If you’re into grilling, smoking, cooking, or just fancying some tasty meats that are easy and inexpensive, this list of 25 BEST ham hock recipes is for you!
You might have forgotten already, but you can use a ham hock to make some of the best recipes out there.
Ham hocks are a cheap cut of meat and, in our opinion, one of the most versatile.
You can use a ham hock to make pies, salads, stews, terrines, but what exactly is a ham hock?
Ham hocks are made from the lower portion of the pig’s leg, and they typically come smoked or unsmoked and can range from four inches to 10 inches long.
They can be added to dishes whole or chopped up into little pieces; they’re a fantastic way to bring the flavor and texture of any dish to life.
However, they are also a leaner cut of meat, so you’ll need to take extra care to have them perfectly cooked.
Wait until you see #16, and you’ll surely drool from where you are sitting right now.
In this article, we’ve rounded up the 25 best recipes for ham hocks for you to enjoy!
Braised Ham Hocks is a recipe that’ll always be your go-to for a comforting, home-style dish.
It’s easy to make, but the flavor can be excellent when it has time to develop.
The recipe is simple: you just need to add hot water to ham hock bones, then simmer them for a while until well-cooked.
Since they’ve been cured in a brine, they have a salty taste that’s surprisingly not too overpowering; yet it adds another layer of flavor to the dish.
If you’re in the mood for a change of pace from chicken and dumplings, this Ham Hocks and Dumplings soup is a worthy alternative!
Like chicken and dumplings, this ham hocks recipe is warm, comforting, and hearty enough to be a meal.
If you’re familiar with southern cooking, you’ll probably taste the southern kind of smokiness imparted by the ham hock in the broth.
This stew is perfect for those who want recipes with smoked ham hocks!
It is also a simple, warm stew that’s ideal for cold nights.
The smoky taste of the ham hock, combined with the warm spice and sweetness of the potatoes, results in a satisfying meal that’s perfect for those chilly days when you just want something to comfort you from the inside out.
When it comes to white bean and ham hock soup, the perfect marriage of beans and smoky ham flavor makes all the difference.
A little oregano and bay leaf also go a long way in bringing out the earthy flavors.
And if you’d like to make this soup over the top, try using a pressure cooker—it will tenderize your luscious white beans to creamy perfection.
The result is a thick, smoky bite of happiness in every spoonful.
The recipe combines collard greens with ham hock—a cut of pork that provides a smokey flavor to the collard greens and adds a little bit of meat to the dish.
To prepare, simply add the ham hock to boiling water and let simmer for about an hour before adding the collard greens.
After another 40 minutes or so, you’re ready to serve!
And don’t forget: no well-made bowl of collards is complete without a splash of vinegar and/or hot sauce!
Polenta Croquette tastes best when filled with sweet leeks and braised ham hock.
After all, what other kind of filling would you rather have in your polenta?
When you think about it, this recipe is the perfect way to use up leftover polenta.
All you need to do is produce an extra batch when you’re making a regular old dinner and save it for the next day.
Then, mix it with some Béchamel sauce and leeks, enclose it in a shell made from panko breadcrumbs, and fry it in some butter.
The result? A special treat that’ll make your tastebuds sing!
If you’re looking for recipes using smoked ham shank, then here it is!
This major recipe is a labor of love.
The rich, savory notes in the broth come from cooking the shanks for hours and hours.
And the result is a meal worth every minute you spend on it.
For sure, this is a weekend meal!
But if you’re feeling indulgent or want to treat your family, still try to put some time into making this dish, and you won’t be disappointed.
If you’re looking for country ham hock recipes, try this Smoked Pork Hock Soup!
This dish is a fantastic way to stretch a couple of pounds of meat into a filling meal for the whole family.
The key to the immense flavor here is TIME.
It takes several hours to prepare and cook but it is well worth it.
It is also “time” that transforms a tough, rather unappetizing cut of meat like a ham shank into something silky, sweet, and succulent.
The soup itself is light, bright, and springy with fresh peas and crisp radishes, while the meat’s smokiness brings an earthy depth to it all.
If you’ve ever bought some ham hocks, you know that the price you pay is not only for the meat—you’re also paying for a chunk of delicious bone.
So, take advantage of it!
