Collard Greens

Collard Greens

Is there anything more southern than collards? They are a bit of work and take a while to cook, but the whole house smells like collards, and you get wonderful pot likker to dip cornbread or anything else in.

3 lbs	fresh collard greens
12 slices	bacon
2	medium onions, diced
¾ lb	ham or smoked sausage, cubed
2 quarts	chicken stock or broth
6 cloves	garlic, minced
⅓ cup	apple cider vinegar
2 tbl	sugar
1 tsp	salt
¾ tsp	freshly ground black pepper

First, trim and wash your collard greens. Fold each green in half long ways and cut the spine out of the collards. Then cut the leaves into 1” to 2” long pieces.

Collards are sandy and nobody wants to have sand in their food. Put the pieces in a large bowl and add as much water as possible. Swish the collards around and let the sand settle. Do this at least 3 times. Now put the collards in a colander (Unless you have an enormous colander, they won’t fit, so you will have to do this a number of times) and rinse them well. Set the collards aside.

Turn the heat to medium under a large pot or Dutch oven (We use a 7-quart cast iron Dutch oven). Add the bacon and cook until almost crisp. Scoop the bacon out but leave the bacon grease. Put the bacon on a paper towel lined plate.

Add the onions and cook until translucent.

Add the ham or sausage and stir well.

Now add the chicken broth, garlic, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper. Stir will to dissolve the sugar and salt.

Add the collards and bring everything up to a simmer. Cooking collards is a bit like cooking spinach (but much longer). In the beginning they may not fit. However, if you let the ones in the pot cook for about 5 minutes, they will soften, sink, and make room for the rest.

Once all of the collards are in the pot and have sunk into the broth, cover and cook at a simmer for 2 hours. Stir the collards every 15 minutes or so. The collards will soften and the broth will make a delicious pot likker.

Serve in bowls with the pot likker. If you have it, corn bread dipped in the pot likker is wonderful.

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