Luby’s Skillet Cabbage is some of the best southern smothered cabbage. Cabbage is cooked perfectly tender with bacon, and some fresh tomatoes to make the perfect keto-friendly side dish.
So often I think cabbage is the forgotten vegetable. It is inexpensive and can be bitter if not cooked right. It isn’t hard to cook cabbage. I want you to show you how you can prepare cooked cabbage that people will ask you for your cabbage skillet recipe.
Luby’s is known for its great-tasting side dishes, and this skillet cabbage is no exception. So the next time there is a big sale on cabbage be sure to pick up a few extra heads of cabbage and enjoy this dish.
Table of Contents
Why is this dish called skillet cabbage?
This cabbage side dish is often made in a cast-iron skillet.
Ingredients for Luby’s Skillet Cabbage
Here is what you need to make skillet cabbage:
- Green cabbage
- Bacon
- Water
- Salt and Pepper
- Butter
- Tomatoes
How to pick the perfect cabbage
When choosing your head of cabbage, be sure to pick a compact head that feels heavy for its size. The leaves should be tightly wound around. Pick one that looks crisp and fresh, with a few loose leaves. If the head of cabbage has a lot of loose leaves, it is old. Pass on any heads of cabbage that feel limp. Store your whole head of cabbage in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator.
How to Make Skillet Cabbage
Chop cabbage and bacon. Place in a pot.
Add water and bring to a boil.
Add salt and pepper. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes.
Stir in butter before serving.
Love Luby’s? Check out these copycat Recipes
- White Fish
- Sweet Grits for Breakfast
- Luby’s Chopped Steak Recipe
- Mexican Jalapeno Cornbread
- Shredded Carrot Raisin Salad
- Mixed Squash Casserole
- Spanish Corn Casserole
- Cafeteria Style Mac and Cheese
- Hawaiian Pie Recipe
- Coconut Cream Pie with Meringue Recipe
Popular Cabbage Recipes
Check out more recipes from restaurants and low carb dishes.
Luby’s Skillet Cabbage
Ingredients
- 1 large green cabbage
- 6 ounces bacon cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1/2 cup chopped tomato
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Remove the cabbage core and discard the core.
- Slice the cabbage into 1 to 2-inch pieces; you should have approximately 12 cups.
- In a very large skillet saute bacon over medium heat until it has cooked half way. Do not drain the grease.
- Add cabbage to the skillet, and add 1 1/2 cups of water to the skillet.
- Place a lid over the pot. It may not fit all of the way, that's ok. the cabbage will cook down.
- After 10 minutes add the chopped tomato, pepper, and salt. Reduced the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes.
Texan
To those of you talking about cast iron skillets and so on, have any of you considered that THIS IS THE WAY LUBY’S DOES IT? This is not how your grandmother always did it, this is how Luby’s does it. Do you actually think that the employees at Luby’s are back there with cast iron skillets frying bacon? No, they take bacon, cabbage, salt, and pepper, throw it into one of those big restaurant warmer thingies, and boil it until done. So if you want it done like Luby’s, this is the way you replicate it at home.
Don’t come to copycat recipes to find your grandmother’s recipes, unless your grandmother worked at Luby’s.
stephaniemanley
Texan 😉 I love you.
Marie
We love you Stephanie! Thanks for this recipe! You can’t help the name of it! 😉 Geeeze! People are critical!
stephaniemanley
Heh 😉 What can you do? Thank you for dropping by.
Kathy Schrader
The point is that this is not fried cabbage this is boiled cabbage.
LL
TEXAN: You don’t know Luby’s (a family-owned, Texas company)! They have been famous for generations in that they prepare their dishes in
” holiday, family-sized ” portions. The pans they serve from will serve 10-12 guests. They turn them over constantly. This accounts for their signature freshness!
darksavior
big time fail ! fried lol
Tom
No cast iron skillet. No frying. This is boiled cabbage done the way my grandmother did it (sometimes used country ham) generations before there was a Luby’s.
stephaniemanley
Thanks for sharing Tom. I’d love to hear more about how your grandmother cooked.
Tom
Lots of fresh or home canned veggies. Lots of pork (butchered and cured right there). Fresh eggs. Grits. Relishes. Homemade rolls every night – I occasionally use her go-to recipe.
stephaniemanley
Sounds like she was quite the cook. I miss my grandmother’s cooking too.
E.
Stephanie, “my” Stephanie (daughter) also takes issue with your “non-fried” recipe! We have been eating at Luby’s for decades here in Dallas, TX and that is one of her favorite dishes.
I do have to compliment you on your gracious replies to comments from others.
stephaniemanley
Yes removed the word “fried cabbage” from the title. This is what I had always referred to as “fried cabbage” in this instance I must be from another planet, maybe even a different universe.
I think this the preparation will give you a fairly decent interpretation of the recipe.
None the less I hope you enjoy it.
gigimn
Fry bacon till crisp..pour out most of grease..then add chopped onions and cabbage and fry..that’s fried cabbage..
stephaniemanley
Thank you for your great tips. How much bacon grease do you leave in the pan?
gigimn
about a tablespoon..enough to cover bottom of pan but not make the cabbage greasy..
stephaniemanley
Thanks! My little bit may be less than yours.
Rosemary
You are so right, thats the way I grew up watchi.ng my mother make it , and she was a yankee
Erna
After you have fried the chopped bacon and onions, add the fresh cabbage, let it simmer for a few minutes. Depending on how much cabbage is stewing together, add a cup or two of cream and simmer on low heat. Fabulous when you have prepared hamburgers and mashed potatoes. Dinner is set.
