A Fool-Proof Recipe the Whole Family will Love!

I have made this incredibly easy ham at Easter for years. My girls and husband love it so much that I started making it for pretty much every other holiday too- even Christmas.

I learned the recipe from chef Nigella Lawson. Check out her website. I absolutely love and identify so well with her! She is a home cook that does a lot of experimenting with food and is just so relaxed and fun to watch. She is a mature mom like me, who really is playful and vibrant- and I LOVE that. My role model for sure.

Here is the ham recipe. You will honestly not believe how easy it is to make.

What You’ll Need

An uncooked bone-in half of a ham. They range from like 10-15 pounds. I will say the hardest part of this recipe is finding a ham that is NOT pre-cooked! Seriously, we have at times gone to several stores looking for one. You cook the ham for quite awhile, so it’s important it isn’t already cooked. Be careful that you don’t get one that’s too big for a pot you have! Ha! I seriously had to invest in a very large pot to accommodate my ham. So all is good now but not the first time I made it.

A VERY large pot. As I said, make sure your pot is huge. We’re not talking a regular stock pot that you use for soup or spaghetti. Mine holds 10 quarts!

A good roasting pan and carving knife.

2 liters+ of ginger ale. Depending on the size of your ham. Two liters should be sufficient, but you want to make sure your ham is completely covered by the soda.

For the glaze:

• One cup of jelly or jam– orange, apricot, and peach are all flavors that work very well.
• Half a cup of brown sugar.
• 2 tbsp Ginger. Check out my juicing blog post where I use pre-chopped ginger in a jar. It is SO much easier to deal with than peeling a chopping fresh ginger root.
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard.

The Steps

We eat our holiday meals in the late afternoon, like 3 pm or 4 pm. People sometimes need to get on the road for home, etc, and we don’t like to rush our meal. So if you follow a similar schedule, you’ll need to start this ham early because you’ll need a full 6.5 hours! I get started at 8 am in order to plan for a 2:30 pm meal.

Put the ham in the pot and cover it with the ginger ale. Getting the ginger ale up to boiling takes forever in such a large pot. I would leave a full hour for that to happen, and that’s even underestimating it. Set your burner to high heat to speed up the process.

When it comes up to a gentle boil, turn down the heat to medium high, just hot enough that it continues boiling, and set your timer for five hours.

The beauty of this long time is that while it’s boiling, you can work on your sides that go with this meal.

Sides for our Ham!

Danielle’s famous mashed potatoes. My daughter makes the BEST mashed potatoes! The trick is lots of butter (I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter is a great WW substitute), and a ricer with a bit of milk. Then a masher with salt to taste. It’s easy, but she gets it right every time. Creamy and smooth.

Green bean casserole.  I am not a casserole person at all but the crispy onions on this dish make it delicious, and it goes with the meal so beautifully. I have found the recipe for this casserole on the can of onions, and also on cans of green beans (it’s basically cream of mushroom soup, milk, and beans covered with fried onions and baked), it’s that popular. Using canned beans works really well. They actually taste different/better than fresh beans in this recipe, in my opinion.

Corn. A couple of cans will do! If this were a summer barbecue, it would certainly be corn on the cob always. This is a must purchase from farmers markets (check out my post on the best things to buy at farmers’ markets!) but regular canned or frozen corn works perfectly for Easter when we’re still in the heart of springtime!

Stuffing. I have made my own stuffing before. It is good, but honestly so is Stovetop. We love it, so why make it from scratch you don’t need? You can microwave a couple portions of ‘instant’ stuffing, so you can have the dish made in ten minutes tops.

Rolls. Kings Hawaiian are our favorite. Warmed up with butter!

The Delicious Ham Continued…

Just before your five hours are up on the ham, pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Whisk together the glaze ingredients. Pull the ham out of the pot and set on a roasting pan. I love the one I have (photo on top) that lets the fat and juices collect in a second pan underneath. Much easier to clean.

Trim off any obvious fat, and slap (as Nigella says) the glaze on the ham. Cover loosely with foil, and bake for 15 minutes, allowing the juiciness and sweet/tartness of the glaze to penetrate into the meat.

If everything else is ready and your table is set, this magnificent ham really makes an entrance. Your guests mouths will be watering by now, because the house will smell delicious!

Open a beautiful bottle of Sauvignon Blanc (see my post on the best ones for taste and value! ) and enjoy your Easter meal featuring this delectable ham!