World's Best Southern Collard Greens Recipe (Made With Smoked Meat) - Philly Jay Cooking (2024)

Ladies and gents, these are the UNDISPUTED CHAMPS of Collard Greens. If you’ve been looking for a good collard greens recipe, you might as well keep searching because these collard greens aren’t good, they’re AMAZING!!! Lol! Listen, after you try these bad boys, you’ll never go back to making them the way ya grandma used to. THESE GREENS ARE FLAVORFUL AND SEASONED TO PERFECTION! THIS IS SOUL FOOD AT IT’S BEST, FOLKS! So give them a shot, I promise you’ll love it!

Greens can’t get any better than this, folks!!! My collard Greens recipe is one of my most viewed YouTube videos for a reason. I made a few changes to the recipe over the years but they’re still as good if not better than the previous versions. These greens will NOT DISAPPOINT so don’t be skeptical, or afraid to try them, just trust me, they’re the BOMB.COM!

Now usually I have some long drawn-out story about how one of my aunts or grandmoms inspired my recipe or how I’m taking their recipe and putting my own spin on it. But let me tell yall, this recipe here, is all me, baby!!! I created it all by myself… it’s not a modified version of somebody else’s recipe.

These greens are so good, I’ve had church members beg me to make them some and almost everyone in my family asked me to make them some before. So I think y’all get the point… these greens are something dangerous and you’ll be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t try the recipe. Lol!

RECIPE TESTIMONIES!

Now let me be clear, these are fresh collard greens, not the frozen collard greens that come in a bag. I have a Frozen Collard Greens Recipe available so check them out if you’re looking for a quick collard greens recipe. These are the fresh ones you make the night before Thanksgiving that take an hour to prep and 2 hrs to cook. Lol! Prepping and cooking these boyz take a nice amount of time so I recommend having someone help you with it. That way, you won’t feel like you worked a 16-hour shift when you’re done! Lol!

STORY OF HOW MY NANA WASH HER GREENS

Back in the day when my nana cleaned her greens, she would go to the store and buy tons of greens and a bunch of Vinegar and salt. Let me just say, that old folks have very weird andoutdated ways of doing things. Some things they do still work and some things just don’t make sense but they stick to what they know. It was one disgusting thing she’d always do that I just couldn’t make sense of. She would chop the collard greens first, then sit them in the BATHTUB, and let them soak in vinegar/salt water. Smh!

First off, I would never prepare food in the bathroom. Secondly, the tub is one of the dirtiest place in your home! I don’t care how well you clean it, it’s filled with germs and bacteria we cant rid of with a simple scrub. So somebody… ANYBODY… tell me what was she thinking! I remember asking her why she didn’t just clean them in a big bowl and clean a little at a time. She said she liked cleaning them in the tub because it’s spacious and she can clean large amounts at once.

My grandma used to make greens for other people during the Holidays so she would buy 20-25 pounds of greens sometimes and cook 3-4 pots of greens at once throughout the night. So yea…. the size of the tub is perfect for cleaning such large amounts of greens but it’s still very dirty and unsanitary. But you know old folks are stuck in their ways so no matter how many times I told her she shouldn’t wash them in a tub, she kept on doing it!

She told me that’s how her mother cleaned them. I told her how much germs the greens are collecting sitting in the tub and she said, “It ain’t kill me in all my 86 years so I won’t stop now”. Lol! All I can say is, those collard greens were always GOOD AS H*** though so I didn’t complain!! Lol!

MY FAMILY LOVES COLLARD GREENS

My family cooked collard greens often. We didn’t just make them for Thanksgiving, we also cooked them for Sunday dinner which was sort of a tradition in my family. My parents would prepare Sunday dinner on Saturday evenings and cook the vegetables right after church. If they were having a salad they’d make it the night before to give all the condiments and seasoning time to marry. It would taste better the next day but so did the collard greens when we ate them for leftovers on Monday nights. Lol!

My nana did not play, she was not cooking Monday night after laboring over the stove preparing Sunday dinner all Saturday and Sunday. We knew Sunday dinner was not just for Sunday but Sunday AND Monday!! And if there weren’t any leftovers we knew how to make a PB&J sandwich, boil some ramen noodles, or fry a bologna and cheese sandwich or something to fill our stomachs because nana wasn’t cooking. Lol! Alright, enough of the family nostalgia, let me get into the stuff y’all need to know to perfect this recipe!!!

HOW TO WASH GREENS

Now when I wash my greens, I soak them in a big bucket or baking dish, not a BATHTUB LIKE MY NANA! LMBBO! I like to wash my collard greens first before chopping them because you can scrub them more thoroughly when they’re whole. Below are 3 options and agents commonly used to wash their collard greens.