Stephanie
I have never tried adding cream to cabbage. Thank you for the idea.
lubys employee
the real recipe is:
1 gallon of chopped green cabbage
1/2 cup cooked bacon pieces
1/4 cup bacon fat
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon pepper
blanch cabbage in 185 degree water for 4 minutes. meanwhile, heat skillet over high heat. add bacon and bacon fat. After cabbage is tender, drain and add to skillet. remove skillet from heat and quickly add salt and pepper. stir thoroughly for 1 minute. done.
stephaniemanley
Thank you for the share 😉
Barbara Merrill
I love cabbage any way you cook it. My mom just use to boil it with ham hocks and salt and pepper, we ate it over rice. I have fired it with bacon and onions love it. I have cut it into quarters taking out the core and boiled it with salt until done then drain it and put it into baking dish, put a lot of real butter on it and cover it with cheese and bake it until the cheese has melted, I just love it too.
stephaniemanley
Thank you very much for your comment. I appreciate your comment.
Amelia L Adair
That is how I make my fried cabbage. I do start it off boiled then after 4-5 minutes I put it in a pan of bacon grease and fry it! Ever try to fry cabbage before blanching it in hot boiling water? It can have a very hard texture…I like y cabbage tender!
J'Marinde Shephard
I’m a bit new to this, but where’s the “fried” part? After reading all the comments here, I would add in a med onion chopped with the boil, then after 30 mins, strain all — reserve any juice to drink when cool – – put all into a frying pan, if nec, add a bit of oil – – something plain, like peanut oil, and fry just a bit to caramelize a little, then add the butter (for me dairy free margarine) and serve.
stephaniemanley
Great suggestion thank you.
Willa
I have added shredded carrots sometimes, brocolli slaw, and LOTS of onions.
stephaniemanley
Thank you for your wonderful suggestion.
Willa
In all my 80 yrs. of living, I have never heard anything so ridiculous as calling plain ole boiled cabbage, FRIED!!! For those of you who would like to know how to fry cabbage, just fry up some salt pork until it nice and crispy. Remove it from pan and fry your cabbage in the pork grease. When done, put in the serving bowl and sprinkle the fried salt pork on the top as a garnish. That’s all there is to it. Been doing it for yrs
Stephanie
Willa, I should have consulted with you before posting this recipe. It sounds like you make very tasty cabbage. I appreciate you sharing your technique with everyone.
stephaniemanley
Sounds like I should have consulted with you before I posted this recipe. Thank you for your wise advice.
Lady Patriot
Right on, Willa. I’ve been making that way, too, for years. You can substitute bacon for the salt pork.
Stephanie
I am so glad to hear all of the wonderful ways everyone cooks cabbage.
Mary
I agree. I don’t know where they got that it is fried cabbage.
stephaniemanley
Thank you for sharing your opinion 😉
Susan
Willa your absolutely right! Thank you for sharing…
Cindy
I fry my cabbage in bacon grease, just like my Mama did. Salt pork would be about the same, maybe a little cheaper since bacon has become so expensive. The above recipe, as you said, Willa, is boiled cabbage, not fried. I also don’t think I would enjoy the taste and texture of boiled bacon, yuk!!
Disco Dotty
mine is better much better and like the others say, it can’t be fried cabbage if it isn’t fired.
stephaniemanley
Yes, thank you for making that clear to me.
Sherlene Smith Dishun
So funny. Stephanie did ya get that? Sorry they are all cramming that down your throat. Chill people.
stephaniemanley
Heh 😉 Apparently its really important to write about how to “fry cabbage’. This isn’t a recipe for fried cabbage.
Lady Patriot
Why is this called “fried cabbage”? I see no resemblance to traditional fried cabbage. Y’all need to visit the South.
Stephanie
Thank you for sharing your opinion.
RetiredOne
I loved eating at Luby’s. It has been gone from Memphis for a long time. Does anyone have a recipe for their Waldorf Salad?
Stephanie
Great suggestion. Thanks!
Manga Bene
Copycat recipes are always missing something or quantities are not significant to match the original, this is something you would get at St. Paddys day dinner, omit bacon and add ham, WALLA!
Cathie
Are you talking about using Walla Walla onions in the cabbage, or are you
trying to use the French phrase
“Voila?”
Dottie J. Bowman
fried cabbage must be fried with bacon grease in an IRON skillet
Stephanie
I don’t always understand the naming of recipes either 😉 I hope you enjoy this one.
stephaniemanley
You got me on this one 😉 I appreciate your suggestion.
Kathy Schrader
Exactly! And always has an onion chopped up in it. No water either.
Pam Linyard
Boiled, not fried
Rhiannon Martin
So, it’s actually…BOILED cabbage. Groundbreaking stuff right there.
Lea Ann
I had never eaten at a Luby’s until on a trip down in Southern Texas. And we ended up eating there practically every night due to convenience and the nature of the trip. I wish I could remember the fish I had those nights. I loved it. I’m a cabbage fan so will be trying it Luby Style. Thanks for this Stephanie.
Catherine Baxter
Lea Ann…the fish is to die for isn’t it? There is a Luby cook book…all the favorites (including the fish) in that but it sold out and is out of print and hard to find. Sometimes on amazon..but pricey. The fish were made baked (not fried) and the coating was crushed corn flakes. That’s about all I remember but maybe the Luby employee who posted the cabbage recipe can help.
JetfireK
Cabbage, tablespoon of bacon grease, layer of cabbage layer of sliced onions, salt pepper, put in microwave, no water, no butter…five minutes at a time stir…delicious…cook to desired “crunch” or no crunch….
CJ
just an FYI – on emails (or at least mine) your photo covers up some of the words that you start you newsletter with. Though you would like to know. CJ
Sasquatch
Reduce your font size, should take care of it..
Kathy S.
Where does the “fried”part come in?