Southern-Style Homemade Collard Greens

April 10, 2026 Dexie Jane collard greens, collard greens recipe, cooking at home, cooking blog, cooking videos, food reels, foodblog, home cooked, home cooking, homemade collard greens, homemade collard greens recipe video, side dishes, southern style collard greens, step-by-step collard greens

A nice couple from Church were harvesting their crop and gave me a bunch of vegetables which includes Collard Greens. In all my years of living here in the North Carolina I can’t remember if I’ve ever made Homemade Collard Greens. I love it when we go to Southern-style Buffet restaurants or if served at get-togethers. I love green-leafy vegetables, then you add the smoke flavor and that touch of vinegar. Ahh, it hits the spot.

I had to learn how-to make Southern-Style Homemade Collard Greens of course. I read a few recipes and watch a couple of videos on YouTube. After watching 5 videos from different recipes and with new found knowledge, I decided to finally cook it.

Southern-Style Homemade Collard Greens

Print Recipe

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

bunches of leaves of Collard Greens
lots of water to rinse and clean the greens
2 tbsp bacon grease (vegetable oil is fine)
1 onion
3-5 cloves garlic
2-3 pcs smoked pork neck bones (smoked ham hocks or turkey leg are great too)
4 cups chicken stock
generous sprinkle of salt & black pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp vinegar (or less, depends on how you like it)
a little bit(or more) red pepper flakes

Method

Wash the collard greens thoroughly with water as soon as you get it.
Refer to the video on how to cut the stems out.
These leaves need to soak in water again.
Soak 'em in a clean sink or huge bowl filled with water for 10-15 minutes Then gently rub and rinse them off.
Do the chiffonade method to slice/cut the leaves. Refer to the video on how-to.
Heat up bacon grease(or oil) in a pot. Saute onions and garlic until transluscent.
Season with salt & black pepper and red pepper flakes. Add the smoked meat: I used pork neck bones. Smoked Ham Hock or Turkey Leg would be great too.
Add the Chicken Broth and Worcestershire sauce. Stir everything together. Cover the pot and let it boil.
I ended up adding another piece of smoked pork neck bones. Stir in the collard greens. Cover the pot. Turn the heat to low. Simmer for 45minutes to an hour or longer if necessary. Check to stir occasionally.
At the very last minutes of cooking, stir in vinegar & more salt if necessary. Then take out the meat. Debone and chop up the meat into small pieces. Discard the bones.
Put the meat back into the pot. Stir and finish cooking.
VOILA!

Can I just brag about how my Husband was so impressed and loved it? So impressed he was bragging about it to people at work. I Mean… Way to go ME! ☺️👏👏