You can use meat from all over the ham hock joint to make this risotto while making a stock with the bones to cook it in.
Although ham hocks don’t have a ton of meat on them, they have enough to add flavor and texture to this classic Italian dish!
You don’t have to be a culinary wizard to whip up this pork shank recipe.
There is not much meat on the pork shank and hock compared to other parts of pigs.
But once appropriately cooked, the pork shank becomes soft and tender with a slightly gelatinous texture.
You can take it further by roasting pork hock after it is done braising in soy sauce for a couple of hours.
Hosting a dinner and having very little idea of what to do with your ham hocks?
Your search is over because this Slow Cooker Ham Hocks In Peanut Sauce recipe is the top choice for you!
You’ll love how tender the meat is on the ham hocks and how it’ll literally melt in your mouth.
The peanut sauce is made from scratch, rich in flavor, and brings it all together—making the whole dish absolutely delicious.
12. German Pork Hock
A traditional Bavarian dish and a favorite at Oktoberfest, German Pork Hock is a real crowd-pleaser.
Slow-roasted with flavorful herbs and spices, this pork knuckle recipe produces delicious crackling and tender meat that will make your guests clamoring for the recipe.
This easy pork knuckle recipe takes a few hours but cooks without too much effort on your part.
You can serve it with a potato salad, or simply with some potatoes and gravy.
This ham hock and shrimp gumbo might just become your top fresh ham hocks recipe because it is delicious and quick to cook—you can make it in just over an hour!
It’s also perfect for making ahead because the broth’s flavor improves with age, so it’s great for meal prep.
So, if you’ve got some ham hocks and some shrimp on hand, this is one recipe you don’t want to miss out on.
Unlike many smoked ham hock recipes, this is a bit challenging to make.
It’s certainly not a dish you see every day. (Though you can make the broth and meat easier if you prepare a large batch and pressurize it.)
But it is delicious, hearty, warming, filling, and making you feel like you are wrapped up in someone else’s arms on a cold or rainy day.
15. Ham Hock Terrine
If you love rich and smoky flavors but you’re pretty confused about what to do with smoked ham hocks, give this ham hock terrine recipe a try.
It’s a delicious cold cut that’s easy to make and perfect for serving as part of a buffet spread or appetizer with friends.
This tasty terrine only uses a few ingredients, but it is well worth the attention it needs.
The rich flavors of ham hock are used to great effect, and if you can get past its unconventional appearance, this really is a delicious treat!
Sweet and salty are known to go together incredibly well, but until you’ve had honey-glazed ham hock with green cabbage, you will fully understand what savory perfection tastes like.
The ham is roasted in the oven until it’s just barely done, then glazed with homemade honey mustard and served on a bed of sauteed cabbage.
It takes a short time to prepare, but it will make your whole house smell amazing in the meantime!
Noodles with slow-cooked pork hocks are a great meal to make when you have some time.
You’ll need about 2 hours to slow-cook the pork hocks and about 10 minutes to put the dish together.
It might take a while, but trust us—it’s worth the wait!
Rich in flavor but simple in preparation, this dish is perfect for those nights when you’re looking for something new to make your dinner more exciting.
What makes this dish unique is its use of Chinese black vinegar; two kinds namely Cantonese sweet and Zhenjiang variants.
If for any reason you can’t get ahold of these, substitutes do exist, or you could make your own!
The easiest way to make some is to have regular rice vinegar and mix it with soy sauce, with a ratio of 2 teaspoons vinegar to 1 tablespoon soy sauce for every call of 1 tablespoon black vinegar.
Get a taste of the East with this savory, umami-rich ham hock in vinegar stew today!
Another Eastern-inspired dish, Red-Braised Pork Hock is a truly tantalizing dish (pork and ham hock are the same things)!
I mean, anyone is sure to enjoy anything bathed in their favorite red wine, right?
The recipe traditionally calls for Shaoxing rice wine or sherry, but you may use your favorite red wine instead.
Stained a reddish brown from the wine and soy, the meat is rendered tender and silky-sweet, whilst the sauce is further enhanced with the juices from the pork itself!
With its rich, savory flavor, red-braised pork hock is a classic Chinese dish and is one of the best ways to cook an otherwise difficult cut of meat.
This recipe for Instant Pot Pork Hock is literally the quickest to cook on our list so far!
