Once I started smoking my ham like I’m going to show you in this recipe, I have literally never bought one of those spiral cut hams with the sauce packet, again. Smoked pulled ham might ruin all other ham for you. This is not a spiral cut ham (make sure to read my ingredient notes, below). When you smoke and roast your ham low and slow, it takes it from tough and chewy to absolutely fall-off-the-bone soft. It shreds like pulled pork, and with my flavor rub and glaze, combined with the smoke, it’s packed with incredible flavor. If you don’t have a smoker, you can still make pulled ham in the oven as well! I’ve included oven instructions in the recipe card below.

I first had smoked pulled ham at a BBQ restaurant. I actually thought I was eating pulled pork at first because I had no idea ham could be cooked in a way that would allow it to shred like pork and be so flavorful. I knew I wanted to try it at home. For the basic process, I used the formula I learned from this article by Brad Prose. BBQ guru Susie Bulloch uses the same method with an apricot bbq glaze, which also sounds delicious. I wanted to make a quintessential Easter ham, so for my version I’m using a riff on our very popular Orange and Brown Sugar Glazed Ham. You can easily use this same method and switch up the rub and the glaze/sauce with any flavors you like. Once you learn to cook ham like this, you might not go back to any other method!


Ingredient Notes
- Bone-in Portion Ham Shank (NOT spiral cut). Below you’ll see photos of 2 common styles of portion hams. The ham on the left in each photo is labeled “butt” and the one on the right is labeled “shank”. There are other cuts that are simply labeled “portion” or “picnic”. Any of those will work, but for best results and the most tender ham, you’ll want to look for a bone-in Shank. The shank has a little more fat so the meat is juicier and shreds more easily. I’ve tried with several cuts to test, and I’ve found this cut to be the best. It looks similar to the spiral cut ham, but it’s not sliced. This smoked pulled ham recipe will not work with a sliced ham, so don’t waste your time or money on that! Where I live, I find this brand at my local Winco. If you can’t find a shank, specifically, a butt portion will work as well, it just tends to be a bit leaner.
- Mustard – you’ll use mustard to rub all over your ham. The mustard flavor does not come through on the finished ham, it acts as a binder to hold on your spices. I’ve also used a neutral oil in this step, but mustard is my preferred ingredient.
- Brown Sugar – this is used in both the rub and the glaze.
- Spices – this spice rub is in the same vein as a classic spiral cut glaze with a sweet and spicy combo including cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves. If you’d like to do more of a bbq seasoning, simply use your favorite bbq rub, like this one, however I recommend omitting the salt as cured ham is already salty.
- Apple Juice – I like to use apple juice for both spritzing in the smoker, and also in the roasting pan for moisture. If you forgot this on your shopping list, or prefer to not use juice, you can substitute water. Brad Prose uses room temperature beer for this step.
- Oranges – you’ll use both the orange zest and juice in the glaze for this ham. I love the combination of orange and spices for a ham. It’s especially great for Easter time.
- Apple Cider Vinegar – my favorite apple cider vinegar for cooking is Bragg’s. This balances the sweetness of the rub and glaze by adding some acidity.
- Spray Bottle – I like to keep a clean spray bottle for food use only. You’ll want this to spritz your ham during the smoking process.
- Smoker – this recipe uses a smoker. I have not experimented with an oven roasted version, but I will one of these days!


Instructions
- Score and rub: After rinsing your ham with cool water to remove extra salty residue from the juices it’s packed in, you’ll pat dry and score your ham. This is simply using a sharp knife to score a diamond pattern on all sides, about 1.4″ deep. This allows the smoke and flavors to penetrate better into the meat. This step is hard to see in the beginning photos, but you’ll notice the scoring pattern when you look at the ham photos post-smoking. You’ll then rub the whole ham down with a thin layer of mustard.
- Seasoning Mix: The next step is to combine a mix of spices and seasonings. You’ll notice there’s zero salt in my rub. That’s because cured hams are often already packed with some salt and adding more might overdo it.
- Sprinkle all over: Cover the ham with the seasoning rub. As the mustard starts to absorb the spices, it will start to look wet all over.



- Smoke: Place in a 225° smoker. I don’t recommend increasing the smoke temperature because it risks your sugar burning. I like to use apple wood, but feel free to use your favorite. The ham needs to reach an internal temperature of between 155-165 degrees during this step, which for me takes about 6 hours for a 9-ish lb ham shank, but timing will vary due to size of your ham and other factors. Yours may take more or less.
- Spritz: I spray my ham with apple juice every 2-3 hours to keep the outside moist and avoid any burning of the spice rub. Again, you can spritz with any of the alternate liquids mentioned. Depending on the timing here, you may only spritz one time. (While your ham is smoking, you’ll mix your glaze so that is ready).
- Roast: After the target temperature is reached, you’ll transfer your ham to a roasting pan. I use my nice roasting pan and do the final roast in the oven, but you can absolutely use a disposable pan and do the final roast in your smoker as well.


