Instant Pot Ham

Instant Pot Ham is the easiest entree! An Instant Pot is a great way to free up oven space when you’re cooking up a holiday feast.

We’ve been using a Crock Pot Honey Ham recipe for our holidays, but I’m loving this new Instant Pot Ham version! It makes it easy to spend time on all the delicious sides, like Cheesy Potatoes and Homemade Rolls.

The Easiest Instant Pot Ham

We LOVE our Instant Pot and use it all of the time, especially during the holidays.

I love that it cuts cooking time in half and has made recipes even easier. We decided to try an Instant Pot Spiral Ham, and it turned out so delicious and juicy, that it is sure to become a holiday go-to.

We always have ham on Easter Sunday and we often serve it at Thanksgiving and Christmas. A juicy delicious ham is something I always crave for holidays. It can feed a crowd, everyone loves it, and it makes for great leftovers.

This Instant Pot Ham recipe is quick (only 15 minutes in the Instant Pot) and requires just a few easy steps. After this ham is done cooking, it is flavorful and so tasty. You’re going to love it!

Choosing the ham

I used spiral-sliced ham for this recipe, but there are so many other delicious choices. The Instant Pot’s “manual” cooking time may need to be adjusted depending on the type and size of the ham.

Here are a few different kinds of ham choices:

• City ham. Go with a city ham. There are often referred to as “holiday ham”. They are pre-cooked and may say “cured, smoked, or baked”.
• Country ham. Avoid the country ham. They are uncooked like the prosciutto ham.
• Shank is the bottom part of the ham and is fattier. The long-shaped bone is easy to carve around.
• Butt. The butt is the top part of the ham. It is leaner and trickier to carve due to the t-shaped bone. Both the shank and butt can come boneless and are compressed into an oval-shaped chunk of ham. 
• Spiral-cut ham is most often pre-cooked and can be bone-in or boneless (pre-cut into thin slices). The spiral cut makes carving easy and yields nice, thin, even slices, perfect for leftover sandwiches. Sometimes they already have a flavor so check the label if you want to make your own glaze.

Serving size. A 6-quart pot will hold a 5-6 lb ham. An 8-quart pot should hold a 7-8 lb ham. If needed, cut a portion off of the ham to make it fit. Freeze that section to be cooked later. For serving suggestions:

• Bone-in ham: about ⅓ – ½ pounds per person.
• Boneless ham: about ¼ – ⅓ pounds per person.

How to cook ham in instANT POT

Ham in the Instant Pot is quick, easy, and packed with flavor! Just follow these simple steps.

GLAZE. Whisk together marmalade, brown sugar, orange juice, mustard, and black pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.

PREP. Spray the inside of your instant pot and place your ham in it, with the fat side up.

COOK. Coat the ham with the glaze. Secure the lid on the instant pot and cook on the meat setting for 15 minutes. Let the pot naturally release.

SERVE. Take the ham out and reglaze with any leftovers from the pot. Slice it and serve warm!

Recipe Tips

Internal temperature should read 135-140°F on a thermometer. If it needs to cook longer, simply replace the lid, set the manual time to 3 minutes, and allow 10 minutes to depressurize before removing the valve.  

Caramelized glaze. This works best with a non-spiraled or a bone-in ham. The boneless spiral ham does not keep its shape very well when transferred from the Instant Pot.

• Line a baking pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil.
• Remove the ham from the Instant Pot and place it on the foil.
• Brush with glaze and broil for just a few minutes. Watch carefully so it will not burn. 

Cooking frozen ham. One of the wonderful features of an instant pot is that, due to the high pressure, frozen meat can be cooked quickly.

It will take almost twice as long, 25-30 minutes, but is still much quicker than letting it thaw and baking it in the oven or cooking it for hours in the crockpot. 

Flavor variations. Try adding additional spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, or cloves. Use pineapple juice for the liquid instead of orange juice or adjust the sweetness and replace the brown sugar with maple syrup.

Storing Info

STORE. Cooked ham stores really well and makes delicious leftovers! Instant Pot Ham can be stored in the fridge or freezer.

• Fridge: Place ham in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. 
• Freezer: Place ham in a Ziploc freezer bag, press out the air, and freeze for 2-3 months. Thaw before using. 

Leftovers. I especially like using leftover Instant Pot spiral ham to make some of my favorite recipes such as Ham and Cheese Quiche or Ham and Bean Soup. Or these favorite ways to use leftover ham:

• Cheesy Ham Chowder
• Ham and Cheese Sliders
• Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
• Hot Ham and Cheese Roll Up

Recipe FAQ

Serve ham with these side dishes:

• Homemade Dinner Rolls
• Yellow Squash Casserole
• Ambrosia Salad
• Arugula Salad
• Green Bean Casserole