I've had several people ask over the last few years to post the official Utica Greens Morelle recipe. My friend Joe Morelle, who passed away a few years ago, created Greens Morelle for the Chesterfield back in the 1980s. Nobody made Greens like Joe.

The one thing Joe was most proud of is the fact that his recipe, which really is unique to Utica, was so popular and so duplicated at so many local restaurants. The key to his recipe though, was the fact that everybody seemed to have their own version of Greens. There are scaled-down versions and those that add additional ingredients like roasted peppers and roasted potatoes.

Joe even liked to invent certain variations of classic recipes when he cooked throughout the area. When he was head chef at Thurston's in Frankfort (which no longer exists) he loved to bring out food to our family and say, "you have to try my new creation. I want to know what you guys think." One of those was a variation on Chicken Riggies which he called Steak Riggies. Steak Riggies featured beef filet instead of chicken and beef stock instead of chicken stock and it was so delicious.

The fact is, there's nothing like the original. Here's the closest version I have and use to create Joe's original Greens Morelle.

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