I learned to make pinto beans from my grandma from Oklahoma. I’ve added to the recipe, and my mother used to say mine were the best pinto beans she’d ever tasted. Serve the Southern way with cornbread and steamed greens.
Preparation Details
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 3 hrs
Total Time: 7 hrs 10 mins
Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried pinto beans
- 6 cups water, or more as needed to cover
- 1 smoked ham hock
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 (6.5 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Steps
- Add pinto beans to a large bowl; cover with water. Soak beans for 4 hours, changing water every 30 to 45 minutes. Drain.
- Bring 6 cups water to a boil in a large pot. Add pinto beans, ham hock, and salt to the pot. Add more water if needed to cover beans and ham hock by at least 1 inch.
- Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until beans are just tender, 2 to 3 hours.
- Remove ham hock from beans. Remove meat from the bone; chop meat and stir into beans.
- Stir tomato sauce and brown sugar into beans. Simmer until beans are tender and flavors are blended, about 1 hour.
