Bourbon Maple and Cherry Glazed Ham: Cooking with Chef Dan Fox

Bourbon Maple and Cherry Glazed Ham! Chef Daniel Fox of Heritage Tavern joins me in my kitchen to make this stunning and delicious holiday ham. 

This past year, I’ve had a great pleasure of getting to know a lot of the local chefs here in Madison, Wisconsin. The chefs, the farmers, the cheese makers, bartenders, servers, artisans, jewelry makers, designers and the list goes on and on. Wisconsin has so many talented people and I love watching, learning, growing and working with them.

Since moving to Wisconsin about four years ago, Heritage Tavern was one of the first restaurants people told me about. I ate there and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience but it wasn’t until this year, back in August, when I actually had the pleasure of meeting Chef Dan Fox. We got to shoot a video together for Madison Burger Week and since then, I’ve gotten to know him, his team and staff and my respect for him as a chef has grown.

Chef Dan Fox also owns and runs Willow Creek Farms, Fox Heritage Farms and Heritage Catering. He raises his own heritage hogs and makes the best tasting pork products I have ever tasted.

He’s super passionate about what he does, successful, talented and a great balance of focused and creative. He is definitely one of my favorites!

After receiving several requests (from you all) for a holiday ham recipe, I reached out to Chef Dan Fox. If anyone could come up with a fabulous and delicious ham recipe, and also give me (and everyone reading this) information about how to select a ham, what to look for and how to properly cook the ham, it was Dan.

I wish I could have taken better photos of this beautiful Bourbon Maple and Cherry Glazed Ham. Daylight savings has killed my photography time. By the time we were finished there was no natural light to shoot in. Regardless, I hope you can see how delicious this ham turned out from the video clips! All of the clips from my Instagram story, minus the live video we did prepping all the ingredients, are still on my page on Instagram (just look for my archived stories!) and the full recipe is down below.

If you’re here in Madison, you can purchase Willow Creek Farms products from Metcalfe’s, Willy Street Co-Op and directly at Willow Creek Farms Charcuterie in Prairie Du Sac.

If you aren’t following him already, you need to follow Chef Dan Fox on Instagram to stay up to date with what he’s doing and cooking at Heritage Tavern. Look out for more cooking videos and other stuff with Chef Dan Fox coming soon!

Wishing everyone a delicious, joyous and happy holiday season!

If you make this ham, please snap a photo and tag Chef Dan Fox and I on it. Also, please reach out and let us know if you have any questions! Happy Holidays!

Print Recipe

Bourbon Maple and Cherry Glazed Ham

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time2 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Total Time2 hours hrs 35 minutes mins

Course: Ham

Servings: 10

Author: Chef Daniel Fox

Ingredients

For the glaze:

• ½ cup maple syrup medium grade
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• heaping 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 heaping tablespoon lemon zest
• juice from half a lemon
• ¾ cup bourbon + more later
• ½ cup candied cherries finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
• 1 to 2 dried chili peppers; like a dried poblano pepper
• 1 inch piece of fresh ginger sliced
• 3 star anise

For the ham:

• 1 10 to 12 lb. smoked bone-in ham
• 3 small onions cut in half
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup low sodium chicken stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 to 3 fresh sprigs rosemary sage or thyme
• 2 heads of whole garlic tops cut off
• assortment baby carrots blanched

For the red eye gravy:

• 1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 oz. espresso or coffee
• 2 teaspoons whole grain mustard
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• salt
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Instructions

For the glaze:

• Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Reduce on the stove until you have a third of the sauce left. Remove from heat. Set aside.

For the ham:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees (high convection if possible)
• Using a sharp knife, score the ham: scoring a quarter inch deep. Place ham in a large roasting dish with enough space to place the vegetables around the ham.
• Using a brush, generously brush the glaze all over the ham, making sure you cover the ham completely. Place the onions into dish, around the ham and pour in the water on bottom of the pan (you are adding the water so nothing burns).
• Bake your ham, uncovered, at 425 (to caramelize) for about 30 to 45 minutes. Halfway through baking, add a ½ cup of low sodium chicken stock, rotate the pan and brush on more glaze.
• After 30 to 45 minutes, remove the ham from the oven. You should see some nice caramelization on the ham. Add in the bay leaves, fresh rosemary sprigs and garlic heads, tucking them all around the ham. Add a splash of bourbon over the top of the ham and brush on more glaze once again. Go heavy and add the cherries on top and into the cracks of the ham.
• Carefully lift ham and add the baby carrots, arranging them underneath.
• Place toothpicks into ham and wrap the baking dish completely with foil to create a tent.
• Chef’s tip: fold over the edges of the foil so it’s sturdier when removing on and off to check the ham.
• Bake at 275, (off convection) and check the ham after 45 minutes to one hour (to internal temp of 160)
• Remove foil and check internal temp. At 130, remove the foil and raise the oven temp to 350 to get the ham to the internal temp of 160 (could take up to 10 to 15 minutes; check the internal temp).
• Remove ham from the oven and baste ham with the juices on bottom of pan
• Chef’s tip and very important step!: Remove ham from baking dish and onto a plate or cutting board. Let ham rest for 20 minutes so juices come back out to the entire ham.

For the red eye gravy:

• Pour pan drippings and liquid into a pot and bring to a medium high boil. Reduce by half.
• Place veggies back into oven to roast longer.
• Place the cornstarch into a bowl and ladle out some of the liquid from the pot. Mix together until combined. Pour the cornstarch slurry into the pot with the remaining liquid and whisk until thickened. Add in the espresso, the whole grain mustard, the red wine vinegar, salt and butter. Whisk together until well combined. Taste and adjust ingredients as needed.

To plate and serve the ham:

• Using all of the veggies, arrange them on the serving platter. Place the ham in the center of the platter on top of the veggies and serve with the red eye gravy. Slice, serve and enjoy!