Take a piece of supermarket gammon, smother it with honey, chilli, soy sauce and ginger, and pop it in the oven for 50 minutes for the most succulent and tasty gammon you have ever tasted. This recipe for easy oven-baked gammon is the recipe you didn’t know you needed.
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Oven-baked gammon
If you thought that the only way to cook a gammon was to boil it before baking it in the oven, then you’d be wrong. This is my quick and easy way to cook a small gammon roast directly in the oven, for juicy and succulent slices of gammon that are full of flavour every single time.
I smother the gammon with a mixture of honey, chilli, dark soy sauce and ginger and cover it tightly with a lid of tin foil. Then I just put it into the oven to roast. Because it’s tightly covered the steam can’t escape, and the gammon steams in the fragrant flavours from the marinade until you have a perfectly cooked pink ham that’s packed with flavour.
This recipe is for the small prepackaged pieces of gammon, that you find in the supermarkets, next to the bacon. The largest one I’ve done has been 750 grams (that’s just over one and a half pounds) and one of these will easily serve 4 people with enough leftovers for sandwiches the next day. These little gammons are cheap as chips too, so it’s a very economical meal.
This oven-baked gammon is ideal for slicing and serving cold with salads which makes it absolutely perfect for these long hot days we’ve been having recently. I like to pop it in the oven early in the morning (before the sun starts to come in through my kitchen window). It only takes 50 minutes to bake, then I just leave it to cool down in the cooking juices before slicing it and serving it cold for supper.
What you will need
Equipment
All you will need by way of equipment is a baking dish large enough to take the gammon, and a roll of tin foil to make a lid. I used my old stainless steel baking dish that I’ve had for longer than I care to remember, and it works perfectly. If you have a Dutch oven with a tightly fitting lid you can use that instead.
Ingredients
**You can find the complete recipe for easy oven-baked gammon on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**
Gammon – Prepackaged gammon – you can get this either smoked or unsmoked. I prefer the unsmoked version, but the recipe will work for the smoked version too. You may find the smoked version has a saltier taste than the unsmoked version.
Honey – any runny honey will be fine.
Chilli – I like to use a jar of ready-chopped red chilli, which is almost a paste, but still has bits of chilli in it. For this recipe I prefer to use chilli from a jar rather than chopping up a fresh chilli because the chillis in a jar have been pre-cooked. Don’t overdo the chilli when adding it to the gammon – you want to enhance the flavour of the ham, not overpower it.
Dark soy sauce – use your favourite brand.
Ginger paste – this is just ginger root that has been pulverised into a paste or a puree.
I don’t add salt to this recipe because I feel the dark soy sauce adds sufficient seasoning.
What to do
Prepare the gammon
Remove the outer plastic packaging from the gammon. This type of gammon normally has a plastic sleeve around it to help it keep its shape – remove that as well.
Put it into a suitable baking dish and add the chilli, ginger, honey and soy sauce.
This is the messy bit. Use your hands to massage the ingredients all over the gammon.
Then take a spoon, tip the dish so the liquid runs into the corner, pick up as much of the mixture as possible and spoon it over the gammon on both sides.
Note – you can leave the inner plastic sleeve on the gammon and remove it when the gammon is cooked. I prefer to remove it for 2 reasons:
- I don’t like the idea of the plastic being around the meat in the oven
- I want to get as much of the flavouring ingredients onto the gammon as possible.
Bake
Cover the dish tightly with tin foil taking care to fold the tinfoil around the edges of the dish to keep all the steam in.
Place it into a preheated oven (200C / 400F) for 50 minutes.
Remove the dish from the oven and remove the tin foil lid.
Be careful – the steam will be HOT and you could burn yourself (don’t ask me how I know).
Take a spoon and baste the gammon with the hot cooking liquid then replace the tin foil lid and leave it in the liquid in the baking dish to cool before slicing.
You will notice that the gammon has unfolded (this is because we removed the inner plastic sleeve). Don’t worry, once the gammon has been sliced you won’t notice it.
