Pineapple Ham Skewers

Sundays in the summer are a great day for family and cooking out.  While hamburgers and brats and great, each choices for the grill, I wanted to find a new recipe to try.    Our family enjoys ham and pineapple, so when I found a recipe that included both, it seemed like a good one to try.  This particular recipe came from the Goodness Gracious website.  One thing to note about this recipe, if you choose to use fresh pineapple rather than canned pineapple, you need to cook the pineapple in the microwave for at least 30 seconds.  Fresh pineapple contains bromelain and bromelain is a natural enzyme that… breaks down meat.  It will give your ham a funky texture if you don't cook it before putting it on the skewers.

Ingredients

3 pounds of ham
15 oz can of pineapple chunks, reserve pineapple juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
8 skewers - soaked in water

Cut up the ham into 1 inch cubes.  Alternate putting ham and pineapple on the skewers.  Place in a 13x9 baking dish.

Mix the reserved pineapple juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, and ginger together.  Pour over the ham and pineapple skewers and refrigerate for two hours.  Ensure all skewers are covered with the marinate - I needed to re-pour the marinade over the top 2-3 times and rearranged to skewers to ensure that all received the marinade.

Heat grill to medium heat.  Reserve the marinade for basting during the cooking process.  Cook for 3-4 minutes each side and basting at least once.  

Ingredients

Marinade all mixed up

Skewers ready for marinading

Marinade poured over the top

Grilled Skewer