How to smoke ham using any type of grill or smoker

Pitmaster Christie Vanover shares how to select, season and smoke ham on a charcoal, pellet or gas grill. Plus, her perfect ham glaze recipe.

I just got back from Fort Worth, Texas, where I competed in the Steak Cookoff Association World Championships. I was actually in the ancillary category.

Unfortunately, I didn’t walk home with a world championship ring, but I had an amazing time. I ended up tied for 14th overall in my category, in my division, so I’m pretty happy with those results.

I know where I could have made some tweaks and maybe done a little bit better, but I’m excited for all of my friends who heard their name called who had a wonderful weekend.

I think I’m going to do a future podcast on the Steak Cookoff Association to kind of talk to you guys about how that whole program works and how it’s a little bit different than KCBS.

But this week I wanted to touch on grilled ham. Since Easter’s coming up. I wanted to get you guys ready.

Selecting a ham

Before I talk to you about how I like to smoke a ham, I want to talk to you about the ham itself.

Now, the ham actually comes from the rear upper legs of a hog. You might think that’s where the pork butt comes from. But actually the pork butt is the pork shoulder, which comes from the upper front legs of the hog, and the ham comes from the rear.

Now, in your butcher’s case, you may be able to find a raw ham, but I actually don’t recommend cooking a raw ham.

If you were to smoke that, you’re going to get a texture and consistency that’s probably going to be pretty similar to pulled pork or you’re going to want to shred it or you’re going to going to want to chop it.

You’re not going to get those beautiful ham slices that you’re accustomed to at Easter. That’s why you want to look for a cured ham.

It’s either going to be cured in sugar or salt, and most likely it’s already smoked. So why smoke it again? For flavor. For amazingness. That’s just what we do here.

So when you go to the grocery store, don’t look for the raw ham, look for the smoked ham, and more importantly, looked for a spiral sliced smoked ham.

Not all pre-smoked hams are actually sliced for you. And that means when it comes to service, it’s a little bit harder to like get those beautiful slices.

Plus with the pre-sliced ham, you’re going to have those crevices there. So when you add your glaze and when you smoke it a second time, you’re going to get more flavor throughout the meat.

So I always look for a pre-smoked spiral, sliced ham. You can get them from Hillshire Farms, Hormel, Smithfield. I’ve tried them all. They’re really good.

They also usually come with a packet of some kind of seasoning to help you make a glaze for your ham. I’m going to actually recommend that you toss that out or use it for something else because I’m going to teach you how to make your own glaze.

What size ham to buy

Another thing to think about when you’re choosing your ham is what size ham you should buy.

Well, that depends on how many people you’re serving. So if you plan on maybe 4 to 6 ounces per person, that’s a quarter pound or so per person. You can multiply that times the number of people to figure out how much ham you need.

That also depends on if you have a whole bunch of sides and a whole bunch of like turkey or prime rib roast or some other meat to go with it. If all you’re really doing is like ham and mashed potatoes, then you may want to plan on a half a pound per person.

But don’t worry, you can always buy a little bit larger because ham leftovers make amazing ham sandwiches. You can also toss them in ham omelets. There’s so many things you can do with it, so maybe go big.

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Smoker settings for ham

All right, before we season the ham, let’s set up the smoker. You can use a gas grill, charcoal grill or pellet grill for this recipe, which is great.

For smoke, I recommend going with apple wood for that nice little sweet, subtle essence of flavor.

Charcoal grill

Let’s start with the charcoal grill. If you have something like a Weber kettle, you’re going to need to set up an indirect heat zone by placing the coals on one side of the kettle itself.

You can use lump charcoal or charcoal briquets. You’ll get them lit, get them ashed over, push them to one side, and then adjust your vents so that the internal temperature of your grill is around 250F degrees.

When you cook your ham on the grill, you will need to rotate it periodically because the heat is coming from one side. So you want to get that even heat on all sides by rotating the pan. That’s going to help with that.

If you’re using something like a Kamado Joe or a Big Green Egg, you can place your charcoal into the grill itself and then use your deflector plate. And that’s going to give you the indirect heat. And there’s no need to rotate.

Pellet grill

if you’re using a pellet grill, super simple. I recommend going with apple wood pellets. Just punch in the dial and set it to 250F, and you’re good to go.

Gas grill

You can even smoke this on a gas grill, but you still need to set it up with an indirect heat zone.

To do that, you’re going to need to turn on at least one burner. I recommend starting with it on low. Then watch the thermometer dial and see where it goes.

You want the temperature of the grill inside to be 250F degrees, 250-275. It’s okay if it goes a little bit higher, but start on low. You can always raise the heat if you need to.

Now, if you have a three-burner gas grill, that’s even more ideal. I recommend turning on the two outer burners to low. That way you’re getting even heat on both sides of the ham itself.

If, however, you only have a two-burner grill or setting two burners just doesn’t get the temperature low enough, then you’ll just have to rotate the pan just like you would with your charcoal grill.

A cool thing about the gas grill is you can still get that great wood flavor by placing some apple wood chips inside of a foil pouch and setting those on the grill. As they smoke, that’s going to emit that nice flavor and help double smoke your ham.

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Seasoning the ham

You’ve got the grill set up to 250F degrees, indirect heat, no matter what type of grill you have. Let’s get the ham seasoned.

When it’s time to smoke your ham, take it out of the refrigerator. It’s usually double wrapped.

