Collard Greens with Bacon

Collard greens with bacon - it's a standard side dish in Southern meals; I usually see it as an option with barbeque. I had never seen raw collard greens before, and I was startled by how big each leaf was. However, once the leaves got in the pot, they very quickly cooked down to almost nothing. This was a tasty side dish to complement the rest of Alice's Southern cuisine. Can't go wrong with bacon, right? :)

Ingredients:

4 strips thick-sliced bacon, snipped crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces

1 small yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Several dashes of hot sauce

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 lbs. collard greens, stems removed, leaves sliced into 3-inch wide strips

1 cup chicken broth

Instructions:

1. Put bacon pieces into a large pot and cook on medium heat until they just start to brown around the edges. Stir occasionally. Mix in the onions and cook until they're soft and starting to brown.

2. Add the garlic, sugar, salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Cook until the garlic becomes fragrant, about 1 min.

3. Pour in the vinegar, bring to a simmer, and cook until the amount of liquid is reduced by half, stirring and scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot.

4. Stir in the collard greens and the chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the greens are completely wilted and have lost their brightness, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with additional vinegar and hot sauce and serve with a generous ladle of the pan juices from the pot.