas ham.

Baking a Glazed Ham

How do you bake your ham?  Do you bake it cut side up or cut side down?  Before I read this recipe, I always baked it cut side up because that’s how it shows it in all the photos.

Bake your ham cut side down!   It comes out perfect.  I think it’s the same idea as roasting your chicken for awhile breast side down, you get the juices from the fat to flow down into the meat.  The cut edge on the ham stayed so moist, but it was also nice and crispy from being in contact with the hot pan.

I may have forgotten to make this recipe again, but at least I always remembered to cook the ham cut side down.

Oven Baked Ham is Easy!

Baking this ham is really easy:  You trim and score the ham and bake it cut side down for about an hour and a half in a roasting pan.   Heat the sauce ingredients in small pan.  Raise the heat of the oven, and brush the glaze over the ham.    Let ham rest for about 20 minutes before slicing and skim off fat from the pan juices.

Eat, enjoy, and sit back and wait for the rave reviews!

Looking for something to serve with the ham:

Everybody loves scalloped potatoes especially when they are made with gruyere cheese – Scalloped Potatoes with Gruyere.

Everyone will be asking for this Smoked Gouda Scalloped Potatoes recipe!

Print Pin

5 from 1 vote

Cranberry Bourbon Glazed Ham

This will become your go to Thanksgiving or Christmas Ham! 

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Resting time 15 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 55 minutes

Servings 25

Calories 335kcal

Ingredients

• 10 pound bone-in ham
• cooking spray
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup whole cranberry sauce
• 3/4 cup brown sugar packed
• 1/4 cup bourbon
• 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
• 1 bay leaf

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325.
• Trim fat and rind from ham. Score outside of ham in a diamond pattern. Place the ham, bone end up, on a roasting pan coated with cooking spray or lined with foil. 
• Bake at 325° for 1 1/2 hours.
• In a small saucepan combine the sugar and the remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat; discard bay leaf.
• Increase the oven temperature to 400. 
• Brush the cranberry mixture over the ham and continue baking for 15 minutes. 
• Remove the ham from the oven and place on a platter.   Tent lightly with foil and let it rest for 15-20 minutes. 
• Skim fat from sauce in pan. 
• Slice ham and serve with sauce. 

Nutrition

Calories: 335kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 34g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 132mg | Sodium: 2100mg | Potassium: 513mg | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 5IU | Vitamin C: 42.6mg | Calcium: 11mg | Iron: 1.6mg

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Update Notes: This was originally published in 2007 and has been updated for 2018. It will be updated with new photos after Christmas this year!