Time: 2 ½ hours Recipe By: Millie Peartree (adapted)
Serves: 6
Collard greens, a staple of Southern cuisine, are often cooked down with smoked turkey or pork neck bones. The greens form a potlikker, or broth, full of briny, smoky flavor. When braised with smoked meat, they’re equally delicious as a side or a light one-pot meal. The longer the greens cook, the better they’ll be. Top them with a generous dash or two of hot sauce, and pair with cornbread or rice. What tomato soup is to grilled cheese, potlikker is to cornbread.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds collard greens (from about 4-6 bunches)
- 2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
- 1 vidalia, spanish, or yellow onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
- Pinch of kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1 pound smoked turkey (neck, legs, wings) or a large smoked ham hock
- 2 (½ inch) chicken bouillon cubes (or 1 cup chicken demi glace and reduce water to 3 cups)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 TBSP onion powder
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar, plus more to taste
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- Granulated sugar, to taste
1. Tear the greens from their stems. Take a handful of greens, roll them up lengthwise and slice them into bite-size pieces. Add the sliced greens to an empty, clean sink full of cool water and wash them, removing all grit, sand and debris. Drain sink and rinse greens thoroughly with cold water until water becomes clear.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium. Add the onion and a pinch of salt, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. Add 4 cups of water to the pot. (3 cups if using demi glace. This will become your potlikker.) Turn the heat to medium-high. Add the cleaned greens by the handful, stirring them until wilted before adding more.
4. Add the smoked turkey, bouillon cubes (or demi glace if using), garlic, onion powder, apple cider vinegar, black pepper and red-pepper flakes to the pot. Bring to a rolling boil, then cover and lower heat to medium-low. Cook until greens are completely tender, at least 2 hours. Most of the water should have evaporated by this point, with just enough left to cover the bottom of the pot, and the meat should pull away from the bones.
5. Take the meat out of the pot, transfer to a cutting board, and shred the meat with two forks. Add the shredded meat back to the pot and stir until well combined. Taste and adjust salt, pepper and onion powder as needed. To cut bitterness, add sugar; if you’d like more tang, add more vinegar. Serve hot.