Smoky Butter Beans with Pork

A spoon in a bowl of homemade butter beans.

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Smoky Butter Beans with Pork

This butter beans recipe with smoked pork shank is a hearty, Southern-style classic. It’s an easy, one-pot dish perfect for cozy dinners, and the leftovers taste even better the next day!

Prep Time15

Cook Time1 30

Course: Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine: American, Southern

Keyword: butter beans recipe, southern style butter beans

Servings: servings

Author: Pat Nyswonger

Ingredients

1 pound dried butter beans
1 smoked pork shank or pork hock
6 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon dried thyme crumbled
½ teaspoon salt
2 bay leaves
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
Fresh thyme leaves for garnish

Instructions

Quick pre-soak: Fill a 6 quart Dutch oven or large pot half full with of cold water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the beans and return to a boil. Immediately remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let rest for 30 to 40 minutes. Drain the beans in a colander and rinse with cold water.
Return the beans to the pot and add the chicken broth, to cover the beans by 1-inch. Add the smoked pork shank, onions, garlic, thyme, salt and the bay leaves.
Bring the pot to a boil then immediately reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the beans for 50-60 minutes or until they are tender.
Remove the pot from the heat, transfer the pork shank to a carving board. When the meat is cool enough to handle, remove and discard the bone, skin and any gobs of fat.
Use a fork to break or shred the meat into smaller chunks and return to the pot of beans. Stir in the lemon juice and ladle the beans into serving bowls garnished with fresh thyme sprigs.

Notes

The quick soak cuts down the cooking time and helps the beans cook evenly.
Gentle simmering is key. A hard boil will wreck your beans and turn them into mush.
Butter beans can go from perfectly tender to overdone quickly. Begin checking for doneness at the 50-minute mark. When tender to the al-dente stage, remove the pot from the heat.
If your beans have been sitting in the pantry for years, they may not soften. Check the expiration date.
Acid can keep the beans from softening properly, so stir the lemon juice in last.
A pork shank, cut from below the shoulder, is meatier than a smoked pork hock, which has more bone, fat, and gristle. For this recipe, the pork shank is the best choice.

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