Traeger Smoked Ham

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Sweet glaze and a smoky flavor combine to deliver a delicious bite that can feed any size crowd. Traeger Smoked ham is not just for special occasions or holiday meals, this simple ham recipe creates incredible flavor with little effort.

Holidays are the perfect time to gather with family and friends for an unforgettable meal. Preparing a Traeger smoked ham can be a delicious way to make the holiday special.

This recipe is easy yet impressive, and it’s just as simple as using your Traeger smoker. The extra smoky flavor adds a unique twist to the classic dish, making it an ideal centerpiece for your dinner table.

Enjoy for Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any other time of year!

Ingredients

Ham – This is obviously the main ingredient. A little further down in the blog post, we go into detail about choosing a ham to smoke. We chose a bone-in butt portion.

Brown Sugar – Ham is normally associated with a sweet, sticky glaze which helps balance the saltiness. We use brown sugar for its rich flavor.

Maple Syrup – Maple goes well with the brown sugar in the glaze.

How to make Traeger Smoked Ham

Step One: Remove the ham from the packaging and rinse it off in cold water. Pat it dry with a paper towel.

Next, take a large sharp knife and make ¼ – ½ inch scores both ways over the entire outside of the ham. This will accomplish two main things. First, it will allow the smoke flavor to go deeper into the ham, secondly, it will allow the glaze to hold nicely on the outside of the ham when we begin to glaze it. If you bought a spiral-cut ham, skip this step or your ham might start falling apart on you.

Step Two: Place ham directly onto the grill grate in your preheated Traeger pellet grill smoker. If you don’t have a Traeger Grill, go ahead and use whatever smoker you have. The goal is to produce a nice hot smoke that will add flavor and heat this ham through. Set your smoker to 250 degrees F. Insert a thermometer meat probe to monitor the internal temperature.

How long to smoke a ham on a pellet grill? A seven-pound ham like this will take about 3 – 4 hours to reach an internal temperature of 140°F.

Step Three: Once the internal temperature of ham reaches 120°F, you prep glaze.

How to Make an Easy Maple Brown Sugar Glaze

There are two ways you create this delicious glaze. Either in a small saucepan over medium heat or in a microwaveable measuring cup in your microwave. Add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup to a glass measuring cup and microwave on high for 60 to 90 seconds. Stopping every 30 seconds to give it a stir. The sugar will dissolve into a beautiful thick syrup. This glaze adds a ton of incredible flavor to the ham.

Step Four: Once the ham reaches 120 – 125°F, you can begin to glaze the ham. Use a pastry or silicone brush to cover the outside of the ham with glaze. Do this every 10 minutes or so, as the ham continues to cook on the smoker.

As that ham reaches 140°F internal temperature, go ahead and pour any remaining glaze of the ham. And don’t worry, if you want more glaze, go ahead and make some more. It is so easy!

Step Five: Once the ham is done, remove it from the smoker and place it on a cutting board. Take a few pictures to admire your work and send them to friends to make them envious with hunger. They’ll probably be heading to your house immediately.

Variations

Glaze – You can play around with the ingredients in the glaze. Swap the maple for honey, add citrus zest or add fresh herbs like finely chopped rosemary.

Wood Chips – Varying the type of pellets you use will change the flavor of the bark of the ham.

Common Questions

What type of ham is best for smoking?

When it comes to ham there are several different options. Let’s start with the cut. A whole ham can be up to 20 lbs. When it is cut in half, there is a butt portion and a shank portion. The pork butt portion is less fatty and tends to be tender. The shank portion has a classic ham look that we are used to seeing as the perfect holiday centerpiece. Next, you can have either a boneless ham or a bone-in ham. Cooking meat with the bone in adds more flavor. It can make it more of a challenge to slice, but with a little effort and some experience, it becomes very simple. You can also choose to go with a spiral cut ham to make carving and serving even easier.

Lastly, you can pick between cooked, ready-to-eat ham or raw ham. Most hams that are available to purchase in supermarkets have already been cured and pre-cooked. All you need to do is heat them. Raw ham is typically going to be purchased from a local butcher shop or a specialty meat store. For this recipe, we are using a bone-in, shank portion, that has already been cured and smoked with hickory wood. We are going to heat it up on the smoker, adding a ton of additional flavor with a hickory and cherry wood smoke blend and a maple syrup brown sugar homemade glaze. Think of it as double smoked ham.

How big of a crowd does a ham feed?

A general rule of thumb is that 6 oz to a half pound of ham will serve one adult. If you are using a bone-in ham, tend towards the ½ lb per person. One of the great things about ham is that leftovers are easy to keep and they are very versatile in many other dishes. A 7 lb ham will feed about 14 to 15 people. That is plenty for my family of eight with leftover ham for Sunday brunch.

How to slice a Traeger Smoked bone-in Ham?

Place the ham on the cutting board with the bone sticking up away from the table. Then start by slicing the thinnest part of the ham. Slice straight down, slicing through it all the way. Once you get about halfway through, you will feel the knife starting to tough cartridge and bone. At that point, turn the ham and start slicing each of the other sides. As you go, the bones will start to reveal their location and you can take a smaller pairing knife to completely remove the rest of the meat from the bone. Enjoy!

What other holiday dishes can I smoke?

If you are looking for a second option for a holiday meal, try our Smoked Leg of Lamb, Smoked Turkey, or Smoked Whole Beef Tenderloin.

What to serve with Traeger Smoked Ham?

We serve this with an assortment of side dishes normally such as Potato Fritters or Boursin Mashed Potatoes, Glazed Carrots or Cornbread Casserole, and then a lighter side like a green salad or grilled zucchini.

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More favorite Traeger Recipes

Don’t worry, if you haven’t got a Traeger Smoker, you can make most of these on the smoker of your choice.

Seafood – Traeger Smoked Salmon

Pork – Traeger Ribs and Traeger Pulled Pork

Beef – Traeger Smoked Tri Tip and Traeger Smoked Brisket

The post Traeger Smoked Ham appeared first on A Grill for All Seasons.

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