A honey baked ham copycat starts with a fully cooked spiral ham, so the oven’s only job is to reheat it. The crackly sugar crust is a separate step at the very end. Heat the ham to 140°F first. Then crust it under the broiler while you watch.
HoneyBaked doesn’t publish its recipe, so this is a home version built around the part everyone loves, which is a thin, sweet, shattering shell over spiced honey ham. When I plan a ham dinner, that crust is the piece I want to get right!
What makes a honey baked ham copycat taste like the real thing?
Three things carry the flavor: a smoked, fully cooked ham, a honey-butter brush that seeps between the slices, and a spiced sugar crust broiled until it crackles. The ham you buy supplies the smoke. You supply the honey, the spice and the crust.
Buy a bone-in, spiral-cut, fully cooked half ham, and check the label for the word smoked. Fully cooked matters, because it means you’re reheating, not cooking raw pork. That keeps the job simple. It also keeps the timing forgiving.
Honey baked ham copycat ingredients
- 1 spiral-cut, fully cooked, bone-in half ham (7 to 9 lb)
- ⅓ cup honey
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
If you’re out of honey, maple syrup works, though it won’t be quite a honey ham. Mix the spiced sugar a day ahead and the last step takes about a minute to set up.
How do you make a honey baked ham at home?
Brush the ham with honey butter, cover it tightly, and heat it at 325°F until a thermometer reads 140°F. Then press the spiced sugar on and broil it briefly to build the crust. The heating and the crust are two different jobs, so treat them that way.
- Heat the oven to 325°F with a rack in the lower third. Set the ham cut side down on a large sheet of foil in a roasting pan.
- Stir the honey, butter and garlic together. Brush it over the ham and work some between the slices.
- Wrap the foil up and over the ham, loosely but fully covered. Heat until a thermometer in the thickest part, not touching bone, reads 140°F. The table below shows how long to expect.
- While it heats, mix both sugars, the salt and the spices in a bowl.
- Take off the foil and switch the oven to broil. Press half the spiced sugar over the ham.
- Broil until the sugar bubbles and turns amber. Stay at the oven! Sugar goes from golden to burnt fast under a broiler.
- Brush on a spoonful of the pan juices, pat on the rest of the sugar, and broil for a short last pass. Let the ham sit a few minutes so the crust sets, then slice it up!
If you own a kitchen torch, you can use it for the crust instead of the broiler. It gives you more control over each spot, but a broiler works fine if you don’t look away.
How long does a spiral ham take to heat?
USDA lists 10 to 18 minutes per pound at 325°F for a cooked spiral-cut ham weighing 7 to 9 lb. An 8-pound ham takes 1 hour 20 minutes to 2 hours 24 minutes. Start checking early. The thermometer decides, not the clock.
| Ham weight | Minutes per pound | Time at 325°F |
|---|---|---|
| 7 lb | 10 to 18 | 1 h 10 min to 2 h 6 min |
| 8 lb | 10 to 18 | 1 h 20 min to 2 h 24 min |
| 9 lb | 10 to 18 | 1 h 30 min to 2 h 42 min |
That’s a wide window, and USDA’s own page is inconsistent about it: the timetable gives 10 to 18 minutes per pound, while the text above it suggests about 10. Our ham cooking time calculator uses the full range and adds a start time for your dinner. USDA says to reheat cooked hams packaged in a USDA-inspected plant to 140°F, and all others to 165°F, so check which kind you bought.
What do you do with leftover honey baked ham?
Ham and cheese sliders on Hawaiian rolls are the community favorite! A r/Cooking thread from a family stuck with a much bigger ham than planned collected plenty of ideas, and this reply drew 140 upvotes.
“We just had this issue and made a bunch of ham and cheese sliders. Bought some good Gouda cheese and Hawaiian rolls. Carmalized some onions and baked them with a butter sauce finish over top. They were very good. Not healthy at all.”
– r/Cooking (140 upvotes)
A short reply in the same thread has a cheese opinion worth stealing.
“Gruyere > Gouda for this application”
– r/Cooking (15 upvotes)
Both are single opinions. They agree on the format, though. Slice the ham thin, layer it with cheese, and bake it under a butter glaze.
USDA says leftover cooked ham keeps 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator and 1 to 2 months in the freezer for quality. Pack it in airtight containers.
Honey baked ham copycat questions
What temperature should a copycat honey baked ham reach?
USDA says to reheat a cooked ham packaged in a USDA-inspected plant to 140°F and any other cooked ham to 165°F. Check the label, then use a food thermometer in the thickest part away from the bone.
How long does it take to heat a spiral ham per pound?
USDA’s timetable lists 10 to 18 minutes per pound at 325°F for a cooked spiral-cut ham. That’s 1 hour 20 minutes to 2 hours 24 minutes for an 8-pound ham. The USDA FSIS ham page has the full table, last updated January 2025.
Planning the rest of the menu? Our holiday side dishes, ranked list works for a ham table too. For the whole Christmas table, see our Christmas side dishes matched to your main course.