Ham Steak

by Sabrina Snyder

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12 Comments

5 from 5 votes
2 servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
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Ham Steak, pan seared in less than 10 minutes, is our new favorite EASY recipe on busy weeknights OR for tasty holiday brunch! Make it today!

Ham isn’t just an easy Brunch recipe for the holidays, in our house we love serving it on a regular basis all year long like this Honey Baked Ham (Copycat) or Slow Cooker Brown Sugar Pineapple Ham and LOVE using the leftovers in the crowd favorite Slow Cooker Ham and Potato Soup.

Sabrina’s Ham Steak

This recipe is a win for everyone as it is made with simple ingredients. It can be made as a hearty breakfast, or a quick and easy weeknight meal served with veggies on the side. This is the best ham shortcut you’ll ever use. See the delicious browned crispy edges? Yep, it’s just sweet glaze made with a bit of brown sugar cooked in the skillet with butter for the win. You can even skip the brown sugar glaze mixture altogether for a super fast meal.

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Ham Steak Recipe

Ham Steak, pan seared in less than 10 minutes, is our new favorite EASY recipe on busy weeknights OR for tasty holiday brunch! Make it today!
Yield 2 servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Course Breakfast, Dinner
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Aerial view of ham on a plate
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Ingredients
 

  • 8 ounces ham steaks , cooked
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar optional
  • 1 fresh orange juice , from 1 orange, optional

Instructions

  • Add two tablespoons of butter to a heavy skillet on medium heat and add the ham, cooking for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until it is cooked through.
  • To add an additional optional sauce remove the ham after cooking and add in 2 tablespoons of brown sugar along with a squeeze of fresh orange and let the brown sugar bubble up and cook for 1 minute before serving it on the ham.

Nutrition

Calories: 239kcal | Carbohydrates: 0.01g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 81mg | Sodium: 1529mg | Potassium: 372mg | Sugar: 0.01g | Vitamin A: 350IU | Vitamin C: 37mg | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 1mg

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About This Recipe

Ham steaks are perfect for when you don’t have enough people to justify making an entire roast of ham, but still have a craving for it. They also don’t cost a lot more per pound so you won’t feel put off buying the smaller packages. You can also use ham for recipes that call for pieces of leftover ham without having to cook an entire ham, like in this Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup or even as a quick swap in your Eggs Benedict breakfast recipe.

Chef’s Note

Most people don’t cook with ham throughout the year because buying an entire ham requires a lot of people or a whole lot of second round recipes. Buying steaks gives you just enough ham to feed your immediate family for a meal or two. If you buy the entire ham, you can always store the leftovers in the freezer until you’re ready to use them at a later date. This recipe is perfect for the cold wintery nights after a long day of work. It’s also the perfect way to start a big day as it’s packed with protein and nutrients. 

How to Store

  • Serve: You can serve the ham at room temperature for up to two hours before needing to refrigerate. Keep it covered on the counter for serving.  
  • Store: You can store cooked ham in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Make sure that it is stored in an airtight container. 
  • Freeze: If there are any leftovers or extras, store them wrapped rightly in an airtight container in the freezer for 3-4 months.

Ideas to Serve

  • Breakfast: Pork products are a versatile meat that can be easily paired with a lot of other foods. It is one of the most popular of breakfast meats. Serve it with homemade biscuits. For a ham breakfast, serve with eggs cooked your favorite way. The brown sugar glaze is a nice gravy for sweet potatoes if you serve those alongside the ham. Alternatively, serving with breakfast potatoes with yellow mustard to dip turns it into a classic old-world style meal. 
  • Dinner: For a ham dinner, we recommend adding one of these delicious recipes: Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Super Creamy Macaroni and Cheese, and Creamed Spinach which make great savory sides for ham. Pick one of those and serve it with green beans or roasted broccoli. 

Alternative Cooking Techniques

  • Air-Fryer: This is an incredibly easy option because you can just set it and forget it while cooking something else. Set the air-fryer to the ham setting and just let it do the rest. If you don’t have this setting then preheat to 400 degrees, and cook in the air fryer for 6-10 minutes, flipping halfway through. Make sure your fryer isn’t too full, otherwise it won’t heat throughly. This option is perfect for one or two servings of ham. 
  • Oven Baked: Bake it in the oven for an easy, hands-off preparation. Bake at 350 degrees in a greased baking dish until steak is browned. You can also add potatoes and onions to the baking dish for a one-pot meal, and sprinkle with pepper or mustard for flavor. Pineapple Slices are also a great addition to baked ham recipes to give them extra flavor. Pineapple caramelizes really well in the oven to bring out a deep sweetness in the fruit.
  • Grill: Grilled ham is also easy and takes just a minute or so on each side because of the higher heat. Grill it a few minutes on each side over the direct heat. You can also brush it with a thick glaze to add more flavor, just in the last few minutes of cooking so the glaze doesn’t burn.
  • Microwave: For the initial cooking of ham, we don’t recommend using the microwave as you’ll want to cook it the traditional ways listed which give it a lot of flavor. Reheating it in the microwave for a midnight snack and an easy weeknight meal is okay as long as it’s been fully cooked and browned beforehand. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Best Kind of Ham to Use?

Honestly, any of the ham cuts you get from your local grocer will be great for this recipe. If you really want to get really fancy and turn it up a notch, look for the thicker cut coppa (pork shoulder) steaks from a Berkshire hog. It’s incredibly flavorful and succulent, and will please the hungriest of them all! 

What Should I Do with Leftover Ham Steaks? 

There’s a ton of Recipes for Using Leftover Ham elsewhere on the blog. You’ll find something to suit the taste of any of your loved ones by browsing that list, from a Breakfast Casserole to Chicken Cordon Bleu Lasagna.

More Ham Recipes

Read More Ham Recipes
Close up of Ham with sauce, with title across the middle

Photos used in a previous version of this post.

Ham Breakfast Recipe
2 slices of ham with eggs

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  3. My dad used to prepare ham this way, and it is so tasty! I don’t think he ever added the brown sugar though, so I’ll have to give your version a try.

    Reply