Instant Pot Maple Glazed Ham with its Caramelized Sweetly Spiced Glaze is a must have for Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving holidays.
Pressure Cooker Maple Glazed Holiday Ham
This is the most simple way to make your Holiday Ham.
No need to spend tons of money at that ham store.
With the use of your Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker, you will have the most delicious and juicy Ham ever.
Cast of Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Maple Glazed Holiday Ham
You are going to want to make extra because I have some wonderful recipes specially for leftover Easter and Christmas ham.
So make sure to buy more than you need so you can make my Holiday Party Southern Baked Ham Buns. They are ridiculously incredible.
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Ingredients for Instant Pot Maple Glazed Holiday Ham
- Ham – can be spiral cut
- Liquid – Soda like Cola, Sprite, Dr. Pepper or White Wine
- Whole Cloves
- Light Brown Sugar
- Maple Syrup
- Spicy Brown Mustard or Dijon Mustard
- Worcestershire Sauce
If using a fresh ham, the cook time would be much longer. For cooked hams, basically, we are just heating up the ham and infusing wonderful flavor.
Whisk up the Ham Glaze
To make Instant Pot Maple Glazed Ham it is just a matter of whisking up the ingredients.
What exactly is Cured Ham?
- By all accounts, ham is not raw and is ready to heat and eat.
- Ham is generally made from the hind leg of a Pig/Swine.
- It has been processed/preserved by smoking, salting or wet curing.
- Unprocessed meat is called fresh ham and is ready for cooking or preserving/processing. However, most ham goes through one of the processes and is then labeled “cured ham.”
My Instant Pot Maple Glazed Holiday Ham recipe is really just a guideline.
I will tell you how I make it, but if you want to swap honey for maple syrup or Dijon mustard for spicy brown mustard, go for it.
Stud the Ham with Cloves
Growing up in Miami was great. Tons of little coffee shops and restaurants with counters.
In the Cuban restaurants, if you sat at the counter and the owner liked you, he/she would bring out a napkin with a piece of the Crackling.
Another delicious recipe you will enjoy is my Pressure Cooker Lechón Asado {Cuban Pork with Mojo}.
Pour in Soda Pop
The flavor of Instant Pot Ham can vary so much. There are many different liquids which can be used and which will change the flavor of the ham.
What Types of Liquid Can Be Used for Instant Pot Ham?
- A cola works well.
- Sprite is delicious too.
- Dr. Pepper is also yummy.
- White Wine gives the Maple Glazed Ham a totally different taste. It’s really good.
All these types of liquids work very well and it will be fun to play around with new flavors each time.
Place a Trivet over the Cola
If your Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker came with a Trivet with handles, that is perfect for this recipe.
Otherwise, you can buy a Stainless Steel Tall/Short Trivet & Egg Cooker Set and use that instead.
Paint on the Maple Glaze
Use a Silicone BBQ Basting Brush to paint on some of the Maple Glaze.
The Liquid will steam into the Ham and the Maple Glaze will begin to seep into the Skin.
Another delicious glaze you might want to use instead of the maple glaze is my Homemade White Wine Brandy Mustard Sauce
Place Ham on Trivet
Since Ham is already cured and ready to eat, it does not need a long time under pressure. Just enough to warm the Ham through to the center. An oven tends to dry out the ham.
There are a couple of ways to crisp up the skin and caramelize the maple glaze.
How to Crisp Skin and Caramelize Maple Glaze on Ham
- One is to remove the ham from the cooking pot and use the oven. A nice cast iron skillet is great to use in the oven to crisp the skin and caramelize the maple glaze. Just add a little liquid to your pan (so the ham won’t dry out) and then add the ham. Baste the ham and then keep an eye out as it may burn if you don’t watch.
- But, I have a much easier way for you! Get a Mealthy CrispLid (buy from Mealthy) / Mealthy CrispLid (buy from Amazon). You can crisp and caramelize your ham right in the pot.
Use CrispLid to Brown the Topping
You are kind of turning your pressure cooker into an air fryer! Leave in the liquid and your ham will stay nice and moist while crisping and caramelizing in the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker.
If your ham is bone in, don’t forget to save it and make Pressure Cooker Split Pea and Ham Soup or a nice bone broth!
