Instant Pot Glazed Spiral Ham- For the juiciest and most flavorful pre-cooked spiral ham try cooking it in the Instant Pot! A tasty brown sugar, honey, maple glaze gives this ham a delicious flavor while the Instant Pot infuses the ham with moisture to keep it extra juicy. Perfect for your Holiday table ( like Easter, Thanksgiving & Christmas) but it's so easy you can make it anytime of the year!
No more dry ham! EVER!
Pre-cooked spiral ham is an easy option for holiday meals , because... well, it’s pre-cooked and pre-sliced and all you have to do is heat it up. Most recipes call for heating the ham in the oven for a long period of time which a.) takes time b.) heating for long periods of time in the oven can easily lead to DRY ham.
Now thanks to the Instant Pot there is a better option. The Instant Pot cooks by creating steam inside the pot. Steam= moisture=juicy ham! Plus..bonus! cooking the ham in the Instant Pot means more room in your oven for all the other holiday meal fixings. And, since cooking ham in the Instant Pot is so easy and quick ( 10 minutes cook time) you can make ham anytime you want (not just for the holidays).
Homemade 4 ingredient Brown Sugar Glaze for Spiral Ham
4 simple ingredients will take your spiral ham to the next level, giving it a perfect blend of sweet with a kick of savory/spice. You'll need 1) Brown Sugar 2) Honey 3) Maple Syrup 4) Dijon Mustard. I'm scaling the glaze ingredients to give you enough sweet without being over powering or too sweet plus the touch of Dijon mustard for some zest.
How to Make a Spiral Ham in the Instant Pot
- Add 1 cup water to the Instant Pot cooking pot.
- Make the Brown Sugar Spiral Ham Glaze- In a small bowl mix together brown sugar, maple syrup, honey and Dijon mustard.
- Glaze the ham- Using a pastry brush or spoon, lightly paint ham with glaze. Place ham (sliced slide down) onto a trivet with handles. Lower ham into Instant Pot. If your trivet does not have handles you may want to make an aluminum foil “sling” ( Here’s a great tutorial on making an aluminum foil sling from ThisOldGal.com)
Optional: (If you don’t want to pick up a ham with glaze on it) lay out a large piece of aluminum foil (big enough to cover ham) prior to painting glaze on ham. Paint glaze on all sides of ham (with a pastry brush or spoon) placing sliced side down, wrap aluminum foil around ham. Place ham (sliced side down) on trivet and lower into Instant Pot.
- Lock the lid and set the valve to “sealing”. Cook on Manual HIGH PRESSURE for 10 minutes. Once cooking cycle is complete allow ham to NATURALLY RELEASE for 10 minutes, followed by a QUICK RELEASE to release any remaining pressure. Turn off the Instant Pot ( by selecting CANCEL) . Carefully lift the handles of the trivet and ham out the pot.
Recipe Notes:
1). It may be necessary to cut ham down slightly to fit in the Instant Pot. Look for a ham approx. 6 lbs. for a 6 qt. Instant Pot and a ham approx. 7-8 lbs. for an 8 qt. Instant Pot.
2.) How to apply the glaze- I prefer to glaze the ham by “painting” the glaze on the ham with a pastry brush (or spoon) prior to adding it to the Instant Pot so that I can make sure the glaze is evenly distributed all over the ham. However, if you prefer you can add the ham to the Instant Pot (sliced side down on the trivet) and pour the glaze over the ham, allowing glaze to drip down and coat the sides of the ham.
3.) Make sure to turn off the Instant Pot once you’ve released all pressure. The default for many models of the Instant Pot is to have the Keep Warm feature enabled. Either disable it or make sure to turn off the Instant Pot once pressure is released. We don’t want dry ham!
Serve Instant Pot Glazed Spiral Ham with:
Cornbread Bites- perfect individual homemade cornbread squares are SO easy to make in the Instant Pot. Only 5 minutes prep time.
Cauliflower Mashed "Potatoes" - a great low-carb version of mashed potatoes {Clean Eating, Low Carb, Paleo, Vegan}
Instant Pot Glazed Spiral Ham
Ingredients
- 1 bone-in pre-cooked spiral ham approx. 6- 6 ½ lbs.
- 1 cup water
For the Brown Sugar Maple Glaze
- 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Instructions
- Add 1 cup water to the Instant Pot cooking pot.
- In a small bowl mix together brown sugar, maple syrup , honey and Dijon mustard. Using a pastry brush or spoon, lightly paint ham with glaze. Place ham (sliced slide down ) onto a trivet with handles. Lower ham into Instant Pot. (Optional: lay out a large piece of aluminum foil (big enough to cover ham) prior to painting glaze on ham. Paint glaze on all sides of ham, placing sliced side down, wrap aluminum foil around ham. Place ham (sliced side down) on trivet and lower into Instant Pot).
- Lock the lid and set the valve to “sealing”. Cook on Manual HIGH PRESSURE for 10 minutes. Once cooking cycle is complete allow ham to NATURALLY RELEASE for 10 minutes, followed by a QUICK RELEASE to release any remaining pressure. Turn off the Instant Pot ( by selecting CANCEL) and allow ham
Notes
- It may be necessary to cut ham down slightly to fit in the Instant Pot. Look for a ham approx. 6 lbs. for a 6 qt. Instant Pot and a ham approx. 7-8 lbs. for an 8 qt. Instant Pot.
- How to apply the glaze- I prefer to glaze the ham by “painting” the glaze on the ham (with a pastry brush or spoon) prior to adding it to the Instant Pot so that I can make sure the glaze is evenly distributed all over the ham. However, if you prefer you can add the ham to the Instant Pot (sliced side down on the trivet) and pour the glaze over the ham, allowing glaze to drip down and coat the sides of the ham.
- Make sure to turn off the Instant Pot once you’ve released all pressure. The default for many models of the Instant Pot is to have the Keep Warm feature enabled. Either disable it or make sure to turn off the Instant Pot once pressure is released. We don’t want dry ham!
Worked perfect! Have struggled with my instant pot but this recipe is giving me hope that I might be able to use this it!