Ham With Pineapple Sauce
Oi Gente!
This ham with pineapple sauce recipe is a very special, yet super easy holiday dish. Made with naturally sweet tropical flavors that you can make ahead with less than 10 easy to find ingredients. Super simple, stress free, and absolutely delicious, leaving you plenty of time to seriously just enjoy the holidays and your family!
What makes this Ham With Pineapple Sauce Recipe So Special
I’m definitely a ham person, and I’ll pick ham over turkey literally any day. In my family we usually go for ham whether it’s Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, and basically any holiday or big family gathering there is. It’s cheaper, easier to cook, and everyone always loves it.
And when it comes to my ham I follow a doctrine my mom taught me long ago. Ham has to taste like ham! So, I hardly marinate it for too long or put a whole lot of stuff on it that’ll make it taste less like ham.
That’s why I love this holiday ham recipe. The ham marinates in crushed pineapple and its juices and nothing else. Then, we add that juice, some wine, plus some spices to the pan when its time to cook it, and then we use all those juices to make a velvety buttery pineapple gravy sauce. The best part? You can make everything a day or two in advance and just reheat the day of. Super simple, stress free, and absolutely delicious, leaving you plenty of time to seriously just enjoy the holidays and your family!
Beijinhos xx
Boas Festas & Bom Apetite!!
This post contains affiliate links that will take you right into the Snake River Farms page and if you buy something there after clicking one of my links, I’ll earn a commission! But look, I wouldn’t be sending you to them if I didn’t absolutely love and trust them. I recommend them because ALL their meats have excellent quality, shipping is painless and they also have PICANHA which I can’t live without and neither should you! – All opinions are my own.
How to Cook Holiday Ham
This ham recipe is the easiest and the leftovers make the best sandwiches you’ll ever have!
Of course you can use any ham you want, but, Snake River Farms hams are my absolute favorite! They’re 100% purebred Berkshire Korobuta pork, perfectly cured, and smoked over real hardwood. They’re super juicy and tender, and to me, there’s no better ham!!
To get started, all you need to do is soak up the ham in crushed pineapple for no more than a couple of hours. I like using crushed pineapple because its perfect when you don’t have a bag or container big enough to completely submerge the ham in liquid. With the crushed pineapple, you can use the pulp to cover any parts that might not be touching the juice and still make sure you have an even marinade.
After a couple of hours, strain all the pineapple juice into a measuring cup and reserve. Discard the pulp.
Then, prepare a half onion piquet by piercing half an onion with 8-10 cloves.
Add the onion piquet and a bunch of thyme to a baking sheet pan, along with the strained pineapple juice and white wine. Bake until the internal temperature reaches 140F, basting with the pineapple wine mixture every 30 or so mins.
How to make the Pineapple Sauce for Ham
After the ham is cooked, move it to a cutting board to rest. Strain all the pan drippings into a measuring cup and set aside – you should have about 1.5 to almost 2 cups. Then, remove the onion piquet from the roasting pan and transfer it into a sauce pan with some butter and the Brazilian sofrito.
Add a bay leaf.
And after the butter has melted and you can smell the garlic right before it browns, remove the onion, and the bay leaf, then add some flour and cold butter.
And whisk.
Slowly add the pan drippings to the pan and continue to whisk.
Until it reaches sauce consistency – when it coats the back of a spoon like this.
And that’s it. Just carve and serve with the pineapple gravy.
Try these other holiday recipes:
Holiday Side Dishes
Holiday Salad Recipes
Pear Salad Recipe with Port Wine Dressing
Brazilian Holiday Recipes
Farofa – Toasted Cassava Flour recipe
Arroz Natalino – Champagne Rice with Raisins and Cashews
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Ham with Pineapple Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
For the Ham:
- 3-5 lbs SRF ham
- 2 20oz cans of crushed pineapple in juice
- about 6 sprigs of thyme
- 1/2 cup of white wine
- 1/2 onion
- 8-10 whole cloves
For the Pineapple Gravy:
- 3 Tbsp of cold unsalted butter divided
- 1 Bay leaf
- 1 tsp of Brazilian Sofrito or 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 2 Tbsp of all purpose flour
- 1.5 cups of pan drippings
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F
- Add the ham and both cans of crushed pineapple and juice to a large ziplock bag. Seal the bag carefully and let it sit in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.
- After 2 hours, remove the ham from the bag and place it in a baking sheet pan. Strain all the liquid from the bag into a measuring cup, and discard the pulp.
- Prepare the onion piquet by piercing the onion with all the cloves.
- Add the onion piquet, the sprigs of thyme, the pineapple juice and the wine to the baking sheet pan along with the ham.
- Bake 1 to 1.5 hours until internal temperature reaches 140F, basting with the pan drippings every 30 mins.
- When the ham is cooked, remove it from the oven and move it to a cutting board to rest.
- Strain all the pan drippings into a measuring cup and set aside.
- Remove the onion piquet and transfer it into a sauce pan with 2 Tbsp of butter, the Brazilian Sofrito/garlic, and the bay leaf. Let it cook until the butter melts and the garlic is fragrant – approx 3 mins.
- Remove the onion piquet, and the bay leaf, from the pan and discard. Then add the flour and a Tbsp of cold butter to the pan and whisk.
- Slowly add the pan drippings to the pan and continue to whisk until the sauce reaches sauce consistency – when it coats the back of a spoon.
- Carve the ham and serve with the sauce.
