How to Cook Fresh Collard Greens

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

6 bunches of collards
4 onions
2 green pepper
red pepper flakes
smoked neckbones
bacon drippings
salt and pepper
1 cup white vinegar

Step 1

The bunches referred to are the big bunches, not the small ones with the leaves. This amount of greens makes a large stock pot full but greens can be cooled and frozen in ziplock bags in flat layers and will keep for a very long time! Clip rubber bands from bunches and wash greens.
Step 2

Place smoked neckbones in water (covered) and allow to boil for one hour. Remove all meat and bones from the liquid and strain the liquid into a large stock pot. Let sit.
Step 3

Remove stems from collards. This is easiest done by laying leaf flat and cutting down one side of stem from mid-top down, repeating the cut down the other side, then making a cut across the top of the stem to remove and discard. The goal with removing stems is to make sure that large portions of stem do not go into your dish. A little stem at the top is just fine.
Step 4

Once all stems have been removed, cut leaf in half or fold in half and roll up. Using knife or sharp kitchen scissors, hold rollled piece in hand and cut off 1/3" to 1/2" pieces.
Step 5

Wash green peppers, remove seeds and dice into large pieces. Quarters or eighths are fine as peppers will cook down with greens. Cut onions in similar manner, with eighths being ideal size to use.
Step 6

Heat liquid in stock pot to boiling. Keep fire up high. Place half of greens in pan and liberally season with salt. Collards can take a lot of seasoning. My advise is to sprinkle a light layer over all of the greens just placed in the pan. Add the other half of the collards to the pan. Place vegetables on top and season again with salt and pepper.
Step 7

Using a long-handled tongs, move greens around from bottom to top, noticing how greens change colors when they start to wilt down. Make sure that all greens get a turn in the liquid below. Add 2-4 cans of chicken broth. Do not drown greens but make sure to keep them moist as this is how they cook. At this point, if greens are slightly covered, it's okay as they will absorb it.
Step 8

Let green continue to cook on high heat with cover slightly cracked on pot. Pan fry 1 package of bacon and pour all drippings from bacon into greens. Sprinkle a few red pepper flakes into the greens and stir. If you do not like spice, the red pepper flakes are optional.
Step 9

Turn the fire down to medium, stirring greens every 20 minutes or so and adding more chicken broth if necessary. Collard greens need to cook at least 3 hours to be tender. Add 1 cup of vinegar after greens have cooked for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Once done, neckbone meat can be removed from the bones and added back to greens if desired.

Comments

gahazeleyes said

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on 8/15/2009 Just searched to find out how to cook collard green, and after looking at a few, I like yours the best. Thanks for showing me how to cook my collards for tonight. 5*****