- Add Liquid: Pour 1 1/2 cups apple juice, or desired liquid (could even be water) into your roasting pan. This will keep things moist and also prevent the sugar from burning on the bottom of your pan.
- Glaze: Reserve 2 tablespoons glaze mixture and set aside, and brush the rest over ham.
- Cover and Roast: Cover tightly with foil and put back either in smoker or in the oven, at 350°.



- Cook: Here’s the deal. Temperature AND texture are important when determining when your ham is done. You’ll want to roast your ham until it easily shreds and falls off the bone, like pulled pork or pot roast. As you insert a thermometer it should slide in and out super easily- this is a great cue as to what the texture is inside. When you tug at the meat it should easily pull off and shred. You’re aiming for a target temperature of about 200°-205°. This generally takes me around 3 hours of roasting for a 9lb shank. It helps to have a thermometer that stays in so you can monitor the temperature without opening it up too much. If that’s the case, I wouldn’t even check until at least 200° . Mine almost always needs to get to about 205°.
- Shred: Let your ham rest for 20-30 minutes before shredding. You’ll be tempted to just shred your pork right into your pan with the juices but don’t do that! Cured hams tend to have a high salt content so that will often overly salt your ham. Instead, transfer your ham to a large cutting board. Pull the meat off the bones and discard extra fat and bones (you may want to save your bones for soup!)
- Toss with extra sauce: This step is optional, I’d taste as you go! I love taking the little bit of reserved glaze we kept, and adding a couple tablespoons of apple (or orange) juice. I drizzle it over the final shredded ham and toss it all together before serving. You might like your ham as is right out of the pan, I love the extra punch of flavor and sweetness. Some of my family members like it without the extra drizzle. It’s just personal preference!


How to serve Smoked Pulled Ham
You can serve this right on the plate like you would any other protein. It’s delicious paired with some green beans or roasted asparagus or your favorite salad. We also love it along side potatoes. Alternately you could serve it on buns for a sandwich.

Leftover Suggestions
This ham will serve a lot! It’s great for a crowd, but if you’re making it just for a family dinner, chances are you’ll have some leftovers.
- We LOVE making sandwiches. Try it on a toasted brioche bun with melted havarti cheese. Or make a ham and cheese panini on sourdough.
- It’s fantastic in fried rice. This is my favorite classic fried rice, but the flavor profile of this ham lends itself really well to this breakfast fried rice.
- Try crisping up the ham in a saute pan and then piling in tacos or wraps.
- It’s terrific in an omelette.

Frequently Asked Questions
Since smoking meat can be a long process, it’s sometimes hard to do the same day you’d like to serve it, especially if it’s for a large group gathering and you’re nervous about timing. At minimum you’ll need at least 9 hours, and you’ll want to give yourself plenty of wiggle room. You can certainly end your ham early, and keep it well wrapped in foil in a warm oven. You can also cook entirely a day ahead of time. Store your shredded ham in an airtight container and see reheating instructions below.
For quick serve reheating of leftovers, you can zap it in the microwave or toss in a saute pan over medium heat to get it a little caramelized. If you’re reheating it in its entirety for serving, reserve the step where you toss with extra glaze until right before serving. Store shredded ham in an airtight container in the fridge. When ready to reheat, I like to place in a baking or roasting pan, drizzle with a small amount of liquid (water or broth…) just to avoid drying out, and cover with foil. Reheat at 350 degrees until hot- timing depends on the quantity, keep an eye on it. Toss with extra glaze before serving, if desired.
Absolutely. Freeze in a vacuum sealed bag or airtight container. Thaw in fridge before using.
Absolutely. If you’d like to go more of a traditional bbq route, simply use your favorite bbq dry rub, and glaze with bbq sauce in place of the glaze. If you do this, I recommend omitting the salt from the dry rub.
I don’t have a smoker, can I make pulled ham in the oven? Yes! See recipe card below for details. It’s not exactly the same as a smoked ham, obviously, but you can make a tender pulled ham with great flavor in your oven as well. See details below!

