Smoked Pulled Ham
This smoked ham is full of flavor. It easily shreds and is perfect for a holiday meal, or simple sandwiches!
Servings people
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 Bone-in Ham Shank un-cut. Mine are usually about 9lbs
- 2 tablespoons mustard or neutral oil
Dry Rub
- 2 ½ tablespoons brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground red pepper
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
Glaze
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¾ teaspoon ground cloves
- grated zest of one medium orange
- 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 1 ½ tablespoons dijon mustard
- 1 ½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Additional Ingredients
- apple juice (or water is fine!)
Instructions
- Preheat your smoker to 225℉.
- Lightly rinse your ham with cool water to remove extra salty residue from the juices it's often packed in, and pat dry with paper towels. I like to place my ham on a foil-lined baking sheet for easy transfer at this point.
- Use a knife to score your ham in a criss-cross patter across all sides. You don't need to go super deep, about ¼".
- Rub ham on all sides with mustard. A 9-ish pound shank usually uses about 2 tablespoons.
- Combine all spice rub ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. Sprinkle rub on all sides of ham.
- Place ham in your smoker at 225℉. Place some apple juice (or water if all else fails) in a clean spray bottle reserved for food purposes and spritz ham every 2-3 hours.
- Continue to smoke until internal temperature reaches 155-165℉, this generally takes me about 6 hours.
- While ham is smoking, whisk together all glaze ingredients. Reserve 2 tablespoons glaze in a small container and set aside. The remaining glaze is what you will use in the following step.
- Transfer ham to a roasting pan. Add enough apple juice (or water) to pan that it goes at least about ½-inch up the sides of the pan.
- Use a silicone brush to brush prepared glaze onto all sides of ham. Cover tightly with foil and roast in oven, or back on your smoker, at 350℉ until ham reaches an internal temperature between 200-205℉. This step usually takes an additional 3 hours or so for me for a 9lb shank. Tip: Both temperature and texture are important indicators for doneness. The thermometer should slide in and out very easily (like butter!) and you should be able to pull a piece of ham off and have it shred nicely. If you haven't reached these indicators yet, cover tightly again and continue cooking in 30 minute increments.At this point, remove ham from oven, keep it covered and rest for 20-30 minutes before shredding.
- Remove ham from roasting pan and transfer to cutting board. (Avoid shredding your ham in the pan juices because those are often overly salty.) If your ham is falling apart and hard to transfer, that's a good thing! Shred ham, discarding extra fat and bones. Feel free to taste your drippings and if they aren't too salty, you can toss some back in with your shredded meat.
- Add 1-2 tablespoons apple or orange juice to the small amount of glaze you reserved. I like to drizzle this over the finished ham and toss it before serving. Go by taste, you may not want to use all of it- it's personal preference!
Notes
OVEN BAKED PULLED HAM
If you don’t have a smoker, you can still make delicious, tender, flavorful pulled ham in your oven. You could also use a large electric roaster, or a slow cooker if your ham is small enough to fit inside.
I'm editing these instructions from the original posting since I just tested it once in the oven for you! As I continue to try it in the oven and perfect the process I'll add notes and options here. Just know that this is very flexible, and the method is more important than the recipe- meaning you can slow-roast a ham shank in the oven until it reaches the specified temp (usually 5-7 hours) and use any flavor profile you like. Feel free to replace the spice mix with your favorite bbq rub and the orange glaze with bbq sauce, etc.
- Preheat oven to 300°F. Place your ham cut-side down in a roasting pan or large dutch oven. Rub ham with mustard and pat on spice rub. (I have also skipped the mustard and spice rub step and it's still delicious, so if you want ease, or a different flavor profile, totally fine to take liberties here.)
- Pour liquid (apple juice or water) into your pan so it goes about 1/2" up the sides of the pan.
- Cover tightly with heavy duty foil or a lid.
- Roast for 3 hours. (It's fine to roast for longer than 3 hours here, very flexible)
- While ham is roasting, whisk glaze together, reserving 2 tablespoons set aside.
- Remove ham after 3 hours and brush with prepared glaze. Cover ham again and return to oven for another 2-3 hours (or more if your ham is extra large). You should still have plenty of liquid in your pan at this point, so if yours has evaporated, add more so your glaze doesn't burn on the bottom.
- Continue roasting until internal temperature reaches 200°-205°. How the ham feels is more important than a specific time. It should easily pull off the bones and the thermometer should slide smoothly in and out of the meat like butter. It will naturally shred and tell you when it's done. If you check it and it's not quite there yet, keep going in 30 minute increments until it easily shreds. For reference, my 7 lb shank was absolutely falling apart at 6 hours. I’d say 5-7 hours is a good target range for how long this will take depending on the size of your ham. If you have the time, let your ham sit, covered, for about 20 minutes out of the oven before you shred.
- Remove meat onto a cutting board, discard fat, bones (or save bones for soup). I also discard the pan drippings because they tend to be salty, but you can taste yours and decide if you want to keep any to drizzle over your meat.
- For serving, add 1-2 tablespoons apple or orange juice to the reserved glaze you set aside and drizzle that over your shredded ham before serving, if desired.
Nutrition
Serving: 4oz, Calories: 114kcal, Carbohydrates: 17g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 3g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 15mg, Sodium: 89mg, Potassium: 92mg, Fiber: 0.4g, Sugar: 16g, Vitamin A: 30IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 23mg, Iron: 0.5mg
Calories: 114kcal
Cost: $35
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