I've been super excited all week about the meal I was going to cook on Thursday. I even posted an Instagram photo of the front of the recipe card to make people jealous of our upcoming feast.
Here's how it was to prep:
First let me just say, I may have only used ONE pot to cook in (my beloved rockcrok), but I used about 47 dishes to prep with. My kitchen was a DISASTER from all of the prep items. I had a plate with paper towels on it for the bacon; I had two bowls holding the chopped greens (my fault - I didn't grab a big enough one when I started) and a cutting board used for chopping the greens and chopping the garlic (along with a dirty chopper); I had one bowl holding the raw cubed chicken (which was cut on a separate cutting board); I had one cutting board holding the onion; and I had a measuring cup holding the flour. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it was a big mess. And yes, I ended up using three cutting boards. It was either three cutting boards, or two cutting boards and a bowl. Same amount of dishes.
Let me also say that the quoted prep time was WAY off. The card says 20 minutes of prep with a total time of 1 hour and 15 minutes. It took me a little over 2 hours from start to finish. So if you decide to make this and you haven't pre-prepped anything, be prepared to spend about 2 hours in the kitchen. Unless you're just a crap-ton faster at prep than I am.
Here are some ingredient changes I made:
Instead of collard greens, I used kale, for no other reason than the fact that kale is in season. Plus, kale's yummy. And collards are yummy. So it was a win-win either way. I also used dried thyme leaves instead of fresh thyme leaves, because I already had a container of dried thyme on my spice shelf. And instead of red bell pepper, I used green, because I already had some in the freezer. And finally, I drained the black-eyed peas as instructed, but I didn't rinse them. Because seriously.......was it really that important that they be rinsed?
I also used "low sodium chicken stock" instead of "unsalted chicken stock", which I didn't even see as an option. I'm sure they're the same, right?
Here is how it all went down:
I cooked the bacon in the pot, and then set it on paper towels to dry. I was behind on having all the greens trimmed and chopped, so I turned off the stove eye while I finished this part up. I peeled the greens from both sides of the stem, tore them in half (they were long!), and then chopped them up. Not into tiny pieces, but just into decent-sized soup pieces. Once I had all of my greens cut and placed into bowls ready to cook, I decided to go ahead and prep some of the other ingredients before getting started on the greens. I went ahead and peeled and chopped the garlic (with my veggie chopper, which saved me a ton of time), sliced the onion (not into "thin slices" as directed but more just "diced" it), scooped out 1/4 cup of flour, got my thyme and red pepper flake containers within reach, and chopped up my chicken. Once I had these items ready to go, I poured the bacon grease out of the pot and into a glass, leaving a little bit in the pot to use for the first round of greens. I turned the stove eye back on to medium and tossed the first half of greens in the pot, stirring to coat them with the bacon grease. While they cooked, I chopped up the sausage, turning the greens every 20-30 seconds (that's just guessing). After the greens were nice and wilted (about 5 min), I put them back in the bowl, poured a little more bacon grease back into the pot, and went for Greens Round 2. This is when I remembered that I needed to drain the black-eyed peas, so I popped the can of peas open just a tiny bit (it had a pull tab) and propped it up over the sink drain to drain. I removed the second set of greens from the pot, added them to the first set, poured a little more bacon grease into the pot, and then tossed in half of the chicken chunks. I sprinkled on salt and pepper after I put the chicken in the pot, but tossing it around in salt and pepper in the bowl would have been good, too. The directions said to brown the chicken for 4-6 minutes, "turning once".......I didn't do this. I definitely cooked the chicken longer than 4-6 minutes, and I flipped it and turned it many times. It doesn't really matter how you do it.....just cook your chicken. You want it juicy and tender, but not raw. Once the chicken was done, I put it into one of the empty bowls that I used to hold greens, and tossed the sausage in with it. Then I added more bacon grease to the pot and cooked the second half of the chicken. I also tore up the bacon and added it to my bowl of meat while the second set of chicken cooked.
After the chicken was done, I realized that I had not left myself enough bacon grease for the next step. I had divided my bacon grease into 4 portions instead of 5. But have no fear......as a true southern woman, I have a coffee mug of bacon grease in my fridge. So I just scooped some out and tossed it into the pot along with the garlic, onion, thyme and red pepper. I let my onion soften a little, but once it started to threaten to burn (or rather, the thyme was threatening to burn), I moved onto the next step of tossing in the flour. The recipe said to stir the veggies and flour for 1 minute......I lasted about 8 seconds before I started pouring chicken stock in to keep things from burning. I'm also not so sure I poured "slowly" like the recipe writers requested. I'm pretty sure I just went for it. And I'm pretty sure I ended up pouring more than 3 cups in. Ah well. It is a soup recipe!
I added my meat bowl to the pot, put the lid on, and stuck it in the microwave for 14 minutes (which I'm sure if you don't have a rockcrok, some time spent simmering on the stovetop is just as good). While this 14 minutes was going on, I cleaned up my kitchen disaster. After the pot came out of the microwave, I stirred in the greens and tossed in the bell pepper and then covered it and let it sit. Here's what it looked like when I was done. It was PURDY.
The verdict:
I thought this dish was DELICIOUS. My husband thought it was "ok". I was actually shocked at first that he thought it was just "ok". But he said that he felt like it was more trouble than it was worth, and it turns out that he's not really a big fan of kielbasa sausage (I didn't realize this or I would have chosen a different sausage). Another thing I think is probably true regarding my husband's lack of enthusiasm about this dish is that he's not a big fan of salt, and the soup is a little on the salty side (because of the sausage, maybe?). But I don't find this dish to be that salty and I think it turned out YUM YUM IN MY TUM TUM.
Things I would have done differently/will do differently next time:
The #1 obvious thing I'll change for next time is the type of sausage I use, since the hubs apparently frowns upon kielbasa. I think it turned out EXCELLENT with the kale, so I may or may not switch up the greens next time. Maybe that will all depend on what's in season. I WILL plan ahead for prep......maybe get the greens, chicken, garlic, onion and sausage all chopped and ready ahead of time. And MAYBE even take it a step further and cook the bacon ahead of time. I would also choose to saute the bell pepper with the onion instead of tossing it in at the end. I like texture contrasts in my dishes, but it just didn't feel like the bell pepper should be semi-crunchy in this dish - that it would be much better suited soft and sauteed.
I'm definitely saving this recipe for later. With a few minor changes, I'm sure I can make it faster as well as more desirable for the hubs. But it's just too good to toss aside. We had it for dinner again tonight and still have probably a half a pot left.
Lucas is thrilled. ;)
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