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 a sweet spicy smokey rub and some tangy BBQ 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? 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!

 Come to think of it, you don't even need a special occasion to make this. Did you get a free ham from the supermarket like I did? Now you know what to do with it! Pretty sure this is my new favorite way of cooking a ham. Not even kidding. You MUST try it! 

 

 

1 (6 to 8 pound) bone-in ham (not spiral sliced)
2 tbs whole grain mustard
2 tsp liquid smoke
1 tbs brown sugar barbecue rub
6 oz cola (not diet)
1 cup sweet and spicy barbecue sauce
1/2 cup apricot preserves

Preheat the oven to 275º F.

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 cola around ham. Cover tightly with foil.
Bake for 2 hours. Remove pan from oven.
Increase oven temperature to 300ºF.
Stir barbecue sauce and apricot preserves 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, 10 to 15 minutes. Shred ham with 2 forks and toss with pan drippings.

 

 

 

 One other thing.. they didn't specify what spice rub to use, so I just threw this one together, a slight tweak from another recipe I saw. Actually. I didn't even measure anything... just threw everything in.

 I included cinnamon in it, because it kind of reminded me of that ham-studded-with-cloves thing. Also the recipe says to use just one little measly tablespoon of spice rub. I went much heavier. You do you! 

 

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbs smoked paprika

2 tsp salt

2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp ground cinnamon

 

 

 

Tips: 

The original recipe on Allrecipes.com does not include the cola, but the video does, so I went with it. 

 Full disclosure, when I made it, I was a little heavy handed with chili powder, 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 apricot preserves. Do you want it to be more tangy? Choose a tangy BBQ sauce. Do you like it smokey and spicy? Add cayenne pepper or more chili powder. You can really go in any direction with it! Actually, I'm thinking I want to go a little sweeter next time. 

Don't have any liquid smoke? Use more smoked paprika! 

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 BBQ sauce for the rest of the baking time. Easy!