Perfect Easter Ham
Serve next to a heaping pile of my famous Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes (Pressure Cooker) and Instant Pot Fresh Green Bean Casserole.
My Instant Pot Holiday Baked Beans goes really well with the meal too.
If you are wondering what to do with leftover ham? Think no further as I’ve got you covered.
What To Do with Leftover Ham
- Pasta de Bocaditos {Cuban Deviled Ham Sandwiches}
- Instant Pot Jalapeño Macaroni Ham and Cheese
- Instant Pot Best Macaroni Salad Recipe
- Instant Pot Eggs Benedict (w/IP Hollandaise Sauce) – slice thin for a special, but easy breakfast.
Instant Pot Egg Bites (Feta Cheese & Red Pepper) is another recipe for using up ham. Dice a little and add to the egg bite tray and oh yum!
Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Maple Glazed Holiday Ham
For dessert, check out my Pressure Cooker Peppermint Milkshake Cheesecake and my Pressure Cooker Cherry Cordial Cheesecake Bites.
More Thanksgiving Recipes to Make:
- Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans
- Instant Pot Colcannon Irish Mashed Potatoes & Kale + Video
- Instant Pot Skirlie (Scottish Stuffing)
- Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes (Pressure Cooker)
Happy Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas! Happy Easter! Enjoy.
Kitchen Equipment and Essentials
- Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
- J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
- Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
- Simply Gourmet (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
- Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
- Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk– a MUST have, probably my most used utensil
- My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
- Stainless Steel Tall/Short Trivet & Egg Cooker Set
- Silicone BBQ Basting Brush
- Lodge 10.25″ Cast Iron Skillet or
- Mealthy CrispLid (buy from Mealthy) / Mealthy CrispLid (buy from Amazon)
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If you share a picture of something you make from our blog, tag it with #thisoldgalcooks so we can see it. We might feature it on Instagram! It makes my day when I see you’ve made one of our recipes!
Here is the handy printable recipe:
Ingredients
- 2-8 pound Ham (any size you like)
- 6 ounces Soda Cola, Dr. Pepper, Sprite or White Wine
- 1/4 cup Whole Cloves
Glaze
- 1/4 cup Light Brown Sugar packed
- 1 cup Pure Maple Syrup
- 3 Tablespoons Spicy Brown Mustard (or Dijon)
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
Recommended Products
Instructions
- With a sharp knife, cut slits (do not go deep) into ham to make a diamond shape.
- Add Soda to Instant Pot cooking pot.
- Whisk together Glaze ingredients and set aside.
- Place ham on top of the trivet (w/handles if you have).
- Stud the ham with the cloves.
- Use a basting brush and paint some of the glaze all over the ham, making sure to get the glaze into the cuts in the ham.
- Place ham with trivet into cooking pot above the soda/liquid.
- Lock on Lid and close Pressure Valve. Cook at low pressure (most machines default to high pressure) for 15 minutes. Wait 15 minutes and then release the rest of the pressure.
- Remove the lid and turn off the pressure cooker.
- Use the basting brush and add a heavy coat of glaze all over ham.
- Place Crisplid on top and set temperature to 350 degrees. Set the timer for 5 minutes.
- Keep an eye on the ham and when caramelized enough for your tastes, remove it from the pressure cooker. Use the Crisplid as long as you need to get the desired color on your ham.
- Serve ham with the rest of the glaze on the side.
Notes
Nutrition
PIN this Pressure Cooker Maple Glazed Holiday Ham!
Pressure Cooker Maple Glazed Holiday Ham
WHERE is the ACTUAL RECIPE!? FFS, I just wasted my time looking for it.
Oh no, sorry you wasted your time. The recipe card is at the bottom. At the very top of the recipe post is a pink highlighted button which says “Jump to Recipe.” If you click it, it takes you directly to the recipe. Jill
I don’t have a trivet. Can I cook the ham without one?
I don’t have a trivet. Can I cook the ham without one?
Is the picture of the ham you used a bone-in ham?
I used about a 5 lb. ham with a bone in and my instant pot didn’t have a low pressure setting. I used the regular pressure setting and the ham didn’t get done in the middle so I cooked it more in the oven after it was cut. I don’t do refined sugars so I used coconut sugar instead of brown sugar. It was very tasty. I also used club soda instead of coke. Still turned out nice.
