Southern Food Favorites

There’s nothing like good old-fashioned Southern cooking. Even if you’re not from the South, you can still enjoy its culinary gifts. Known for comfort food that is unique for all of its multi-cultural influences, traditional Southern recipes indulge the palate and warm the heart. 

Southern Food Influences

Southern food is infused with various cultures, each bringing its own rich influence.

Native American CultureNative Americans gave Southern food one of its staples: corn.

• Indulge in the classic Southern food, grits (coarsely ground corn), by using our recipe for cheesy grits. Or go the extra mile with our recipe for sausage and cheese grits casserole.
• Enjoy our Bisquick recipe for cornmeal-sage biscuits with sausage gravy or our recipe for buttermilk cornbread.
• Planning an event where you need to serve a lot of people? Try our recipe for Southern stir-fry.

African-American Culture

African-American culture influenced Southern food with “soul food” with such favorites as okra and black-eyed peas.

• Try a variety of recipes from Betty’s Soul Food Collection such as collard bread or our hot ‘n spicy fried chicken with black-eyed peas.
• Delight in okra and a variety of other flavors with our recipes for New Orleans gumbo or red beans and rice, recipes from our Soul Food Collection
• Enjoy our recipe for savory black-eyed peas with bacon. Or get your black-eyed peas in our recipe for Southern turkey and lentil casserole.

Louisiana Creole cuisine, most known from New Orleans, derives from French, Spanish and Latin American cultures. Creole chefs have easy access to the coast, so these dishes typically involve a variety of seafood.

• Fire up the grill with our recipe for grilled Creole snapper, or preheat the oven for Creole flounder.

Cajun Culture

Cajun food is largely associated with Creole food because they share French cuisine attributes and are both popular in Louisiana. But Cajun is greatly influenced by the Acadia region in Canada. Rice became a major staple in Cajun cuisine because it could easily feed large families.

• Celebrate Cajun culture with our recipe for Cajun chicken and rice, or try our recipe for Cajun sausage and rice.
• Spice up the grill with our recipe for Cajun spice rub.
• Trade in your regular French fries for our recipe for Cajun sweet potato fries with yogurt dipping sauce.

Can’t get enough comfort food from the South? Luckily, there’s plenty of traditional Southern cuisine, so take your pick and make an entire meal of it!

• Cook up our recipe for smothered chicken and gravy. Don’t forget to include some biscuits to soak up the extra gravy.
• A Southern meal wouldn’t be complete without dessert, so polish everything off with our recipe for Southern apple crumble.
• Make it a pie night with our recipes for collard greens and turkey quiche and green tomato pie for dinner. For dessert, try our Kentucky pecan pie.
• Host a classic Southern dinner with our recipe for country fried steak and a side of marbled potatoes and carrots. Top it off with some Southern sweet potato bread.