TheWildWaynes
a family of four cooking & creating our way through tiny living
Instant Pot Candied Ham – Perfect for the Holidays!
Many of us are far away from our families this year as we social distance during the holidays. Dinners are smaller this year as we gather in tinier groups. This year we are going for easy and delicious meals that we can cook in our Instant Pot and/or Air Fryer. Instant Pot Candied Ham delivers!
The BEST Instant Pot Candied Ham!
I understand I might be biased — but this really was the best ham I ever had. It was sweet and juicy, and all over delicious. Despite being away from our extended family this year, we were able to spend extra time together by using the Instant Pot. We spent Thanksgiving weekend full, happy, and loved.
This was also the best meal to kick off the start of Christmas decorating, and of course, Christmas movie binging.
Candied Ham in the Instant Pot
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker 8 quart
Ingredients
- 1 Spiral cut smoked ham (11 lbs)
- 1 cup Brown Sugar
- 1/4 tsp Ground Cloves
- 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/4 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 tsp Granulated Garlic or garlic powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 Tbsp Chili Powder
- 1 Tbsp Paprika
- 1 Tbsp Salt
- 1 6 oz Dole Pineapple Juice
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1/2 Cup Honey
- 1 Juice and Zest from one orange
- 1/8 tsp Liquid Smoke HIckory or Applewood
- 3 Tbsp Cornstarch
- 6 Tbsp Water or Cooking Fluid
Instructions
- Mix all rub ingredients together in a bowl
- Rub instant pot with oil using a paper towel
- Press Saute
- Add all gravy ingredients starting with the pineapple juice except cornstarch and water to the instant pot
- Stir all ingredients until mixed well and cancel Saute
- Rub the ham on the outside with the rub mixture and then get some rub inside each slice of ham
- Place the ham inside the instant pot (8 quart)
- Put on the lid, seal the pressure release valve, and pressure cook for 2 minutes a pound of ham (I used 21 minutes for my 10.5 lbs ham)
- With zero minutes natural pressure release, release the pressure after the time is up
- Carefully move the ham to a large plate
- Ladle 1/4 cup's worth of the cooking juices over the ham and then tent with aluminum foil
- Let the ham rest for 15 – 20 minutes
- Press Saute on the instant pot
- Mix the cornstarch and water or cooking juices to make the slurry and whisk the slurry into the cooking juices
- Let simmer for ~5 minutes and cancel saute
- Remove the aluminum foil tent after its resting time is finished and plate some ham by pulling off what you'd like and add plenty of ham gravy to the top
- We had corn souffle and cranberry cherry sauce with our ham
- Enjoy your ham dinner!
Video
Nutrition
A few notes on this recipe:
Feel free to make this recipe your own by putting in some ingredients you like or remove ingredients you’d rather skip. We cut up some of the leftovers and made a delicious salad. As always, with the rest of the leftovers, we’re making some ham and corn chowder. I love holiday leftovers!
We also put the ham bone with a few additional scraps and popped it into the freezer. I can’t wait to pull that out and make some soup! Every year it’s a little different as we pull together different ingredients to perfect our soup. As soon as we settle on the exact recipe for 2020 we will post it. I am hoping to post it every year so we have a record of how it changes and grows with each season.
Gimme more!
Don’t forget to check out some of our other really awesome Instant Pot Dinners. Some “fan favorites”, all cooked in the Instant Pot are:
