Glazed Slow Cooker Ham

Yes, you can cook a delicious ham in the slow cooker. This recipe has a sweet but easy no-cook glaze making for a really short prep time, and then the rest is all hands-off in the crockpot!

If you’re wanting to make a delicious ham for Thanksgiving or Easter dinner (or really any occasion), this easy slow cooker ham recipe is ready to make life easier. A sweet glaze comes together in minutes and then it’s hands-off cooking in the crockpot. This ham recipe gives you plenty of time (and oven space!) to get the side dishes or other entrees put together with ease.

Scroll down to read more about how it all comes together or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.

Glazed ham in the slow cooker with pineapple chunks on top.

Should You Cook Ham In The Slow Cooker?

My honest answer is “it depends.” The ham will taste delicious for sure. The benefits of cooking a ham in the slow cooker are:

it’s totally hands-off (especially with the glaze I’ve used which doesn’t even require you to simmer it before getting it onto the ham).
it doesn’t take up oven space, which is at a premium when you’re cooking large holiday dinners.
it’s super-tasty (even if it isn’t as pretty).

However, some hams don’t end up looking super-nice after slow-cooking. So, if you have a situation where you want the ham to look really really gorgeous, like if you’re bringing it to the table and slicing it and serving it there, or if it will be part of a buffet, then I would advise against cooking it this way. If, on the other hand, you’re going to slice the ham in the kitchen, put it on a serving platter, and serve it from the platter, then the slow cooker is perfect.

The main issue with slow cooker ham is that the glaze doesn’t brown and caramelize onto the meat in the same way as when you bake the ham like this. You still get great flavor from the sweet glaze, but not the glazed appearance. For the recipe below, you score the ham all over and that helps get the glaze in there more for more flavor, but it still won’t glisten. Having said that, the easy fix is to brush the ham all over with honey when you take it out of the slow cooker. Just a light touch gives it a nice shine.

Which Hams Are Best In The Slow Cooker?

Look for a ham that says “fully-cooked” on it. Then you know for sure that you are starting with the right kind of ham. Beyond that, there are a few choices. I’m listing them in the order of my preference for slow-cooking.

A whole boneless ham that hasn’t been sliced at all is really the best to do in the slow cooker. (Here’s how to bake a whole boneless ham, and also a picture of what it looks like, for your info). The reason is that the slow, moist cooking in the slow cooker can cause the meat to pull away from bones or slices, making it less attractive. A boneless ham has no bones or slices, so you’re basically just heating it through gently and it works well.

If you have a spiral-cut ham, don’t worry. You can still do it in the slow cooker. Simply make sure that the ham is cut-side-down in the slow cooker. Basically, you want the weight of the ham to be holding the slices down and together. If you instead have the slices upwards such that you can see all the cuts from the top, then they’re going to flop and open up during the cooking. Looking at the picture below, you want the side that’s facing the camera, that flat-cut side, to be down. Then, see how all the slices will be parallel to that cut side and will be held down by each other?

Bone in roast ham on a white serving plate with fresh thyme.

As to a bone-in ham or a semi-boneless ham, this is where they can end up looking less good. You’ll see in the pictures here of the ham in the slow cooker, and in the video, that a semi-boneless ham was used and, while it tasted delicious, it’s not the prettiest ham ever. That’s just because the meat pulled away from the bone a lot.

What Size Slow Cooker To Use?

It really depends on the size of your ham. You want the ham to fit in the slow cooker without touching the sides. If your ham fits like that, you’re good to go. Most hams will fit in an oval-shaped 7-8 quart slow cooker like this.

If your ham doesn’t fit, you’ll need a larger slow cooker, or you can use a roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet and bake the ham like this. Or, you can cut off some of the ham so that it fits.

What Size Ham To Get?

This depends on how many people you’re serving and what you’re serving with the ham. In general, go with 1/3 of a pound of boneless ham per person and 1/2 a pound of bone-in ham per person. That’s just because the bone-in ham is heavier due to the bone.

Keep in mind though that if ham is the only main protein that you’re serving and if you’re not having a lot of sides, then you might want to get more. If you’re serving appetizers and dessert as well as lots of sides and maybe even a turkey or other meat, then you would need less than that.

Should You Score The Ham?

