Add onions, ham hocks, butter, broth, vinegar, and garlic cloves to the bottom of the slow cooker pot.
Pack the collard greens on top of the other ingredients.
Add the slow cooker lid.
Slow cook on “high” for 4 hours and 30 minutes.
Remove the ham hocks and pick off the meat. Discard the bones and skin.
Add the remaining ingredients (red pepper flakes, herb seasoning, sweetener, broth paste, and salt to taste) to the collard greens. Stir.
Add the meat to collard greens. Stir and serve.
Notes
Buy washed and chopped collard greens: Cleaning collard greens is hectic and takes a lot of time. Buying them already washed and chopped will save you time and unnecessary trouble.
Remove the hard stem ends: Removing the hard stem ends will help eliminate the bitterness from your crockpot collard greens. The packaged kind comes with these already removed
Season in the end: If you want bold flavors in your slow cooker collard greens, save the seasonings until the end. This not only allows you to season to taste, but it also preserves some of the flavor that is lost during the long cooking process.