Double Smoked Ham With Honey Bourbon Glaze

This easy double smoked ham recipe has a honey bourbon glaze with orange zest. It’s so simple to make and it will knock your socks off.

What Is A Double Smoked Ham?

As the name suggests, a double smoked ham (sometimes called a twice smoked ham) is a ham that’s been smoked twice. Take a pre-cooked ham that’s already been smoked and smoke it again.

Double the smoke and double the flavor!

You might think smoking a ham twice would be overpowering and ruin it, but it’s just the opposite. Double smoked ham has become one of my absolute favorite things to cook on my smoker and it’s so easy.

What Type Of Ham Works Best?

You’ll find a few different kinds of ham at the supermarket or butcher, and they all come from the hind leg of the pig as seen in the diagram below.

The first kind of ham you might see would be a whole ham. Each pig has two whole hams and they’re basically the upper leg and rump of the animal.

If you take that whole ham and slice it in half, you’re left with two different cuts. The lower part is called the shank portion and the upper half is called the butt portion.

The shank portion costs less because there’s more bone in it and less meat. The meat itself tends to be a bit darker in color and sweeter because there’s less fat.

The butt portion has a bone too but it’s smaller than a shank. Also, the meat has a higher fat content and is the meat is more tender.

Finally, there’s the spiral ham. A spiral ham is pre-sliced by the butcher which will save you some work when it comes time for carving. The trade off is that if you’re not careful those slices could get dried out while cooking.

I’ve smoked butts, shanks, and spiral hams and they are all good options. But my first choice is the butt portion because the meat is super tender and there’s less bone to deal with.

What Do You Need?

This is such a simple meal to prepare and you’ll only need a few ingredients.

• A smoker
• ½ cup orange juice
• ½ cup bourbon
• 2 tablespoons honey
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• Zest of 1 orange

You’ll also want a good instant read thermometer so you can check the ham’s internal temperature. It’s already been cooked but you still want to get it to 140 F. You don’t want to be carving into a ham that’s ide cold on the inside!

Can I Use A Different Kind Of Glaze?

Of course! If you don’t want to use bourbon I find it still comes out good if you swap it out for the same amount of soy sauce.

I also like making double smoked ham with a glaze of soy sauce, pineapple juice, brown sugar, and apricot preserves. I’ve even seen people glaze their ham with root beer or Coca-Cola.

When Should I Put The Glaze On My Ham?

The best time to apply the ham glaze is about 20 to 30 minutes before its finished cooking. Since you want to remove it from the grill at about 140 F you should add the glaze when the internal temperature reaches about 130 F.

Double Smoked Ham Recipe