Hi Jill,
Just wondering – Will an eight pound ham fit in a 6 quart Instant Pot? I am spatially challenged and don’t want to buy one first then find out it doesn’t fit.
Thanks in advance and thanks for all the wonderful recipes you post!
Jane
Jill, I still have not taken my Instant Pot out of the box since I got it over a year ago 🙁 But I’m going to make my daughter talk me through this recipe so I can finally put the IP to good use. Sounds so good, and that ham in the fridge is going to meet it’s IP. Blessings to you for this holiday!
How long would you cook a 2 lbs. Ham if it is frozen?
OMG Had the extended family over this Thanksgiving and used this recipe. What a hit, was told I have to make this for Christmas. Had the ham in the smoker for 2 hrs. @ 140F. I used coke and used an old pressure cooker. Cooked at 5 low setting for 15 minutes. I poured on the left over glaze to a slice of ham. All I can say is YUMMMM
HI
I was just wondering how long might it take to brown in the oven at the end.
Looks great so far.
Thank!
You do realize that ham, cola, soda, and similar words are not proper nouns and should not be capitalized? If you’re going to earn money by using words you should use them correctly. Just because others do it doesn’t make it right. It’s distracting to read and detracts from the content. If you can’t bother to use proper grammar and spelling, why should we bother to read it? Aren’t we worth you taking the time to do it right?
WOW! How ignorant are you Joan? You come here for free recipes and all you can do is insult the author. Your life must be very empty if all you can do is find people to insult. There is a word for people like you and it’s called a troll. You hide behind your computer and see how many people you an get a rise out of. I doubt you have the guts to say to someone’s face what you say in your insignificant meaningless comment. Just remember in the end what you say doesn’t matter. Nobody cares because you don’t matter. You are a small spiteful troll angry at the world because you have no life. Also don’t think I didn’t notice you posted almost the same comment months ago under the name Joe.
Joe/Joan you Might Have To Buy Her Cookbookbook, But Instead, You Can Get A Really Good Recipe For Free! So, Why Don’t You Shut Up About The Capitalization? It May Just Be a Weird Setting On Her Blog, Whereas you Are Deliberately Being Rude.
Mundane comments like this detract the read not the use of caps to highlight the ingredient. They are looking for teachers everywhere,try that instead of reading recipes.
I’m going to try this on Easter! I notice your cook time is for low pressure. My Lux IP doesn’t seem to have a low pressure setting. Do you have any suggestions for altering the time, etc? Thank you!
This looks very good. I just bought an Instant Pot yesterday, and it doesn’t have a low pressure setting. I don’t know what I’m doing yet, and wondered if there was a possible adjustment for recipes that use low pressure.
Thank you.
What would you recommend to use instead of soda? Water & honey, sparkling water & honey, or ?
This looks delicious; however, I’m not a fan of cloves – is the flavor of them prominent?
I found it to be pretty prominent. But I think if you left them off it would still be good.
I just want to thank you and wish you a very Merry Christmas and Looking forward for a new year of your wonderful recipes, I’ve enjoyed using my instant pot because of you. I have learned so much about cooking in general, thanks to your detailed instructions and cooking tips.
Not trying to be mean and this is not for posting, but many of the words you capitalize are not proper nouns and should not have caps. It’s almost as though you capitalize every noun. It makes it hard to read what you write. Since you have ads and affiliate links and are earning income from this site, maybe using a spell/grammar check before posting would be in order.
Wow…
Right! <3 Thanks, Kathy.
Joe, you do know that in a title the first letter of each word is capitalized, right? ?
So in December your name was Joe and now it’s Joan. Well no matter what your name is you are a loser.
Hey, I want to try this with white wine, so basically the liquid on the bottom of the trivet in the instant pot will be the white wine and the glaze that dripped from the ham? I am wondering if I understood right because it sounds a bit scary since alcohol can be flammable… Tks!
This looks amazing! Can this work with an uncured ham? And how long would you suggest for cook time?
Happy Holidays!
This sounds like a great way to not dry out the Christmas Ham ! Would this method work with a spiral sliced ham ? Thanks Jill
Yes.
Will there be enough liquid leftover for gravy? If so, how do you recommend to make? Thank you!
Could you use a spiral
Cut ham in this recipe?
Thanks!
Yes. Jill