Reviewed: Sep. 23, 2009

I'm rating this 5 stars, although I admit I made some adjustments, but this seemed like the closest recipe I found to my favorite restaurant's version of collard greens. They turned out great, and I didn't have more than 3 hours to cook 'em! I plan on letting them go longer when I reheat. My biggest alteration in the recipe was adding 4 Tablespoons of sugar for a big pot of greens. Perhaps it's not authentic- I don't know since I didn't grow up on collards- but it brought out a nice flavor. I added a bit more than 4 Tablespoons of regular white vinegar (not fond of the apple cider type), because I like the bite, and only added one ham hock because I'm not accustomed to cooking with them and I was afraid that they might overpower the dish. Only used 3 cloves of garlic b/c they were huge, and ground red pepper because that's what I had on hand. I had a bunch of collards from my CSA farm share. It was 6 enormous leaves, just in case anybody's wondering what a "bunch" is. This made a really big pot- maybe 2 quarts' worth or so. Can't wait to see how they taste tomorrow!

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19 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

ChefDiva

Reviewed: Nov. 30, 2009

Excellent! My born-and-raised-in-the-South husband said these were some of the best greens he's ever had. I did put in extra ham hocks, but otherwise followed the recipe. As another reviewer mentioned, these do have a little more kick than usual. Thanks, Brian!

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15 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

SOUTHERN TRANSPLANT

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Living In: Valdosta, Georgia, USA

Reviewed: Aug. 19, 2009

Your recipe made the best greens I've ever had!!! I have made them 3x already. 2x I used smoked neckbones and the other time I used smoked turkey wings instead of the ham hocks. I also used LAWRY's season salt where the recipe called for salt. My 11 year old who usually hates collard greens LOVES this recipe and calls them MG's, which is short for magic greens. She named them that because they are magically delicious LOL. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I can't wait to show it off at my next family function.

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15 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Kiva

Reviewed: Jan. 1, 2011

Delicious! The only change I made was I did not pull the meat from the ham hocks as I used 4 small ones and they did not have enough meat to make it worth my time. Instead I let them season up the broth and pulled them out. Then I cooked some bacon, chopped it up, and sprinkled it on top of the greens when I served them. I love the heat from the red pepper flakes, they add depth that other recipes don't offer. I made some corn muffins to serve along with the greens as well. These are so good, I will be making greens a lot more now. :-)

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7 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

tlower

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Fairbanks, Alaska, USA

Living In: Navarre, Florida, USA

Reviewed: Jan. 8, 2010

didn't like the spice... also missing baking soda for tenderness

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7 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

aWe

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Reviewed: Jan. 11, 2011

FANTASTIC! I have never attempted collard greens before, these turned out great. Easy to make, house smelled delicious all day long. I cooked a meal for people that were very familiar with southern/soul food and everyone said they were scrumptious!

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6 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Zerogrrrl

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Living In: Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA

Reviewed: Feb. 2, 2011

Thank you so much for posting!!!! This was my first attempt at collards & they turned out great. My husband and I both loved the flavor & bit of spicyness. Success!

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5 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Andrea

Reviewed: Dec. 23, 2010

Wow! This recipe is easy and the taste is absolute Heaven! Thank you very much Brian W for an excellent recipe that is now a staple in our house!

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Reviewer:

Angela

Reviewed: Dec. 29, 2011

I used a full 2 lb. bag of greens from Walmart for this dish and cooked the greens for 2 hrs. I reduced red pepper flakes to 1 teaspoon, and I'm REALLY glad I did, because it would have been WAY too hot for us if I hadn't. If you add the full tablespoon and hot pepper sauce, I hope you like really spicey/hot food, cause that is what you're going to get. I added a few tablespoons of sugar because my greens were really bitter and the sugar helped with that. These were delicious, and next time I'm going to try it with smoked turkey instead of the ham hocks. Thanks Big B!

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3 users found this review helpful