Smoked Pulled Ham
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 about 2-3 cups
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.
- 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 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 1 ½ cups apple juice (or water) to 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. The thermometer should slide in and out very easily and you should be able to pull a piece of ham off and have it shred nicely. 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.
- 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!
Questions & Reviews
Excited to make this for Thanksgiving this year since ham was my assignment. I want to make it the day before to save oven space. What’s the best way to reheat and still keep it moist?
Hi Brittany, please see the Frequently Asked Questions section above; I list a few options for you!
If I purchased a spiral ham, do you think I could cook the spiral cut ham for the oven directions or will it dry out?
No, unfortunately this recipe will not work well with a spiral cut ham.
This ham recipe is the ONLY one I’ll be using from now on. I used the oven method, and boy was it amazing!! The brown sugar orange sauce takes it to the next level!! Thanks for this tasty recipe.
Hi – I was definitely planning to use a spiral cut ham and do this recipe. Why won’t it work? Thanks in advance!! 🙂
Nope, do not use a spiral cut ham. As I explain in the post, you must use an uncut shank.
I made an 11 pound ham substituting my homemade mandarin syrup (failed jelly lol) for the orange juice and most of the brown sugar in the glaze. I am hooked on this recipe! So tender and tasty!
Connoisseur of Ham for over sixty trips around the sun. Just when I thought I had cooked my best ham I came across this recipe. Followed it to a T double the quantities for a 13 lb whole ham bone in.
Did it on a Weber Smokey Mountain with just Kingsford charcoal.
Two and a half hours each side then 3 hours under foil in a pan with Apple Juice and I discovered a ham with such good taste that I may never cook a shank any other way.
Who would have guessed that smoking a ham a second time would make it even tastier?
Fell on the bones – great with mustard or bbq sauce bread and butter pickles on slider buns. Left overs in bean soup was the bomb too!
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for the great review- I’m so glad it was a hit!
I want to make this for a family reunion. How much does this size of ham serve? I want to make sure I can feed everyone
Hi Melissa! My 9lb hams usually feed 12+ people.
Followed the recipe. But I had to remove from oven and put it in the fridge whole since it wasn’t finished till after midnight. I did remove it from roasting pan and plate it. Help on reheating as whole or should I slice?
It will be harder to pull once chilled, but you can still pull it apart into chunks. I’d do that and pop it back in a roasting pan and pour some liquid in there (broth or water) and cover tightly with foil. Heat in the oven at 350 until hot and then finish shredding.
Looks delicious. Definitely want to make this however I want clarification on the ham. Is this a pre-cooked or uncooked ham?
Pre-cooked. Most all ham sold in stores to consumers in the grocery store is already cured or smoked, including the ham shank you’ll be using for this recipe!
Made the oven baked version of the recipe in the slow cooker and loved it. I specifically searched the hams to find a slightly smaller one and it fit just barely. Cooking took about 9-10 hours on low. Then the ham basically fell apart. Delicious.
Best ham EVER!! Made this for Easter dinner, everyone loved it! It was so good there were no leftovers so we made a second one the following weekend! Definitely going to be a staple! Delicious!!
Used the oven method and loved it!!
Hands down the best ham I’ve ever had or made. It was so easy and so delicious. We did the oven method. Leftovers were just as good. I can’t believe I never knew about the shank cut. Thanks for sharing
This ham was excellent! We followed all the directions and kept it on the smoker the entire time as the oven was needed for other dishes.(loved that option!) I think our smoker ran a little hotter and the ham cooked about an hour faster but we checked every 1-2 hrs w an instant read thermometer and that worked great. The ham had a delicious flavor and was moist and shredded easily and fell off the bone. This will be our new holiday ham from here on out- thank you for a great recipe!!
Did this in the oven today for Easter and it was SO good. Can’t say enough of the flavor and tenderness of the meat.
We did this with the oven method and it turned out so good! I was amazed at how it wasn’t dry, and I preferred it to the spiral cut.. which always seems dry to me. The glaze was delicious! We did some with the glaze and some without for those in our family who didn’t like sweet meat, and it was the easiest way to have the best of both worlds. Amazing recipe!
This was the best ham I’ve ever had. This is a GameChanger. So good and flavorful.
What the reasoning for moving it to the oven versus just raising the temperature and leaving it in the smoker? I know you said you could leave it in the smoker but why do you move yours to the over? Does it cook differently or you just like it less smoky, or does it cook faster?
Just personal preference! The smoker keeps the smoke smell outside and frees up your oven, the oven saves your wood pellets and I like that I can easily monitor it and not run in and out of my house to the smoker haha. Whatever is easier for you!
I’m hoping to try the oven version this weekend but I’m wondering…why did you skip the dry rub for the oven preparation?
In a smoker, the low smoke will slowly render fat and turn the rub into a delicious bark that gets shredded up with the meat. In the oven, the fat and skin will just get soft and fall off and be discarded so it really doesn’t add much to the finished product!
I want to try this in the oven! Question – do you place the ham on a rack in the roasting pan, or directly in the water/juice in the bottom of the pan?
Either way. I don’t have a rack that fits in my roasting pan at the moment so I just put the ham directly in the pan. If you have a rack, feel free to use it!
I don’t have a smoker. Do you have cooking suggestions for a slow cooker or instant pot?
Yes, the instructions for the oven/slow cooker are included in the article and in the recipe card!
Do you leave the ham on the baking sheet while smoking?
No, I place directly on the smoker- you’re just using a baking sheet to transfer.