This Honey Mustard Sauce recipe is perfectly paired with my Instant Pot Ham or my Double Smoked Ham for that matter! I love that it's not overly sweet, slightly tangy, and packed with flavor.
I always serve this honey mustard sauce as part of my Eastern dinner, especially with crockpot spiral ham, and for Christmas, with smoked prime rib. What can I say? I've never been a horseradish sauce kind of girl.
It takes a plain ham to a whole new level, but is surprisingly delicious with chicken and seafood as well!
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😍 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- This is a super easy recipe that only requires a few steps and a few simple ingredients. It's as easy as adding all the ingredients into a saucepan and simmering the sauce for a few minutes. You can handle that, right?
- The honey in the sauce provides just the right amount of sweetness and balances out the acidity of the mustard and vinegar. Unlike many ham sauce recipes, it's not overly sweet. That's because many mustard sauce recipes use pineapple juice, orange juice, crushed pineapple, and brown sugar. They should be called sweet pineapple sauce instead of ham sauce.
- The cayenne pepper adds a nice amount of heat but can be left out for a more mild honey mustard sauce. Especially if serving it to kids, with chicken nuggets, for example.
- This mustard sauce goes perfectly over spiral ham instead of a sweet ham glaze. Be sure to drizzle it over leftover ham and in ham sandwiches too!
🛒 What You Need For This Recipe
🔖 Ingredients & Substitutions
- Oil: If you aren't cooking a ham or don't have pan juices to add to the sauce, you can add olive oil instead. Avocado oil is another great option.
- Mustard: Don't have dijon mustard? That's alright, just use plain yellow mustard. If you like horseradish, add a teaspoon of that too to make the mustard spicier.
- Vinegar: Although I add red wine vinegar, you can substitute apple cider vinegar or white vinegar if you need to.
- Sage: Make sure to use rubbed sage in this recipe. You can usually find it in the spice aisle. Ground sage is a lot finer and usually tastes more bitter so I don't recommend using it. If you do use it, try ½ teaspoon before adding more. Try substituting a teaspoon of roesmary instead.
🍯 How to Make Honey Mustard Sauce
Step 1: Add ¼ cup of baked ham pan juices or olive oil to a small or medium saucepan. Stir in the remaining mustard sauce ingredients as you heat them over medium heat.
Step 2: Once mixed, whisk the sauce over low heat until it begins to boil then simmer for a few minutes until it thickens.
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🍽 Serving Suggestions
Serve this yummy honey mustard sauce for Easter dinner Drizzle mustard sauce over ham slices, or use it as a dipping sauce with shrimp, other seafood, and or chicken wings or nuggets.
You can also slather it in these yummy air fryer sliders. The possibilities are endless!
🤷🏻♀️ Recipe FAQs
Honey mustard sauce has a few ingredients that are always present. But there are other ingredients that are interchangeable.
Main Ingredients
Honey
Dijon Mustard
Yellow Mustard
Other Common Ingredients
Mayonaise
Olive Oil
Herbs
Vinegar
Lemon Juice
Seasoning (salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper)
Although this recipe is called "Honey Mustard Sauce for Ham," there are many other ways to enjoy this recipe.
One obvious way is to serve it as a dipping sauce with chicken nuggets. But don't stop there; consider these other options too!
Serve over salmon
Drizzle over egg dishes, including quiche
Serve as a side with Crab Cakes
Dipping sauce for Shrimp
Serve with a salad
Mix with seafood pasta salad
👩🏼🍳 Pro Tips
- Although I've found using ¼ cup of the pan juices enhances the flavor of the mustard sauce, feel free to substitute the pan juices with mayonnaise.
- You can also substitute the pan juices with olive oil for a healthier alternative.
- Red wine vinegar or white wine vinegar can be used in the recipe.
- If you don't have dijon mustard, substitute with plain mustard, and a tablespoon or more of horseradish sauce.
- Try experimenting with other herbs and spices to see what you can come up with.
If you enjoy making your own homemade sauces, you may want to check out these other delicious sauces: Yogurt Shawarma Sauce, Pasta Cream Cheese Sauce, Chimichurri Sauce, and 5-Ingredient Sriracha Aioli.
🍖 Related Recipes
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
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📖 Recipe
Honey Mustard Sauce for Ham
Equipment
- 1 Whisk
Ingredients
- ¼ cup pan juices, or olive oil
- ½ cup Dijon mustard
- ½ cup honey
- 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dried rubbed sage (don't substitute powdered)
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Instructions
- Add ¼ cup of baked ham pan juices to a small saucepan, or substitute pan juices with olive oil. Stir in the remaining mustard sauce ingredients as you heat them over medium heat.
- Once mixed, whisk the sauce over low heat until it begins to boil then simmer for a few minutes until it thickens.
- Serve mustard sauce with ham, or use as a dipping sauce with seafood or chicken.
Notes
- Although I've found using ¼ cup of the pan juices enhances the flavor of the mustard sauce, feel free to substitute the pan juices with mayonnaise.
- You can also substitute the pan juices with olive oil for a healthier alternative.
- Red wine vinegar or white wine vinegar can be used in the recipe.
- If you don't have dijon mustard, substitute with plain mustard, and a tablespoon or more of horseradish sauce.
- Try experimenting with other herbs and spices to see what you can come up with.
G. L. Norman says
This made a great condiment to my Easter ham and the guests loved it. I wanted to make it ahead so used mayonnaise instead of ham juices. I'm going to try the leftover sauce on a ham sandwich.
Hilda Sterner says
What a great idea! Thank you so much for coming back and reviewing the recipe!
Reina says
Can you make this sauce earlier and how long does it keep in the fridge????
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Reina, Yes you can and I've had it last in the fridge for months!
Alvaro says
Excellent...Raves from our Easter dinner guests. Reminds me of a sauce we loved in college (Hanover New Hampshire). We would eat at this restaurant just for the sauce.
Hilda Sterner says
Thank you so much, Alvaro. I'm excited to hear that it was enjoyed by your Easter guests.
Janice says
I made this today to have with Easter ham. I used olive oil and apple cider vinegar instead of red wine vinegar because I already had some apple cider vinegar on hand (you said in the intro this was allowed!) Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. It came out a darker color than what's depicted in the photographs, but it was absolutely delicious, and no bother to make. Nobody thought it was too sweet at all. It was a perfect balance of flavors. I will definitely make it again.
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Janice, Thank you so much for coming back and leaving a review! I agree about the sweetness but I guess not everyone does. 😏 Happy Easter!