This Southern Collard Greens Recipe is the essence of soul food.
A good Southern Collard Greens recipe makes a Thanksgiving meal in our house!
My family is a collard greens eating family. For major holiday dinners, we don’t eat Green Bean Casserole and we don’t eat Roasted Carrots. We eat Southern Style Collard Greens and, maybe, cooked green beans. For the longest time, when we ate Southern Collard Greens for Thanksgiving, they were Glory Greens in a can. Do not get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with canned Glory Greens. They are delicious and very well seasoned. However, we make everything pretty much from scratch for the holidays. So, instead of using Glory canned greens, we use fresh greens and cook them ourselves.
The worse part of this Southern Collard Greens recipe is cleaning the greens.
Cleaning greens are the worse!
The clean and cut greens that we use are also prepared by Glory! Such an awesome brand if you have never heard of it. When I started making collard greens from scratch I used to buy freshly picked collard greens. If you have ever bought fresh greens of any kind you know how long and cumbersome the process of picking, cleaning, and preparing them can be. You can never get them clean enough! It would take me hours to get them to point of being edible. You have to rinse them, soak them, rinse them again and sometimes repeat the process. That is why I was thrilled when Glory provided collard greens that were already cut and cleaned. All you have to do is cook them!
Look at these delicious greens!
I know most of you out there may have never had Southern Collard Greens or don’t really like collard greens. I completely understand. Whether you don’t like collard greens and prefer a mixture of kale, mustard and collards, or if you don’t like greens altogether, this recipe is for you! If you are not a greens eater, let me explain to you how this recipe can be used.
In my experience, the vegetable dishes that are most popular on Thanksgiving are cooked greens, Green Bean Casserole, or green beans. The method I use for this Southern Collard Green recipe can be used for fresh green beans as well! Also, you don’t have to use ham hocks if you aren’t a pork eater. You can also use smoked turkey tails or smoked turkey wings, which I found in Kroger (if you have one of those). If you have tried and tried to find a way to make collard greens but just couldn’t figure it out, this Southern College Greens recipe is for you. This is how I have I make my collard greens and every time they come out great! This Southern Collard Greens recipe is great for everyone! Don’t like greens, use fresh green beans instead.
Here are more Thanksgiving Recipe Side dishes!
Green Beans with Bacon- CLICK HERE
Southern Collard Greens
- Total Time: 5 hours 15 mins
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Description
Plenty of flavor and savory smoked pork or turkey that makes this Southern Collard Greens Recipe divine! Perfect for your Thanksgiving holiday meal!
Ingredients
- 2–16 oz. Bags of Collard Greens, cut and cleaned
- 3 tbsp. Seasoned salt
- 1 tbsp. Black ground pepper
- 2 tsp. Red Crushed Pepper
- 1 tbsp. Onion powder
- 1 tbsp. Garlic powder
- 1 tsp. Smoked paprika
- 2 Ham Hocks or Smoked Turkey Tails
Instructions
- Fill a large 10 quart pot with water about 2/3rds full. Add the seasoned salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder, red crushed pepper, smoked paprika, and smoked ham hocks or smoked turkey tails. Bring the water to a boil and cook the meat with seasonings for 45 minutes.
- Using tongs, remove the meat from the water. Use a fork to the hold the meat and use a knife to slice the meat with your other hand. Once most of the meat has been cut, add the meat, including the bone, back into the water. Add the greens to the seasoned water and cook for, at least 4 hours on a medium boil. If there is too much water in the pot to where it is overflowing, carefully remove some of the excess water and cover with lid and continue to cook for 4 hours or longer (preferably).
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 5 hours
- Category: side dishes
I’ve never liked collard green’s until I found this recipe! My mom made turnip green’s with fat back. She fried corn bread and we ate the pot likker with the bread broken in the bowl. My MIL only cooked collards and I found them lacking. That set me on a quest to find a recipe I could eat. I found this one and I’ve made it several timea since. On a regular basis, I get asked to make it again. Wonderful recipe; thank you for posting on Pinterest!!!! I’m always on the lookout for good, old fashioned recipes like I grew up on. Wonderful memories exploding in my mouth!!!!!
★★★★
Thank you Trish!
This has become my “go to” recipe. Everyone raves about it and I’m now the official New Years Day chef because of how amazing these are. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. I’m enjoying the wonderful smell of the spices as I type!
★★★★★
I am so glad!
This is my absolute favorite recipe for Greens, my family loves them and I’m requested to make them at all family functions, I use smoked turkey necks and smoked pork shank.
★★★★★
THank you Nanci! I am so glad you liked them!