This Honey Mustard Sauce recipe is perfectly paired with Instant Pot Ham, Double Smoked Ham, and can be used as a glaze on this delicious Venison Meatloaf! 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!
Jump to:
😍 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 rosemary 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.
Would you like to save this recipe?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
🍽 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 and other seafood. It's also great with air fried frozen chicken wings and dove 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, Cilantro Chimichurri Sauce, Lemon Dill Sauce, and Sriracha Aioli.
🍖 More Sauce Recipes
📖 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.
Barbara L Telfer says
Loved it! Using it this Easter with our ham. Have only made it with olive oil, but everyone thought it was great.
Hilda Sterner says
Thank you, Barbara, I'm so glad you approve. We recently tried some with our corned beef and found it's a prefect match. You might want to give that a try too!
Renate says
This is so sweet and I actually only used 1/4 cup honey. Next time, I'll use 1 Tablespoon.
BrewBoy says
My wife served some spiral sliced ham on New Years day. I made a quick sauce based on your recipe with olive oil, Dijon, honey and red wine vinegar. I did add some pepper, but I didn't have any sage. It was just what I needed to offset the over saltiness of this ham. Thank you for saving my dinner.
Hilda Sterner says
I'm so glad I could help and that you enjoyed the sauce. Definitely make it again with rubbed sage! Happy New Year!
Lois Graves says
Simple and delicious a big thank you
Hilda Sterner says
Thank you, Lois, Enjoy! 🙂
Liane says
Basic sauce, but we liked it and will make it again. A couple of changes I made: more mustard (plain and grainy Dijon) and a little less honey. I will omit the sage, but that is a personal preference. Otherwise it turned out just fine, thank you for sharing your recipe 🙂
Hilda Sterner says
Thank you for the review!
KH says
Wayyy too much sage and too much honey, waste of ingredients. I never comment on recipes, but this one needs to be adjusted!
Hilda Sterner says
Sorry to hear you didn't like it. Hope you find a better recipe!
Martie says
1 tbsp of dried sage seems like way too much. I have powdered dried sage. Is that what you used?
Hilda Sterner says
I use rubbed sage which is coarser. If you use powdered, I'd use half. You can even add less if you wish and adjust it after you taste it.
Ejw says
A great sauce for gammon and chips!! Very very tasty!
Hilda Sterner says
Thank you for the comment and review!
Kelly Methey says
Delicious! It is really a versatile sauce that can be used with many foods.
Leslie says
At the last minute, I decided to make a honey mustard sauce for our Easter ham. My husband and I are vegan but I had the ham for my stepson and his partner to 'snazz' it up a bit. Easy to make... 'normal' ingredients and great tasting.
We also had roasted carrots and it was great on those as well.
Hilda Sterner says
Thank you, Leslie! I'm glad you enjoyed the mustard sauce and your Easter, God bless!