• SALT: I always wash my collard greens with salt. I fill a big bowl or dish with water, add in some salt, then add in my greens and let them soak for 30 minutes or so. Then I scrub them with my hands for a few minutes and BAM, that’s it! I rinse them off and let them dry.
• VINEGAR: The 2nd most common product people use to clean their collard greens is probably white vinegar. If you don’t have any salt or hand you can add a little vinegar to a big bowl of water and soak em in a vinegar water solution then scrub!
• LEMON JUICE: And last but not least, lemon juice and water… another common solution used to clean collard greens. These are all great cleaning options and as far as how much you should use, I always use about 2 tbs of either salt, vinegar, or lemon juice when making 2 lbsof greens. So if you’re making 10 pounds of greens, use 10 tbs of whatever you decide to clean them with. I use a tbs per pound so stick with that ratio.

HOW TO CUT GREENS THE RIGHT WAY!

1. Flip one side over the other with the stem sticking out to the side.
2. Then I get a sharp knife and slice the stem off.
3. Unlike most people, I chop the stems into small pieces and add them to the greens. I discard half and keep half.
4. Then I roll the collard greens up and slice them lengthwise and widthwise into small pieces as seen in the photos below.

And that’s pretty much it as far as the prepping process goes. It takes a while so play some music, or watch a movie while you’re preparing them to help pass the time. Lol!

Barb’s Disdain For Meaty Vegetables

Now before I get into the meat… let me just say some folks simply don’t like meat in their veggies or the flavor meat gives them. My friend Barb was one of those people. Whenever we’d eat at a soul food spot in Philly, she’d always ask if they cooked the greens, or cabbage with meat or have chopped meat in it.

If they said yes, she’d respond, “I’m good”! LMBO! She loved vegetables and AINT WANNA SEE NOT 1 PIECE OF MEAT IN IT! Some people are vegetarian and don’t use meat for that reason so the point is… you can omit it from the recipe, they’ll still turn out tasting pretty good either way.

SMOKED MEAT OPTIONS

• SMOKED TURKEY TAILS: After years of cooking collard greens, experimenting with this recipe, and tasting collard greens made with different seasoning meats (meats used for the purpose of seasoning food), I’ve found turkey tails work best for collard greens. I love how fatty they are and the flavor they add to my collard greens and prefer it over over seasoning meats.
• HAM HOCKS: Now older folks from the south would always use ham hocks and I understand why because hocks and collard greens go together like milk and cookies. Ham hocks up until recently were always the first choice of meat to season collard greens with. But we’re living in a more health-conscious era where people are becoming ANTI-PORK and turning away from it to practice healthier eating habits and/or for religious reasons. So you won’t find too many folks nowadays buying ham hocks lol! It’s becoming a thing of the past, young folks call it “SLAVE FOOD” lol
• PORK BACON: I never use bacon for collard greens, only for my fried cabbage but a lot of people seem to use it so if you think you might like it, give it a shot.
• SMOKED TURKEY NECKS/LEGS: Now, I like to use these to season my fresh green beans! I think the flavor of smoked turkey necks goes great with green beans but they’re also a good option for collard greens if you do not have or can’t find any turkey tails.

Notice how turkey meat is the common denominator here! Lol! That’s because turkey, aside from pork, is the best meat to use to season fresh vegetables!!! Each part of the turkey has a different taste however, so you’ll find your collard greens may have a slightly different flavor when you use different meats to season them. I can taste a pretty clear difference in the flavor of collard greens cooked with pork (ham hocks) and collard greens cooked with smoked turkey meat.

INGREDIENTS YOU’LL NEED

• Greens

LIQUIDS

• Chicken Broth

SEASONINGS

• Season Salt
• Garlic Powder
• Sugar
• Black Pepper
• Red Crushed Peppers

CONDIMENT

• Apple Cider Vinegar

OTHER

• Butter

KEY INGREDIENTS AND ALTERNATIVES

LIQUID:

Chicken broth adds depth of flavor to collard greens. I always make sure I have some on deck when I plan on making them. As you all know, I’m a big fan of chicken broth which is why you see it as an ingredient listed in so many of my recipes! Below are some alternatives if you don’t have any chicken broth on hand.

• VEGETABLE BROTH: Collard greens are a vegetable right? So you know vegetable broth would make a great replacement for chicken broth. This is especially a good option for vegetarians making this recipe.
• WATER & CHICKEN BOUILON CUBES: If you scroll down to the recipe card you’ll see that I don’t use just chicken broth to simmer the greens in but an equal amount of broth and water that’s so that the greens aren’t over-seasoned. If you don’t have any broth on hand, hopefully, you have some chicken flavor bouillon cubes in ya cabinet. I always try to stack up on bouillon cubes in case I run out of broth so if you have chicken bouillon cubes, add em to the water, and BOOM, you have chicken broth. Chicken bouillon cubes and water are all chicken broth is! So replace the broth with water using 1 bouillon cube per cup of water.

