Cooking Up Some Mean Greens

Today, I'm going to share my momma's recipe for some good old fashioned, yummy, back road down south collard greens! The mere mention of my momma's greens are enough to make my mouth water and rush me up Interstate-95 to Philadelphia to stand in line for a plate or two, or three or four.

The recipe is very simple, but if you want to do it right, you have to buy the bushels of collard greens, not the canned kind. Sorry, I'm just saying.

One of the biggest steps in preparing collard greens is make sure they are clean and this can take a full day.

Here is what you need to make this recipe show up on your table:

4-5 pounds of collard greens

2 pounds of smoked turkey parts (wings, legs or necks)

4 quarts of chicken broth

5 tablespoons of season salt

4 tablespoons of mesquite seasoning

3 tablespoons of onion powder

2 tablespoons of black pepper

2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper

As I said before, the biggest part of preparing collard greens starts a day before you even turn on the pot. Clean out your kitchen sink and get ready to make it the place where you sit your greens for a night.

Collard greens come on stems so you have to tear the leaf from the stem easily. Fold the leaf in half the long way, roll them up and on your cutting board, cut the greens evenly and put them into the sink in some warm salt water. That is to remove any of the dirt or anything else that may still be on the greens.

Cut all of tear, roll and cut all of your greens this way until all of them have been handled.

Let the greens sit overnight and when you're ready to cook them, drain the water from the sink and rinse them with cold water to get everything off them.

In a large pot, have your chicken broth, seasonings and smoked turkey parts simmering over a medium flame.

Let your pot simmer for at least 30 minutes so it gets warm and all of the ingredients start to merge.

You can then put your cut greens into the pot and let them cook over a medium flame for about three to four hours. You don't want the greens to get mushy and you don't want them too tough either.

Depending on your stovetop, you may have to cook them for a longer or shorter time.

Make sure you keep check on your greens the whole time you're cooking them. I'm not saying stand over them all day, but just make sure you're showing them some love.

Greens are best served warm, so once you turn the pot off and ring that dinner bell, stand back and watch the stampede. The smell these greens produce is amazing and will make your family believe they're meal was cooked by the greatest chef in the world.

Trust me, I know!

If you try this recipe, let me know how it turned out for you, or if you want to share one of your special dishes with me, send it onto andre.taylor@patch.com.