The 32-year-old lit up a lacklustre affair at the Britannia Stadium, pouncing on a loose pass from Ahmed Elmohamady before finishing a mazy run with a fierce left-foot strike past a despairing Steve Harper in the Hull goal.
It marked a third goal in as many Premier League matches for Odemwingie, and takes his tally to four in total since making the switch to Stoke from Cardiff City in January.
Hughes was thrilled with the strike, and believes the Nigerian is thriving due to being "happy in his environment".
"We're pleased with what he's producing," Hughes said. "He's obviously come in and he wasn't a risk really because he's an accomplished Premier League player who has scored goals at this level so we know what we were getting.
"But you always hope the period of going to a new club, settling down and getting used to who's around you in the dressing room is short.
"In fairness to Peter he's come in and seamlessly picked up some outstanding form. I think that comes in being happy in his environment and happy in the players that surround him.
"We're reaping the benefits because he's a major factor in us winning today."
Stoke's victory means they have reached 40 points, widely acknowledged as a target to achieve Premier League survival, and the Welshman is looking to finish the campaign in style.
He added: "In my view we're safe now with 40 points, given the situation of other clubs. We probably were safe last week as well, but today was key psychologically to get to that 40-point mark.
"We have six games where maybe we can benefit from being a little bit freer of that pressure of Stoke trying to get 40 points and hopefully as a consequence our performances will improve."
