David’s Easy Overnight Ham
David’s Easy Overnight Ham is a delicious ham recipe that requires only one ingredient, the ham itself, and cooks while you sleep, low and slow in the oven. What could be better than that? It’s the perfect thing to cook for Easter brunch because it’s ready when you are to eat it. My father in law, David, first showed me how to cook this ham and I fell in love with it. It’s not only so easy to make, it’s also the best ham I’ve ever put in my mouth.
David used to make this for us when we would come visit him in Alabama and I had to ask for the recipe. When he told me I was floored. Clearly some other magic happened to make this taste this good, but no, it’s all about buying the right ham, the rest just happens in the oven.
I love to serve this for Easter brunch, there is nothing better than waking up in the morning and smelling this wafting throughout the house. We serve it with roasted carrots, peas, parker house rolls and occasionally mashed potatoes. It also makes an easy meal to have during a regular work week. The ham produces so much meat that we have plenty for my Favorite Leftover Ham Bone Soup from Damn Delicious, and a Ham & Bacon Quiche. Plus fixings for sandwiches and snacking.
You could certainly get a spiral cut ham to make carving easier but I find the pre cut hams are more dry and don’t turn out as tender and moist. Try not buy a honey glazed or sugar coated ham. You want just a regular, fully cooked, bone in ham. Do not buy a shoulder cut like a boston butt or picnic shoulder (that’s a whole other post and those aren’t cooked), you want a rump or shank cut. And most prepackaged cooked hams are sold that way
Just take the ham and wrap it in aluminum foil and place it in a 9×13 glass baking dish. Set the oven 250 degrees and place the ham in the oven. Let it cook until you wake up in the morning. At least eight hours will do it. Then turn the oven off and allow it to sit in the oven until you are ready to carve. It will be just fine in there. Promise.
David’s Easy Overnight Ham
Ingredients
- 1 large bone in ham (pre cooked is perfect)
- aluminum foil
Instructions
- Take the ham out of the plastic packaging and remove the little plastic piece that covers up the bone on the cut side.
- Wrap the whole ham tightly in aluminum foil. Makes sure the whole thing is covered. Place the ham in a pyrex baking dish or roasting pan and set in a 250 degree oven.
- Cook for at least eight hours. Turn the oven off and allow the ham to sit in the oven until you are ready for carving. We usually go to church and come back and eat the ham and it's still really warm and tender.
Yes, yes, yes! This is the most tender ham recipe ever. All hams seem tough and chewy and I think that’s because we only heat up a fully cook ham thinking that’s just the only way to do it. My friend do this long, slow cook method and you will experience a entirely new ham experience. It’s moist, fall apart tender. I did do one too long and it came out dark and dry. Next ham I trimmed (peeled) the ham and put in oven when I went to bed at 10:00. The smell of slow cooking ham kept waking me up and making my mouth water. I got up at 7:00 took it out of oven and it was the ham I hoped for. No spice not even pepper just overnight bake and done. Full of ham flavor that can be used for all other ham recipes.
It doesn’t dry out?
No it doesn’t dry out. Ive made it with sliced ham and that does dry out, the key is to find an unsliced ham. It’s perfection.
I made this last night and it truly is delicious. My only problem is that it is so tender it is difficult to get nice slices. If I used I spiral sliced ham and cooked it for less time would that work? Or would it still dry out? Making another ham for Thanksgiving and really want to be able to slice it. Thanks for any and all answers.
Yes it is hard to get slices. I always shred mine. You could try cooking a pre sliced ham for less time. Maybe put it in first thing in the morning and let cook for at least four hours or so instead of eight to ten. If you try less time let us know how it worked!
I’m going to try it we eat at 2 pm putting it on at 6:30 am .Let’s GO!!!!!!!! .
HI KSNOW! I’m cooking an unsliced ham butt right now for 8 hours. Excited to see how it turns out. If you used a spiral sliced please post how it turned out. I will repost on mine later as well!
I cooked a half ham this way, and it was amazing! Just like my grandma in Alabama used to make. How about cooking a whole ham (14 lbs)?
Mine turned out really good but next time I’ll wrap it better. I was reading through the instructions and it mentioned a piece of plastic over the bone but I didn’t remember seeing one so I unwrapped it to check but nothing was there. So I wrapped it up and put it back in the oven. When I was checking my crockpot mac n cheese(recipe available upon request) I checked the ham and noticed my foil gaping open so I took it out and finished by placing it in an oven cooking bag. Now next time I’m not sure if I should just use a cooking bag from start to finish or just wrap more securely in the foil. Any suggestions?
Happy New Year everyone. This recipe seems easy enough. I’m about to wrap my ham tightly and stick it in the oven on 200 degrees for about 8 hours or so. I’ll come back to let you all know how it turned out.
Hopefully it’ll be enough heat 🙏it turns out really good for you! I thought the temp was 250 which is what I used! Great and easy recipe!