Slow Cooker Ham

This slow cooker honey glazed ham is a spiral cut ham topped with a simple sweet glaze, that is cooked in the slow cooker to perfection. It’s a great way to make a holiday ham without any stress!

This slow cooker ham is so great for any time of year! It’s so easy to make, you can enjoy it for a weeknight dinner, or for the holidays. The slow cooker keeps the ham extra hands off, and extra moist, so you can have a sweet juicy honey ham! Yum! You could also try this Air Fryer Ham Steak for an easy option!

The nice thing about making ham in the slow cooker for the holidays is you can use your oven to make other things like turkey, rolls, stuffing, etc. and still have a juicy, delicious sweet ham that everyone will love! It’s also more forgiving than baking the ham in the oven because the slow cooker helps keep the ham extra moist – even if you end up cooking it a little longer than originally planned.

This slow cooker honey glazed ham is perfect served alongside some mashed potatoes, cheesy potatoes, rolls, rice, roasted vegetables, or a salad. 

Ingredients to make this slow cooker ham:

• 4-6 lb spiral cut ham – if your ham is bigger or smaller than that you should be okay, just adjust the cooking time. A bigger ham may give you a hard time closing the slow cooker lid, so cover the slow cooker super tightly with foil, and place the lid on top as much as you can. 
• brown sugar
• honey
• apple juice

Should I buy a boneless or bone in ham?

There are pros and cons of both a boneless and  bone in ham, so you can decide based on what you prefer, or what you can find.

Boneless hams are usually smaller, easier to work with. This might help if you have a smaller slow cooker. It won’t need to cook as long, and is easier to dry out so watch it closely and reapply the glaze as needed.

A bone in ham is usually larger, it might be harder to cut smooth nice slices off the ham because of the bone in the middle. But it will hold the moisture in better. 

How to make slow cooker ham?

It might be obvious, but first you’ll unwrap the ham, discarding the foil and netting that it comes in. You also don’t need the glaze packet, if it comes with one, so you can throw that away too, or use it for something else. Spray your slow cooker with nonstick spray, and place the ham in your slow cooker with the cut side down.

Pour the apple juice all over the top of the ham. Pour the honey all over the top of the ham, opening up some of the slices to get some in there too. The spread the brown sugar over the ham, rubbing it all over. 

Cook the ham on low heat for a few hours or until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit. The ham is cooked already, but you still want to make sure it’s nice and warm. 

While it’s cooking I like to spoon some of the juice back all over the top and sides of the ham, maybe 1 or 2 times.

When it’s done cooking pour the liquid into a medium sized pan, and heat the liquid over medium low heat until it starts to simmer. Cook it for about 8 to 10 minutes, or however long it takes to thicken up a bit. Adding a little cornstarch slurry and more brown sugar to help it thicken.

Brush the sauce back over the ham with a silicone brush, making sure to get it in between the slices. 

Broil the ham to get the edges a little crispy and the sauce extra sticky.

Serve the ham on a platter, large plate, or cutting board, garnished with some fresh parsley, if desired.

Tips for making ham in the slow cooker:

• If your ham is not spiral cut, cut the top to make a criss-cross pattern so some of the glaze can soak into it.
• Instead of honey you can also use pure maple syrup to go on the ham. 
• Instead of apple juice, you could also pineapple juice.
• You can also add the ham to your oven in a baking pan, under the broiler for about 5 minutes to get the glaze a little crispy on the edges. Reapply the baste after 2.5 minutes.

How to store leftover slow cooker ham?

I feel like we always have leftover ham no matter how many people or how much ham we make. It’s not a bad thing though, ham stores great in a zip top container, or other airtight container kept in the fridge for up to 4 days. (You can also freeze the leftover slices in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months).

When you’re ready to enjoy the leftovers you can eat them cold straight from the fridge, sliced up in a salad or sandwich. Or you can heat the leftovers back up. For heating up one or two servings at a time you can add it to a skillet over medium heat until warm. Or if you have a lot of leftover ham you want to reheat you can add it back into a baking pan with a little water in the bottom and heat it in the oven at 350 F until warm, about 15 or 20 minutes. 

Leftover ham is great for enjoying in sandwiches, salads, soups, alongside some eggs, with some mashed potatoes, or just on its own!

This ham is moist, sweet, and so delicious. It’s perfect for an easy weeknight dinner, or delicious enough for a holiday dinner too!

More ham recipes:

• Honey Mustard  Ham
• Maple Glazed Ham
• Copycat Honey Baked Ham from the Food Charlatan

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