Step one to this is kindof optional, but if you make your own broth, this will taste better. I’m no expert at making greens, but I watched a few videos (some good, some bad) and I read the comments. People be adding all kinds of stuff: bacon, butter, ham hocks, smoked turkey leg, onion, garlic, etc. But don’t add water, my friend; use chicken broth (homemade is best). My broth was made from a leftover rotisserie chicken. The key here is to impart so much flavor to the greens that you don’t even know you’re eating this stupid-healthy leafy vegetable because it tastes so damn good.
You need some kind of smokey/salty meat to add flavor. I wanted to do this with a smoked turkey leg, like in this video, but I couldn’t find one at a store and it’s too cold and snowy right now for me to get my smoker out. I couldn’t find ham hocks either – nor do I know how to prepare them, so I went with my one true love, the thing I know best, bacon.
INGREDIENTS:
- 12 strips of bacon – cut into about 2″ pieces
- 3 TB bacon fat (from cooking the bacon)
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic – chopped
- 16 oz collard greens – chopped, large stems removed
- 3 – 4 cups chicken broth – homemade
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
DIRECTIONS:
- Cook bacon over medium-low heat, slowly in a large sauce pan. Let the bacon cook until it’s just starting to get crispy and most of the fat begins to render out. Remove bacon and drain on a plate lined with paper towels. Pour bacon fat into heat proof container. Wipe out some of the loose bits of bacon from the pan – you don’t have to totally clean it. When this bacon is added back to the broth, it will have a nice chewy texture.
- Spoon 3 – 4 TB of the bacon fat from the top of the container you poured it into back into the large sauce pan. This fat should be clean with no residue in it. Re-apply heat and add onions and garlic. Saute until getting translucent.
- Add broth, red pepper flakes, and collard greens. Get it simmering. Add bacon. Cook, simmering, adding more broth as needed, until greens are done to desired level of tenderness and broth reduces. About 1.5 hours.