Serve slices of gammon cold with salads.
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Other serving ideas
If you intend to serve this gammon cold with salads you may like to try one of these:
- Tuna noodle salad with lemon
- Spicy beetroot salad
- Curried green bean salad
- Creamy coleslaw with buttermilk dressing
- Copper penny salad (sweet and sour carrots)
- Tomato and onion pasta salad
This oven-baked gammon is also delicious served hot as a roast with vegetables and roast potatoes.
I use leftovers to make sandwiches. If you have a lot left over you may like to use it to make ham and mushroom tagliatelle with black pepper sauce or this crustless ham and cheese quiche with sweetcorn.
Freezing and storage
I cut leftovers into small blocks and freeze them in a plastic bag. They can be frozen for up to three months. I use them in my pasta sauces or turn them into toasted sandwiches with cheese and tomato.
Sliced leftover gammon can be kept in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Notes on the cooking time
Cooking time for gammon is 20 minutes per 450 grams (1 pound) + 20 minutes
If you have a digital thermometer, the internal temperature should be 68 degrees C or 155 degrees F.
Save for later
If you would like to make this oven-baked gammon, why not save the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily. Just click on the image below.
Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.
Other recipes
If you enjoyed this recipe for oven-baked gammon, you may like to try some of my other roast meat recipes:
- Slow-cooker Mongolian roast beef
- Slow-cooker roast chicken dinner – in one pan
- Roast duck with cherry sauce
- Minted roast leg of lamb
The recipe
Easy oven-baked gammon
(Click the stars to rate this recipe)
Equipment
- Baking dish to fit the gammon
Ingredients
- 1⅔ pounds 750 grams gammon
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon chopped chilli from a jar if possible
- ½ teaspoon ginger puree or ginger paste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F
- Remove the outer plastic wrapping from the gammon along with the inner plastic sleeve and place the gammon into a baking dish1⅔ pounds 750 grams gammon
- Add the remaining ingredients on top of the gammon.1 tablespoon honey, 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce, 1 teaspoon chopped chilli, ½ teaspoon ginger puree or ginger paste
- Using your hands, massage the ingredients all over the gammon (it's a bit of a messy job).Take a spoon, tip the dish so the liquid runs into the corner, pick up as much of the mixture as possible and spoon it over the gammon on both sides.
- Cover the dish tightly with tin foil taking care to fold the tinfoil around the edges of the dish to keep all the steam in.
- Place the dish in the oven and bake for 50 minutes.
- Remove the dish from the oven and remove the tin foil lid.Be careful – the steam will be HOT and you could burn yourself.Take a spoon and baste the gammon with the hot cooking liquid then replace the tin foil lid and leave it in the liquid in the baking dish to cool before slicing.
Notes
- I don’t like the idea of the plastic being around the meat in the oven
- I want to get as much of the flavouring ingredients onto the gammon as possible.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.
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I found the mixture had burnt a bit in the meat dish. Should I have added any water to the bottom of the pan?
I’m sorry to hear that! I’ve never had mine burn and I’ve made this recipe many times. Was your dish tightly sealed? Did you cook the gammon for the time and temperature given in the recipe? Did you use prepacked gammon from the supermarket, or did you use a piece of fresh gammon from the butcher, which may have been a drier cut of meat. I find the supermarket prepacked gammon does contain a lot of liquid, and I always end up with lots of liquid in the bottom of the roasting pan as you will see from the process shot (in the body of the post) showing the cooked gammon. You could certainly add a little water to the roasting pan before cooking if you think it needs it.
Hi, I wondered if this gammon recipe could be cooked in a slow cooker?
I haven’t made this particular recipe in a slow cooker, but there is no reason why you couldn’t do it. I’d be inclined to add a 1/4 cup of water with the rest of the ingredients and increase the timing. I’d have to experiment, but as a starting point I’d say 3 to 4 hours on high or 4 to 5 hours on low, checking during the last hour.