SEASONINGS:

Seasoning salt is probably one of the most common ingredients for collard greens recipes, especially within the black community. I mean, what are collard greens without seasoning salt? I can’t tell you how many times as a black man, that I’ve seen a red bottle of Lawry’s seasoning with the curled logo in the kitchen of my family, friends, or friends of the family house. It’s like an icon in the black community… and we should have a holiday for it! I’m serious! LMBBO!

• ADOBO SEASONING: This is a good all-purpose seasoning that I love… it’s not seasoning salt nor does it do for collard greens what seasoning salt does but it’s still a good seasoning to use in case you don’t have any Lawry’s in the crib. You can use your favorite all-purpose seasoning though. Sazon’s complete seasoning is also good.
• SALT: Salt is the original seasoning for TASTE so you can never go wrong using it but it’s just salt and doesn’t have the flavor of seasoning salt. It’s a good substitution, however, so use it if that’s all you have.

MINCED GARLIC:

Garlic is another ingredient that’s so important when making collard greens. You gotta have it… I won’t even make collard greens if I don’t have garlic, FOR REAL!!! You might be able to get away with not using some of the ingredients but this is one of the ones you gotta have… and if you don’t have minced garlic here are some other forms of garlic you can use. By the way, I use both garlic powder and minced garlic in this recipe… don’t ask me why! I just think using both gives me better results!

• GARLIC PASTE: You can literally use the same amount of garlic paste as the amount of minced garlic used in this recipe. I find that I like garlic paste more than minced garlic nowadays… and was actually thinking about updating the recipe and replacing minced garlic with this.
• GARLIC CLOVES: You can make your own minced garlic but chopping and grinding up some garlic cloves or you can put them in a small bowl with olive oil, warm it up in the microwave until it’s soft, and mash it into garlic paste, your choice. It may have a slightly roasted flavor but will still be pretty good just don’t burn it.
• GARLIC POWDER: If you want to be on the safe side and only have granulated garlic in ya cabinet, just add more and forget about the minced garlic, as I said, I use both in this recipe but using just one or the other is perfectly fine. So you can use all the above as substitutions for garlic powder if you don’t have any. You’ll just have to use larger amounts of minced garlic, paste, and cloves, whichever you decide to go with to replace the garlic powder and there are garlic clove to garlic powder converters you can look up on Google to ensure you’re replacing the garlic powder with the right amount.

HEAT:

I like balancing and layering my food with different flavors which is why I added this to the recipe at the last minute. These collard greens are savory with a hint of tang from the vinegar and an even smaller hint of sweetness from the sugar, and when I say sweet trust me don’t think donut sweet. LMBBO! So I felt adding a little heat to the collard greens couldn’t hurt and so that’s what I did and it’s that which made the dish complete. I felt it was just missing something and the red pepper flakes just gave it that extra something to make it pop.

• CAYENNE PEPPER: This is a great substitution, my nana would put a little bit of cayenne in her collard greens sometimes. But make sure you use very little because Cayenne pepper is very hot and strong, so you want to use a very small amount or you’ll completely ruin the dish. A few pinches of this is all you need, no more than that!!!
• HOT SAUCE: And if ya don’t have any Cayenne you can always use a couple drops of a hot sauce like Tabasco… but if you don’t want to chance it and go that hot, just use some regular hot sauce. Some folks are very sensitive so spicy food will do the job for them. My mom is one of those people. I don’t think hot sauce is hot at all but my mom???? Mannnnn, every time we order hot wings she gets the mildest kind and still be crying about how hot it is… so yea some people are very sensitive to spicy food so regular hot sauce, which isn’t very hot, would work if you’re making this for someone like mom dukes.

HOW TO MAKE COLLARD GREENS

1. Fill a small pot with a liquid, add in the smoked meat and cover with a lid.
2. Meanwhile, wash and cut the greens, then cut the onions and peppers.
3. When meat is almost tender, remove and chop up into small pieces.
4. Place a large pot over high heat and add in the oil.
5. Sautee the onions, and peppers, and add in the greens until they wilt.
6. Then add in your meat, liquid, all the seasonings, and other ingredients and simmer until done.

TIPS FOR BEST RESULTS

• Add sugar to cut down on the acidity of the dish and the natural bitterness of greens.
• Sautee/wilt with oil and cover with a lid to optimize tenderness.

WATCH VIDEO ON HOW TO MAKE IT

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Enjoy, later!

PBJ~

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