First take off that outer foil piece and then it’s going to be cryovaced. You’re going to need a pair of scissors or a knife to cut that open and to take your ham out.

There may be a piece of plastic on the top, the crown of the ham. You want to remove that, and there’s probably a piece of plastic on the underside. Just flip your ham over. Look for that little plastic circle on the bottom. Remove that as well.

Then your ham is ready for cooking. Go ahead and get yourself an aluminum half pan. It’s about a 13 by 9 size pan. I like the aluminum ones because you can just toss them when you’re done.

Place your ham right inside that pan, and then it’s time to season it. I like to rub my hams with mustard. You can use yellow mustard or Dijon mustard. I usually go with Dijon

You’re going to need about a quarter cup of mustard for a 10-pound ham.

Next, you’re going to want to add a couple tablespoons of your favorite pork rub or barbecue rub. I like rubs that are a little bit on the sweeter side when it comes to ham, so maybe consider one of those.

Adding moisture

Once your ham is slathered with mustard and all of your rub is on it and it’s sitting in the pan, it’s time to pick your liquid.

One of the most important things when double smoking a ham is making sure that you have enough liquid that you don’t dry it out.

Because remember, this ham has already been cooked. So we don’t want to overcook it to the point where we dry out the meat. Instead, we’re reheating it slowly and we need to introduce moisture.

So you’re going to need 12 ounces of liquid poured in the bottom of your pan. And that’s kind of going to help steam and create moisture as you’re also getting smoke from the grill.

What kind of liquid you use is completely up to you. You can use a 12-ounce can of beer or cider or a pale ale. Those all go really great.

With ham, you can use soda like a cola or Dr. Pepper or even a cherry cola. Those go great. You can also just use water or apple juice. It’s whatever your preferences are.

But think about liquids that would taste good with ham and use that as your option.

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Smoking a ham

Now that the ham is all slathered with mustard and covered with rub, it’s time to place it on the smoker.

Place it on your smoker over the indirect heat, as I talked about before, either away from the charcoal or on a pellet smoker over a diffuser plate or on your gas grill over the burner that’s turned off.

If you have a 10-pound ham, you’re going to want to smoke it for about 3 hours.

Then every 30 to 60 minutes, head on back out to the grill, use a basting brush or a mop to take some of that liquid that’s accumulated in the bottom and baste it on your ham.

That’s going to be a mixture of the ham juices themselves plus the liquid that you added to the pan. You’re just going to take your mop and you’re going to dunk it into the liquid, then place that mop right on top of the ham itself. So all that liquid just gushes down.

Again, this is one of the benefits of buying a spiral sliced ham. All those liquids that you’re basting with are going to just ooze into the crevices, ooze into the slices and really flavor that meat.

Smoke that ham for 3 hours, continuously basting every 30 to 60 minutes. You don’t have to be exact. Just when it starts to look dry, just add some moisture to it.

The ham glaze

Then during that last 30-minute period, you can go inside and make your glaze. This is where you can get creative with your flavors.

My ham glaze always includes a half a cup of some sort of jam or jelly, plus a quarter cup of yellow mustard or Dijon mustard, two tablespoons of soy sauce, and sometimes a little bit of hot sauce.

When it comes to the glaze, a few different jellies are really good. I like to use orange marmalade. Apricot jam is wonderful. Cherry jam is wonderful. You can even use grape if you like, and you could put in hot pepper jelly if you want to.

If you want to mix in some hot pepper jelly, go with a quarter cup of pepper jelly and a quarter cup of orange marmalade, plus the quarter cup of mustard, two tablespoons of soy sauce, and you’re good to go.

You want to heat that together either in the microwave or in a sauce pot just to help dissolve the sugar. So it’s nice and runny and glaze-like.

Then after your ham has been on the smoker for 3 hours, head on out to the grill with that pot of glaze and use your mop and just brush that glaze right all over the ham.

You can dunk your mop right into some of the liquid that’s on the bottom as well to infuse some of that flavor. Continue cooking it for another 30 minutes.

During this point, I recommend staying by your grill and keeping an eye on it and just continuously basting it with the glaze and the juices for that 30-minute period, maybe every five, 10 minutes, because you really want to start forming just that beautiful glisten across your ham.

Once that 30-minute period is up, it’s time to bring the ham inside, turn off your grill, remove the ham from the grill, and then tent it loosely with some aluminum foil. That’s going to help keep it warm and then just let it rest.

While your ham has been smoking, hopefully you’ve also made up some other dishes like smoked mac and cheese or maybe some brussels sprouts, like kale salad, even my rainbow gratin potatoes. Those are beautiful for Easter.

Slicing ham

Then once your sides are ready and your ham is rested, it’s time to get slicing. I recommend using a large fork and a large long serrated knife. I use a long bread knife.

Just stick your fork right in the top of the ham and run your knife right down the side of it. And then because it’s pre-sliced, you’ve already got all these beautiful slices.

Go ahead and place those ham slices on a platter or in another aluminum pan. Then take your mop brush one more time, dunk it in that liquid and brush it right across all the ham slices. That way you ensure that they stay nice and juicy for your guests.

I hope this tip has been super helpful for you guys. And most of all, I hope you have a wonderful Easter. I want to hear how you make your ham, what kind of jellies you use and how everything works out for you. So as always, feel free to leave a comment below.

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