Here’s a classic Southern-style meal: tender pinto beans with ham hocks, skillet cornbread, and crisp pickled onions. This is the kind of simple, comforting food that cooks low and slow and tastes even better the next day.
🫘 Pinto Beans with Ham Hocks
⭐ Ingredients
- 1 lb dried pinto beans, rinsed
- 2 smoked ham hocks (or 1 large)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3–4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp paprika (optional)
- Salt to taste (add at the end!)
- Water or chicken broth
Optional:
- 1 jalapeño or green chili, chopped
- A splash of hot sauce
- A bit of cumin for Southwestern flavor
👩🍳 Instructions
1. Soak (optional but helpful)
Soak beans in water overnight or 1 hour in very hot water.
This helps them cook more evenly.
2. Start the pot
In a large pot:
- Add beans, ham hocks, onion, garlic, bay leaf, pepper, and paprika.
- Cover with water/broth by about 2 inches.
3. Cook low and slow
- Bring to a boil.
- Reduce to a simmer.
- Cook 2–3 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Add more water as needed.
Beans should be creamy and ham should be falling off the bone.
4. Finish
- Remove ham hocks, shred meat, return to pot.
- Taste and add salt (ham adds salt slowly as it cooks).
- Mash a few beans to thicken if desired.
🌽 Classic Cast-Iron Cornbread
⭐ Ingredients
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ cup sugar (optional—Southern cooks argue about this!)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup melted butter or bacon grease
- 2 tbsp butter for the skillet
👩🍳 Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).
- Place cast-iron skillet in the oven with 2 tbsp butter to heat.
- Mix dry ingredients in one bowl.
- Mix buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter/grease in another.
- Combine wet + dry. Don’t overmix.
- Remove hot skillet from oven — swirl the melted butter.
- Pour batter in (it should sizzle).
- Bake 20–25 minutes until golden and edges pull away.
🧅 Quick Pickled Onions (15 minutes)
⭐ Ingredients
- 1 red onion (or white), thinly sliced
- ½ cup vinegar (apple cider or white)
- ½ cup water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- Optional: peppercorns, garlic, chili flakes
👩🍳 Instructions
- In a small pot, warm vinegar, water, sugar, and salt until dissolved.
- Add onions to a jar.
- Pour hot liquid over the onions.
- Let sit at least 15 minutes; best after 1 hour.
Keeps in fridge for weeks.
🍽️ How to Serve This Meal
Plate like a true country supper:
- Big bowl of pinto beans + ham
- Wedge of skillet cornbread (with butter!)
- Spoonful of pickled onions on top or on the side
- Optional: chopped raw onion, hot sauce, collard greens, or fried potatoes
This is warm, humble, deeply satisfying food — the kind that feels like home.
If you want, I can provide:
• A pressure cooker / Instant Pot version
• A spicy Tex-Mex twist
• A sweet-milk cornbread version
• A no-soak beans method
Which would you like?
