diff --git a/cmd/podman/inspect/inspect.go b/cmd/podman/inspect/inspect.go
index 13f36ebbd29a..cc48b7ae42c0 100644
--- a/cmd/podman/inspect/inspect.go
+++ b/cmd/podman/inspect/inspect.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package inspect
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
 	"context"
 	"encoding/json" // due to a bug in json-iterator it cannot be used here
 	"fmt"
@@ -245,7 +246,15 @@ func printJSON(data []interface{}) error {
 }
 
 func printTmpl(typ, row string, data []interface{}) error {
-	t, err := template.New(typ + " inspect").Parse(row)
+	t, err := template.New(typ + " inspect").Funcs(map[string]interface{}{
+		"json": func(v interface{}) string {
+			b := &bytes.Buffer{}
+			e := registry.JSONLibrary().NewEncoder(b)
+			e.SetEscapeHTML(false)
+			_ = e.Encode(v)
+			return strings.TrimSpace(b.String())
+		},
+	}).Parse(row)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
diff --git a/test/e2e/inspect_test.go b/test/e2e/inspect_test.go
index c2e0f4407280..97f77414ebf6 100644
--- a/test/e2e/inspect_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/inspect_test.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 	. "github.com/containers/podman/v2/test/utils"
 	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo"
 	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega/gexec"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/selinux/go-selinux"
 )
 
@@ -428,4 +429,18 @@ var _ = Describe("Podman inspect", func() {
 		Expect(inspect).To(ExitWithError())
 	})
 
+	// Fixes https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/8444
+	It("podman inspect --format json .NetworkSettings.Ports", func() {
+		ctnrName := "Ctnr_" + RandomString(25)
+
+		create := podmanTest.Podman([]string{"create", "--name", ctnrName, "-p", "8080:80", ALPINE})
+		create.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
+		Expect(create).Should(Exit(0))
+
+		inspect := podmanTest.Podman([]string{"inspect", `--format="{{json .NetworkSettings.Ports}}"`, ctnrName})
+		inspect.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
+		Expect(inspect).Should(Exit(0))
+		Expect(inspect.OutputToString()).To(Equal(`"{"80/tcp":[{"HostIp":"","HostPort":"8080"}]}"`))
+	})
+
 })
diff --git a/test/utils/utils.go b/test/utils/utils.go
index d089396787f7..027e96427a1a 100644
--- a/test/utils/utils.go
+++ b/test/utils/utils.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"io/ioutil"
+	"math/rand"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
 	"runtime"
@@ -465,3 +466,16 @@ func Containerized() bool {
 	}
 	return false
 }
+
+var randomLetters = []rune("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ")
+
+// RandomString returns a string of given length composed of random characters
+func RandomString(n int) string {
+	rand.Seed(GinkgoRandomSeed())
+
+	b := make([]rune, n)
+	for i := range b {
+		b[i] = randomLetters[rand.Intn(len(randomLetters))]
+	}
+	return string(b)
+}