Kitchen faucet would take 3 - 5 minutes to get hot water so I installed a watts recirculating pump and now it still takes a minute or more for the water to get warm. I cleaned out the faucet valves and it didn't help. The line has water hammers on this spot, I don't think that matters. Any ideas??

It depends on how the piping was done on the hot water loop, your hot supplyline going to the kichen faucet may be a ways away from the loop, how do the rest of the hot water fixtures work? How soon do you get hot water to the furthest fixture from the water heater?