You’ll see in the above picture that I’ve scored the ham by slicing about 1/4 inch into the ham in perpendicular cuts. When baking a ham, this helps to get nice little crispy edges along those cuts, which you can see in the picture below for a baked glazed ham.

When slow cooking a ham, scoring it first is optional. Those edges won’t get crispy because it’s too damp in the slow cooker. However, making those slits allows the glaze to get more deeply into the ham giving it more flavor. So it’s totally up to you.

It comes down to similar advice as I gave above about whether to even use the slow cooker at all. In this case, if you’re planning to slice the ham in the kitchen and nobody but you will be seeing it, then absolutely score it so that the flavor of the glaze can get right in there. If, on the other hand, you’re carving it at the table or having it whole on a buffet, then don’t score it and it will look nicer.

Do You Cook The Ham On Low Or High in the Slow Cooker?

I have found that the most luscious ham meat results from slow cooking the ham on low. I also think that it heats much more evenly.

Because a ham is often quite large, it takes awhile for the heat to really penetrate to the center. Having the setting on low allows that heat to gradually get right into the ham while not over-cooking the outside.

How Long To Slow Cook The Ham?

The ham that you’re cooking in the slow cooker is already fully-cooked. That means that it’s technically already safe to eat without cooking it at all. So then, all we’re doing is to heat it up while also adding some amazing flavor. The general rule though is to heat the ham to at least 145°F internally. For more information about ham safety, head to the USDA ham info here.

How long it takes for your ham to get to 145°F will depend on the size of your slow cooker, how quickly it tends to heat, and the size of your ham. In general, a 5-7 pound ham will take 5-6 hours on low to reach 145°F.

The Glaze Ingredients and Substitutions

The glaze in the recipe below is intentionally a no-cook glaze. I figure that if you’re looking for a hands-off slow cooker recipe, you don’t want to also dirty and pot nor do you want to stand at a stove simmering anything. Am I right? So, for this recipe you don’t have to simmer anything on the stove before you start making your ham. This also makes the prep time to getting your ham into the slow cooker much quicker.

The glaze recipe can be adapted to the ingredients that you have or that you like. Here are some tasty things to try:

The Soda: The recipe calls for 1 cup of soda. This can be literally any kind of soda that you like. And yes, diet soda works too. My preference is for ginger ale or Dr. Pepper because they have some spiciness to them. Instead of the soda though, you can use any kind of fruit juice. It’s great with pineapple juice, orange juice, or even cranberry juice.

The Sweetener: The glaze recipe calls for 1/2 cup of honey. You can instead use maple syrup, agave nectar, molasses, or simple syrup. You can even use brown sugar or white sugar, if you’d like, you just have to mix it all a bit more to get it to dissolve well. If it won’t dissolve, heat the glaze in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between intervals, until it dissolves. Or you can measure all of the ingredients into a saucepan and simmer over low heat until it dissolves.

The Mustard: You can use any kind of mustard in this recipe as long as it’s a mustard that you like the taste of. I usually use a spicy brown mustard or Dijon mustard, but I’ve made this with regular yellow mustard and it tasted great too!

The Vinegar: The recipe calls for apple cider vinegar, but any kind of vinegar is just fine. There’s so little of it that the actual flavor profile of the vinegar isn’t going to come through. So go ahead and use anything from Balsamic, red wine vinegar, or even regular white distilled vinegar. Or, you can use lemon or lime juice.

The Cloves: For some people, it’s traditional to stud the ham all over with cloves before cooking it. If you’ve grown up with this, then you will be happy to know that it works well for slow-cooker ham also. If you haven’t had it before, you can totally try it, but I will warn you that the clove flavor can be a little bit intense, so it’s not for everyone.

Serving The Ham

Once you take the ham out of the slow cooker, I recommend that you brush it with some additional honey to give it a nice shine. I like to add some pineapple on there as well. Fresh, canned, or frozen pineapple that you’ve warmed up slightly is perfect.

Finally, you can use the drippings from your ham to make a traditional ham gravy, which is amazing served on the ham but also on mashed potatoes.

More Ham and Pork Recipes

My website is a trusted resource for ham and pork recipes that people have been turning to for over 15 years! You can find all of my ham recipes over here, and all of my pork recipes over here. Some of my favorites are:

Podcast Episode: Making Ham In The Slow Cooker

Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this ham, along with some other great tips, by clicking the play button below:

Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.