Double-Smoked Ham on a Pellet Grill

Double-smoked ham is the best return on effort in all of pellet grilling. The ham arrives at your house already cured, smoked, and fully cooked -- the hard work is done at the packing plant. Your job is simply to reheat it low and slow over real wood smoke and lacquer it with a glaze in the final stretch. The result tastes like it took days of skill, it frees your oven on the busiest cooking day of the year, and it is nearly impossible to ruin. If you are hosting Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter, this is the centerpiece that lets you actually enjoy the holiday.

This recipe works on any pellet grill -- Traeger®, Pit Boss, Camp Chef, Z Grills, or any other brand. The technique is identical across all of them.

What "Double-Smoked" Actually Means

The name confuses people, so here is the short version: almost every ham sold in a grocery store has already been smoked once -- it is cured, smoked, and fully cooked before it is packaged. "Double-smoking" means giving that already-smoked ham a second smoke on your own grill while you reheat it.

Why bother, if the ham is already cooked? Because commercial smoking is faint, and reheating in an oven adds nothing. Two to three hours on a pellet grill layers fresh, genuine wood-smoke flavor over the cure, and the dry heat plus a sugary glaze builds a caramelized, mahogany crust that no foil-covered oven ham will ever have. Same ham, completely different result.

The important consequence: you are reheating, not cooking. The target is an internal temperature of 140°F, which is the USDA guideline for reheating a fully cooked ham packaged in a USDA-inspected plant. (Leftover or repackaged ham should be reheated to 165°F instead.) There is no collagen to break down and no stall to wait out -- this is the easiest "smoke" you will ever run.

Choosing the Ham

• Bone-in half ham, 8 to 10 pounds is the sweet spot for most gatherings -- figure about 3/4 pound per person for bone-in. The shank half is easier to carve; the butt half is a bit meatier.
• Spiral-cut vs. whole: Spiral-cut hams let smoke and glaze slip between the slices and make serving effortless, but the exposed cut surfaces lose moisture a little faster -- keep a spiral ham flat-side down in a pan. A whole ham stays juicier; score it in a 1-inch diamond pattern, about 1/4 inch deep, so smoke and glaze can work into the surface.
• Skip the glaze packet. The included packet is mostly sugar and it is not better than five minutes of homemade glaze. Discard it.
• "Fully cooked" is the phrase to verify on the label. Nearly all supermarket hams are, but a rare fresh or "cook before eating" ham is a genuinely raw product with different rules -- it must be cooked to 145°F with a 3-minute rest, and it will take far longer. This recipe assumes a fully cooked ham.

Setup: Pellets and Temperature

Set the pellet grill to 225 to 250°F. Ham is a smoke sponge, so fruit woods shine here: cherry pellets are the classic choice, adding a mild sweetness and a deep reddish color that looks spectacular on a holiday table. Hickory gives a bolder, old-school smokehouse profile -- also excellent, especially blended with cherry. Our wood pellet flavor guide covers every pairing if you want to experiment.

Place the ham flat-side down in a disposable aluminum pan. The pan catches the drippings (save them -- they are liquid gold over the sliced ham), protects the bottom from drying, and makes the ham easy to move.

The Cook: About 15 Minutes Per Pound

Insert a leave-in probe into the thickest part of the ham, away from the bone, and close the lid. At 225 to 250°F, plan on roughly 15 minutes per pound:

There is nothing to do during this stretch except monitor the temperature, which is what makes this cook so holiday-friendly -- the grill runs itself while you handle sides, guests, and everything else. A wireless probe like the MEATER Plus earns its keep on a day like this: it pushes the ham's temperature to your phone, so you are not walking out to the patio in December to check. (More options in our best wireless meat thermometer guide.)

While the ham smokes, make the glaze: simmer 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup maple syrup or honey, 1/4 cup pineapple or apple juice, 1 tablespoon Dijon, and a pinch of ground cloves for 3 to 5 minutes until slightly thickened.

Glaze the Final 30 to 45 Minutes

Timing is the whole trick with glaze. Brush it on too early and the sugars burn before the ham is up to temperature; too late and it never sets.

1. When the internal temperature reaches about 130°F, brush the ham generously with glaze. On a spiral ham, work some between the slices.
2. Close the lid and reapply every 15 minutes.
3. After 30 to 45 minutes of glazing, the ham should hit 140°F internal with a glossy, lacquered, bubbling crust. If the glaze is darkening too fast, tent the top loosely with foil for the remainder.

Pull the ham at 140°F, tent it loosely, and rest 15 to 20 minutes before carving. Slice a whole ham off the bone; fan out a spiral ham's pre-cut slices onto a platter and spoon the pan juices over the top.

Holiday Timing Cheat Sheet

Working backward from a 2:00 PM holiday dinner with a 9-pound ham:

• 10:30 AM -- Ham out of the fridge; grill preheating
• 11:00 AM -- Ham on at 225-250°F
• 12:45 PM -- Check temp; make the glaze if you have not
• ~1:00 PM -- 130°F: start glazing
• ~1:40 PM -- 140°F: pull and rest
• 2:00 PM -- Carve and serve

The comfortable margin built into that schedule is the point. If the ham runs ahead of schedule, it holds beautifully tented in a warm cooler for an hour.

Leftovers

Double-smoked ham might be better the second day. Refrigerate slices in an airtight container for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to 2 months. Reheat leftovers to 165°F per USDA guidance -- a splash of the reserved pan juices in a covered skillet keeps the slices moist. The bone is a bonus cook all by itself: split pea soup, collard greens, or red beans and rice.

If the double-smoke method has you hooked on low-effort, high-payoff cooks, a smoked chuck roast is the natural next step, and the fundamentals in our complete pellet grill smoking guide apply to everything from this ham to a full brisket.

Final Thoughts

Double-smoked ham on a pellet grill is holiday cooking on easy mode: a fully cooked ham, 225 to 250°F, about 15 minutes per pound to 140°F, and a glaze in the last 30 to 45 minutes. It frees the oven, feeds a crowd, and delivers a centerpiece with genuine wood-fired flavor for less effort than almost anything else you will cook that day. Put it on the menu for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter, and expect to be assigned ham duty every year after.

Explore more: Complete Pellet Grill Smoking Guide | Wood Pellet Flavor Guide | All Recipes