Crockpot Honey Mustard Ham

If you love a delicious and easy slow cooker dinner, you’ll want to try this Crockpot Honey Mustard Ham. With very little time and effort, you can prepare a holiday ham or an easy weeknight dinner. The ham is covered in a sweet and tangy glaze and then warmed in the slow cooker, resulting in an incredibly flavorful and tender ham. As a bonus, any leftovers are perfect for making tasty sandwiches and soups! (and for a recipe to use that leftover ham, check out my recipe for Easy Split Pea Soup with Ham).

While I do enjoy a good baked ham, I also love this crockpot ham for its ease and deliciousness. Heating a ham in the slow cooker keeps it moist, and brings out the natural flavors of the ham. And I will admit, this ham is not fancy with a shiny glaze like an oven-baked glazed ham. But what it lacks in presentation it more than makes up for in tenderness and flavor. 

I often make this ham for a holiday dinner because it’s so easy to prepare and it frees up oven space to prepare other dishes. But I like to make this crockpot ham just for a regular weeknight dinner, too. It’s so easy to heat it slow in the crockpot while I go about my day, then sit down to a beautiful homemade dinner later. And it usually leaves me with plenty of leftovers (and a ham bone) to use later in sandwiches and soups. 

And just as a tip, making a large piece of meat like a ham or a roast is usually a frugal and efficient way to get several dinners on the table. When hams are on sale around Christmas and Easter, I will buy a few of them and stash them in my freezer for later. And then you can defrost your meat, cook once, and eat for several more meals throughout the week. That is a winning strategy in my book!

Choosing a Ham for the Crockpot

You will want a fully-cooked ham, which is generally what you will find in U.S. grocery stores. This type of ham can be served cold or heated before serving.

As for boneless vs. bone-in hams, I prefer to use a ham with the bone. To me, it’s a more flavorful and juicy ham. Also, I like to have that ham bone to use for soups and pots of beans. The recipe would most likely work with a boneless ham, too, but I have not tried it.

Also, unless you have a huge crock pot, you’ll want to select a half ham. This can be a shank portion or a butt portion. And I find the crock pot is ideal for cooking a spiral-cut ham, which can often dry out in the oven. A half of a ham is usually around 7-10 pounds. To estimate servings, plan on 3/4 to 1 pound of bone-in ham per person.

Ingredients for Crock Pot Honey Mustard Glazed Ham

Ham – Make sure this is a fully cooked ham, or what is otherwise called a city ham. You will want to get either a shank or a butt portion, and it can be spiral sliced or not. If you have questions about the right type of ham to purchase, ask your friendly local butcher for help. And if the ham happens to come with a glaze packet, you can discard that since we’re making a homemade glaze. 

Brown Sugar – Light or dark brown sugar is fine. 

Honey – Use whatever honey you enjoy. Darker honey will give you a more robust flavor. 

Mustard – Any type of mustard will work for this recipe. I typically use Dijon mustard or a whole grain mustard. If you like a little bit of spice, use a spicy brown mustard or mustard with horseradish.

Orange Juice and Zest – You can use orange juice from a bottle, but I like to use one small orange or half of a large orange, plus the zest for a hint of added flavor.

Tips for making a Crockpot Honey Ham

Here are a few tips for making slow-cooker ham:

• Trim the ham. If your ham is not spiral cut and has a large amount of fat, you can trim it back if desired. You can then score the remaining fat in a crisscross pattern if you choose (but this is optional). Also, if there are areas of tough skin (also called the rind) on the ham, you can trim this off. You shouldn’t need to do any trimming with a spiral-cut ham.
• Adjust your ham to fit the crock. When baking your ham in the oven, you typically want to bake it with the cut side down, or in the case of a whole ham, with the fat side up. But because we’re heating the ham within the size and shape constraints of a crockpot, you may not be able to do this. I just fit my ham into my crockpot in whichever direction fits best. For a spiral-cut ham, this is usually with the sliced slide facing up. However way you do this, it will work fine. But do be sure you are using a crockpot that is large enough to fit your ham. You will need a 6-8 quart crockpot to fit a ham, depending on the size of the ham.
• Use a slow cooker liner. This tip is optional because I know some folks don’t like to use plastic when cooking. I get it because I don’t tend to use a lot of plastic myself. But brown sugar and honey can be a messy affair, and I like to keep the mess down by using a liner. 
• Baste the ham with the juices 2 or 3 times while it heats. And if the ham is spiral-sliced, go ahead and get those flavorful juices in between the slices.
• Heat the ham to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The ham is fully cooked, and you can technically eat it cold like you would deli meat (the safe cold temperature is 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below). But since we are warming it in the crockpot, you should fully warm it to a safe internal temperature of at least 140 degrees F.  The cooking time to reach this temperature will vary on the size of the ham. A small 7-pound ham will take about 3 hours on low, whereas a larger 10-pound ham may take 5-6 hours on low.
• Make gravy. You can use the drippings in the pan to make gravy. You will need about 2 cups of liquid. If you don’t have enough juicy pan drippings to make 2 cups, just add enough water or chicken broth to make the difference. Add this to a saucepan. Mix 3 tablespoons of cold water with 3 tablespoons of cornstarch and add to the ham juices in the pan. Heat to a gentle boil while whisking continuously to dissolve the cornstarch and stir out any lumps. 
• Serve with your favorite side dishes. I love to serve this crockpot ham with simple, tasty side dishes like green beans, scalloped potatoes, and soft and fluffy homemade dinner rolls.

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If you try this easy Slow Cooker Honey Mustard Ham, I hope you love it. And follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram so you don’t miss a post. 

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