If you’re from the South, or have ever visited the South, chances are that you have had collard greens at some point in your life. Recently, I gave this classic Southern staple a facelift, and I’m excited to share it with you today!
I’m not sure why, but I’ve had the biggest craving for Southern food lately. Maybe it’s because I drive by 12 Bones on my way home everyday, or maybe it’s just because it has been months since the last time I’ve had a good ol’ Southern BBQ meal. Whatever the case, I finally honored my craving this past week with a homemade meal of BBQ crockpot chicken, roasted okra (it’s better than fried!), and COLLARD GREENS. The Southern trifecta, if you ask me.
Meal assembly was simple enough. Last Sunday, I threw a couple frozen chicken breasts and some chicken broth into the crockpot, set it on high, and let ’em do their thing for four hours. Once cooked through, I just shred with a fork and tossed with some Annie’s BBQ sauce and was done! Minimal effort, minimal cleanup, but maximum flavor, and enough BBQ chicken for dinners all week!
On to the okra. Now I personally prefer to eat my okra roasted as opposed to fried, and I feel pretty confident in saying that it tastes just as good (well, better), than its fried counterpart. You could easily prep the okra in advance, but I usually just roast up a little batch the night of to maintain the crunch and texture. Just 20 minutes at 425*F on the top rack of the oven is all it takes for these to get perfectly crunchy! That gives you time to get everything else for the meal squared away, too. I toss mine with some extra virgin olive oil, ground pepper, and garlic powder. It’s safe to say that okra is definitely inching its way up my list of favorite veggies. Watch out, brussels sprouts…
The final piece of the Southern trifecta is what I consider the highlight, and the object of my obsession – collard greens. I think they were what I was craving the most. There’s just something so satisfying about a big serving of warm collards on a chilly night.
These are slightly different from the more traditional collards recipe you might find on Pinterest or in your grandmother’s recipe book. It seems that the recipes I came across all used either bacon or ham hocks to add flavor, however I opted out. Despite this omission, my collards still packed distinct flavor and didn’t leave me feeling bloated from all the sodium that can come with bacon and ham hocks.
I bought what felt and looked like a 10 pound bag of collards at the store, so I made a huUuUuUge batch of them on Sunday night and had more than enough leftovers to last me the whole week. Collards are the kind of food that gets better after sitting in the fridge for a day or two. That extra time gives all of the flavors time to really marry together and compliment each other. Collards are also the kind of food that wilt down to seemingly nothing once applied to heat, so despite the huge appearance of the bag, I’ve already gone through almost half of it with one batch.
Try this recipe out and let me know you like it! Vegetarians and vegans, don’t overlook this! I know it says to use chicken stock, but you could easily sub in vegetable stock instead đ
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