What's the best thing about any big, family meal?
Besides spending time with your nutty family, I mean. Don't worry. We all have one.
The best thing isn't having a clean house (for five minutes) or having sleepy, worn out children after an afternoon of togetherness.
They're both nice, but not the best thing.
It's leftovers. I eat leftovers almost every single day for lunch; we intentionally make enough food for two meals each time we cook.
But then after a really big meal, we're still eating leftovers two or three days later.
I get completely sick of those leftovers.
Unless it's green bean casserole or buffalo chicken dip. I never get sick of those.
Back to my point.
After a recent family dinner, we had a lot of leftover ham. It was a nice ham, but it had gotten a little dry and I was not excited about eating it after the second meal of dry ham and mashed potatoes.
I might have said so, and that led Joe to work some magic.
He found a recipe in The Taste of Home Cookbook we got for Christmas. We liked this recipe so much that we've had it a few more times with frozen leftover ham. It's awesome.

Servings |
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- 1 1/2 cups rice (We like basmati rice, but you could use anything.)
- 2 cups baby carrots
- 2 1/2 cups apple juice divided
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 pound ham We have done bite-sized pieces and larger pieces. We liked bite-sized pieces better.
- 2 medium tart apples peeled and sliced into wedges
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Ingredients
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- Combine rice and carrots. Cook according to rice package directions, using 1 1/2 cups apple juice in place of the water.
- Sauté onions and ham in butter until ham is lightly browned and onions are translucent. Remove and set aside.
- In the same skillet, sauté apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon until the apples are almost tender.
- In a bowl, whisk cornstarch and 1 cup apple juice until it's smooth; add to the apples in the skillet. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.
- Put ham and onions back in the skillet with the apples and cook until everything is hot and bubbly.
- Serve ham, apples, and onions with sauce over the rice.
© 2013 – 2018, Tara Ziegmont. All rights reserved.
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