How to Bake a Perfect Holiday Dinner Ham

Holidays can be so stressful, especially now that we are doing most of our own cooking due to stay-at-home orders. This recipe will make your holiday ham dinner shine more brightly, and with less time!

My family loves ham, and after all the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers in November, we are all ready for ham at Christmas!

What Makes a Great Ham Dinner?

Actually, whatever your family likes to eat! Commonly, we do almost the same dinner as Thanksgiving, only with ham, and without the stuffing and cranberry sauce!

Tools You Need to Make Your Dinner Ham

There are a couple of things you want to have on hand to make this, but you probably already have at least one of them in your kitchen.

First, you need a roasting pan large enough to accommodate a 10lb ham.

Next, you’ll need a roasting bag.

The recipe below is for a very simple holiday dinner ham, but you may choose to add pineapple, maraschino cherries, or a brown sugar glaze to yours depending on your family’s taste. (Variations are in the notes.)

Easiest Holiday Ham

adapted from Reynolds’ Holiday Dinner Ham Recipe

This recipe is super easy and versatile to your family's tastes. The oven bag keeps your ham juicy and succulent!

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Prep Time 30 mins

Cook Time 2 hrs 30 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 24 servings

Ingredients

  

• 1 tablespoon flour
• 8 to 10 pound fully-cooked ham half bone-in
• whole cloves
• 1 reynolds kitchens® large oven bag

Instructions

 

• PREHEAT oven to 325°F.
• SHAKE flour in a Reynolds Kitchens® Large Oven Bag, place in roasting pan at least 2 inches deep. Trim skin and fat from ham, leaving a thin layer of fat. Lightly score surface of ham in a diamond pattern; insert cloves.
• PLACE ham in oven bag.
• CLOSE oven bag with nylon tie; cut six 1/2-inch slits in top. Insert meat thermometer through slit in bag into thickest part of ham, not touching bone. Tuck ends of bag in pan to prepare for cooking.
• BAKE 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until meat thermometer reads a temperature of 140°F. Let stand in oven bag 15 minutes.

Notes

Substitution suggestion: An 8 to 10 pound fully-cooked boneless ham half may be substituted for the bone-in ham half.

Ham Glaze Variation: To make a ham glaze, mix 2 cups brown sugar, 1 cup honey, 1/2 cup dijon mustard, 2 tbsp. butter, 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar in a medium sauce pan, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring regularly to break up lump. Upon boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until reduced by 1/3, darkened, and thickened (about 20 mins). At the last 30 minutes of cooking, remove ham from oven, open roasting bag and tuck at sides. Pour glaze on ham (between slices if your ham is sliced), and return to oven, uncovered for the last half hour.

Pineapple and Maraschino Cherry Variation:* After you add your cloves, use toothpicks to affix pineapple rings to the outside of your ham. Affix maraschino cherries to the ham inside of each pineapple ring for a deliciously decorative look.

*For this variation, you may want to choose an unsliced ham. If you are planning to use the glaze, it will be best to add the glaze to the ham before dressing it with pineapple and cherries. Once all that is done, close the bag as suggested in the recipe, and allow to cook the full time with the bag closed.

Keyword beginner, cheap, dinner, easy, handmade holidays

Need some ideas for sides? Check out my Easy Side Dishes post!

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