Baked Pulled Ham

  Lately I've been finding a lot of my cooking inspiration from tiktok videos and FB reels. I'll be the first to admit that it's REALLY easy to go down that rabbit hole and watch video after video. But every so often, I'll see a recipe and IMMEDIATELY know that I want to try it. 

 Such was the case when I saw one of my favorites, Nicole from All Recipes, making a baked pulled ham. What is a pulled ham, you ask? Well, it's just like a BBQ pork that is slowly cooked for several hours until it literally falls apart. But instead of starting with an uncooked pork shoulder, it starts with a fully cooked ham. It's salty to start out, but when you add some sweet and spicy sauce, it's absolutely delish! It's the perfect thing to make if you're feeding a crowd and it would be FABULOUS for your next special event. Are you making a ham for Easter Dinner? Are you having a summer party? Holiday open house? This would be just the thing! And you can do the whole thing a day or two in advance, which gives you the freedom of having an available oven for side dishes and such. Perfect!

 But here's the thing... just as always, I couldn't leave well enough alone, and I kind of tweaked the original recipe. After trying it as written the first time (pictured, lots of BBQ sauce), I went back and swapped out a few ingredients and changed a few of the amounts. Feel free to do the same thing if you feel so inclined. The method stays exactly the same, but make it the way you like it! It'll be a big hit!

 

 

 

1 10-12 LB bone-in ham (not spiral sliced)

Brown mustard

Splash of liquid smoke

Brown sugar rub (recipe follows)
1 cup ginger ale, not diet
1 cup pineapple jam

2 tbs BBQ sauce 

Preheat the oven to 275º F.

Use enough mustard to slather the ham on all sides. I didn't measure, but if I had to guess, it would be maybe 1/2 cup, give or take. Stir mustard and liquid smoke together in a small bowl. Rub mustard mixture evenly over ham and sprinkle barbecue rub all over. Place ham in a large disposable pan or large deep roasting pan. Pour ginger ale around ham. Cover tightly with foil.
Bake for 2 hours. Remove pan from oven.
Increase oven temperature to 300ºF.
Stir pineapple jam and BBQ sauce together in a bowl; pour mixture over ham and spread evenly. Cover tightly with foil.
Bake for another 5 to 6 hours or until a meat thermometer or instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of ham reads 205ºF.  
Let stand until ham is cool enough to handle. Shred ham with 2 forks, making sure to remove bone and excess fat.  Toss pulled meat with pan drippings.

 

 

 

 One other thing.. they didn't specify what spice rub to use, so I just threw this one together. I didn't even measure anything... just threw everything in. If there's a specific rub you like, use it!

 

About 1/2 cup brown sugar

a sprinkle of each:

smoked paprika

garlic powder

onion powder

salt and pepper 

 

 

 

Tips:   

 Full disclosure, the first time I made it, I added chili powder to the rub, so it was definitely a BARBECUE pulled ham, but you can make it however you like it. Do you want it to be sweet? Add more brown sugar and jam.  Do you want it to be more tangy? Choose a tangy BBQ sauce. Do you like it smokey and spicy? Add cayenne pepper or chili powder. Don't like pineapple? Choose another fruit jam. Don't like ginger ale? Use any other kind of soda as long as it's not diet. You can really go in any direction with it! 

Don't have any liquid smoke? Use more smoked paprika! or just leave it out. 

Don't want it to be spicy or smokey? Leave out the spice rub altogether! Just brush it with mustard  and sprinkle a little brown sugar over the top for the first 2 hours, then glaze with the BBQ sauce/ jam mixture for the rest of the baking time. Easy!