32 Ham Recipes to Master

Honey-baked hams are impressive, and who doesn’t love the leftovers? You can order a honey-baked ham, but we like to make our own DIY version. First it’s basted with apple juice, then it’s glazed with a sweet-spicy mix of brown sugar, honey, honey mustard, black pepper and cayenne.

The sweet, sticky glaze on this juicy ham is subtly spiced with fennel, coriander and star anise.

Chef Akasha Richmond prepares a sweet-and-spicy glaze for ham using house-made pomegranate-jalapeño jelly. An easier alternative: doctoring store-bought jalapeño jelly with pomegranate juice.

Choose a smoked ham with a substantial layer of exterior fat. Use only half of the spice rub if the fat layer is less than an eighth inch thick.

Adding jalapeño potato chips to a simple egg tortilla (a Spanish omelet) gives it a salty, spicy zing. Serve extra chips on the side.

Grace Parisi quickly soaks baby cauliflower in vinegar and sugar, then combines it with snap peas, white beans, ham and sunflower seeds to create a tasty main-course dish.

In this fun take on the sandwich classic, Grace Parisi creates a delectable ham salad mixed with crunchy rye bread croutons and bits of Gruyère cheese, tossed in a mustardy dressing with celery and chives. She sometimes likes to wrap the bread salad in Bibb lettuce leaves for an inside-out sandwich.

The combination of pecorino and Parmesan gives these potatoes a great cheesy depth.

The strata needs to be refrigerated for at least four hours or overnight before baking, so plan accordingly.

Depending on the season, Travis Lett also makes this salad with plums, peaches and pears.

Thin apple and ham slices are rolled together and set in a tender, herby custard sprinkled with sharp white cheddar. For a quicker weeknight dinner, use a frozen 9-inch deep-dish pie shell, blind baked according to package instructions.

Slow-grilling whole unpeeled pineapples concentrates their flavor and tenderizes the fruit, which pairs wonderfully with salty country ham and crispy panko seasoned with barbecue spices. Peel the fruit with a large serrated knife, and serve it hot, thinly sliced like ham.

For this recipe, Julia Child was inspired by a dish called jambon à la morvandelle, the signature dish of Alexandre Dumaine, one of France’s most famous chefs in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s. “Although supermarket ham will do, real country ham will give you a dish more like Dumaine’s fabled creation,” wrote Child. Child called the dish—featuring ham steaks basted in a mushroom and Madeira sauce—one of her “fast entrées for fancy people.”

Frank Stitt, owner of Highlands Bar & Grill in Birmingham, Alabama, started his culinary education by working for the late great cookbook author Richard Olney in Provence, France. This appetizer—in which ripe figs are stuffed with walnuts, wrapped in ham and kissed with the heat of a grill—is a riff on devils on horseback inspired by Olney’s love of seasonal ingredients.

“Scallions are so great with eggs,” says Will Gilson. He adds them to the biscuits, which he fills with ham, cheddar and fried eggs; it’s one reason the breakfast sandwich is so good. 

Using store-bought corn muffin mix and leftover chopped ham to make these savory flapjacks is a quick and clever trick.

Mimi Thorisson spreads store-bought puff pastry with mustard-and-shallot béchamel, then layers it with ham and cheese before baking it into a crisp, rich, croque monsieur–like tart. 

Kay Chun combines the classic flavors of ham, tarragon and peas with a hit of lemon juice for some bright acidity.

For entertaining, Carla Hall glazes a spiral-cut ham with apple cider, brown sugar, mustard, bourbon and sweet spices.

F&W’s Justin Chapple poaches a dozen eggs at once in a muffin pan in the oven, making his tasty breakfast sliders extraordinarily easy to prepare for entertaining.

This four-ingredient snack couldn’t be simpler: Just top toasts with sliced country ham and pickled vegetables. 

The secret to this super-tender ham is keeping it wrapped in foil while it’s cooking and resting, letting it reabsorb any moisture released during the cooking process.

Best-quality baguettes get a thick slather of butter and goat cheese, dollops of jewel-toned blueberry-beaujolais jam, and ribbons of salty prosciutto. Wrap these sandwiches in plastic wrap and stash in the top of your cooler for a perfect lunch on a sunny Saturday.

We’re switching up the traditional sugar-crusted holiday ham by using saba, a sweet and slightly acidic syrup made from cooked-down grape must (similar to aged balsamic). We bake the ham on a bed of carrots and shallots so the drippings flavor the vegetables in the oven.

Inspired by her mother’s ham hock stew, Tiffani Thiessen created her own version of classic Bean and Ham Hock Stew for her cookbook Pull Up a Chair. Thiessen uses fennel where her mother used celery, adding a bit of anise flavor while retaining the tender bite. She also adds some herbes de Provence, whose fragrant, lightly floral flavor brighten up the slow cooking, rich stew. To draw out the most flavor from savory bay leaves, take a tip from Chef Ludo Lefebvre and gently score each leaf before stirring them into the stew.

Chef Meherwan Irani’s Southern-inspired riff on dal makhani, an Indian dish of long-simmered beans and lentils cooked with spices and aromatics and enriched with butter, incorporates collards and crushed tomatoes, and is finished with an extra dollop of heavy cream and thinly shaved country ham.

This soup uses no broth or water; tomatoes form the entire base. Crispy ham and fresh mint offset the acidic sweetness of those tomatoes.

Light and fluffy, these eggs are gently seasoned and generously perfumed by fresh black truffles. For the perfect creamy, tender bite, pull the eggs off of the heat before they set; they will continue to cook after they leave the stove.

This modern take on a classic Italian pasta dish relies on ham instead of traditional pancetta for a dose of smoky flavor and richness.

A large-format pancake with a light, airy interior and rich, savory toppings, this Dutch baby is perfect for brunch. Add the toppings around the edges, leaving the center clear to allow it to rise properly. Preheating the pan is also crucial to a beautiful rise; the batter should begin to puff immediately after you pour it into the pan.

“After eating such heavy food on Thanksgiving, it’s nice to have something lighter the day after,” says 2020 F&W Best New Chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph. His delicate agnolotti, filled with leftover mashed potatoes and ham, feature a smart shortcut—store-bought fresh lasagna sheets—served in a broth made from leftover turkey bones.

A simple glaze of dark stout and brown sugar develops a malty, caramel-like bittersweetness in the oven. Irish ham is a bit less salty than American ham and has a thin layer of fat, which absorbs the flavors of the glaze.