Using the instant pot, you can get the pork nice and tender in about half an hour; and sauteeing the rest of the ingredients will only take about 15 minutes!
Take note that the recipe does call for Japanese sake, which thankfully is widely available nowadays, but if you ever can’t find any, you may use rice wine or dry sherry instead.
Oh, and did you know you can convert this recipe into a soup by simply adding any broth of your choice?
More than a few of our previous entries have called for a few alcoholic ingredients, like wine, so here’s one that uses beer for a change
And this recipe for Beer-Doused Ham Hock is sure to impress!
With its combination of tender, savory meat, and robust, hearty lentils, this dish is perfect for a winter family lunch!
Get the best of both worlds with this Ham Hocks With Marmalade Glaze Recipe!
On one hand, you get the savory, meaty goodness of the pork while the sweetness of the marmalade glaze teases subtly on the other.
Perfect for hosting those weekend get-togethers and you need to impress with your culinary skill!
And here we have yet another braising recipe!
Far from being the least, what makes this Smoked Ham Hocks With Whiskey Glaze different is the fact that apart from using whiskey to make the glaze, we’ll also be using Coke to braise the pork!
This dish will bring a burst of flavors that are sure to leave your guests wanting more!
Most people have had tomato-based soups, stews, or sauces at some point.
But I doubt that they’ve had Ham Hocks in a tomato stew before.
Made up of ham hocks, tomato paste, tomatoes, red chili flakes, and seasoning such as garlic, thyme, and bay leaves, makes this smoky, savory dish simply irresistible!
And you can bet that the aroma emanating from your oven as this dish cooks is equally mouth-watering!
The author of this recipe describes Smoked Ham Hock And Red Lentil Soup as a ‘belter’.
And who am I to disagree?
It’s smoky, meaty, and tomato-y and the chili gives it a nice kick!
And soup always makes for excellent comfort food, and they’re always readily available!
Whenever you’re in the mood for some, just bust them out of your fridge and heat them up with some sourdough bread and you’re set!
The bottom line
When it comes to cooking with ham hocks, the opportunities are endless.
Most importantly, you can never make the same recipe twice because the hocks provide a wealth of flavor specific to each one.
We have given you 25 of the best ham hock recipes of all time, and we’re sure that you would have found them very helpful.
We hope that you enjoyed our recipes and will try to prepare them.
Now that you know what they are and how they taste, go ahead and find your favorite!
More Ham Recipes
- Leftover Ham Recipes
- What To Serve With Ham
- Ham Casserole Recipes
- Leftover Ham Casserole Recipes
- How To Reheat Honey Baked Ham
25 BEST Ways To Cook Ham Hock
While less expensive than spiral cut ham, ham hocks impart flavor aplenty to soups and stews. Check out this list of ham hock recipes for good ideas!
Ingredients
- Braised Ham Hocks
- Ham Hocks And Dumplings
- Smoked Ham Hock And Sweet Potato Stew
- Creamy White Bean And Ham Hock Soup
- Collard Greens And Ham Hock
- Polenta Croquette Filled With Leeks And Ham Hocks
- Braised Smoked Ham Shank With Beans And Rice
- Slow Cooker Smoked Pork Hock Soup With Peas ---
- Ham Hock Risotto
- Roasted Pork Shank Braised In Soy Sauce ----
- Slow Cooker Ham Hocks In Peanut Sauce
- German Pork Hock
- Ham Hock And Shrimp Gumbo
- Pork Hock Stew With Meatballs
- Ham Hock Terrine
- Honey Glazed Ham Hock With Green Cabbage
- Noodles With Slow-Cooked Pork Hocks
- Pork Knuckles In Ginger Vinegar Stew
- Red-Braised Pork Hock
- Instant Pot Pork Hock
- Beer-Doused Ham Hock
- Ham Hocks With Marmalade Glaze
- "Crown And Coke" Braised Smoked Ham Hocks With Whiskey Glaze
- Ham Hock & Tomato Stew Recipe
- Smoked Ham Hock And Red Lentil Soup
Instructions
- Take a look at our Ham Hock Recipes list!
- Bring the ingredients to create a new favorite dish.
- Woohoo! You created a home-cooked meal!
- Comment your thoughts on our Facebook page.