NEW<\/span>You can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n As the world mourns country music icon Dolly Parton following her death at age 80, her favorite Southern dishes offer a taste of the traditions she cherished throughout her life.<\/p>\n “We were born cooking, as they say,” Parton told Food Network of growing up as one of 12 children in Tennessee. “All of my life, I remember being in the kitchen with somebody because life just centered around the kitchen.”<\/p>\n Parton said she learned to cook from “all those wonderful relatives” she watched in the kitchen.<\/p>\n ‘GOLDEN GIRLS’ KITCHEN COMES TO LIFE WITH CHEESECAKE AND ’80S NOSTALGIA<\/strong><\/p>\n “If I were giving you tips, I’d probably get a notice from the health department because I like to use a lot of butter,” she told Food Network. “You’ve got to use a little bit of the things that really make things taste good if you’re going after that soul food, so to speak. You’ve gotta use some grease \u2014 bacon grease, mainly.”<\/p>\n Dolly Parton often spoke about her love of Southern cooking and credited her mother and other relatives with teaching her in the kitchen.<\/span> (John Lamparski\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The signature dishes Parton said she often prepared and liked to eat showcased her Southern roots.\u00a0<\/p>\n She published two cookbooks: “Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s” in 2006 and, with her sister Rachel Parton George, “Good Lookin’ Cookin'” in 2024.<\/p>\n Parton also endorsed several food and cooking products, including cake mixes and frozen meals, throughout her career.<\/p>\n FROM FONDUE TO CASSEROLES: CLASSIC 1960S FOODS THAT DEFINED A GENERATION<\/strong><\/p>\n “I’m a really, really good cook,” Parton told Wired in 2020. “I’m not a gourmet cook. My food is not pretty, but it’s good.”<\/p>\n Dolly Parton’s frozen meals reflect her Southern roots.<\/span> (Lindsey Nicholson\/UCG\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Below are some of the Queen of Country Music’s favorite foods.<\/p>\n A recipe for the Southern classic appeared in “Dollywood Presents: Tennessee Mountain Home Cooking,” published in 1989. Decades later, Parton said in an interview with Country Living, “When I think about my mama, I think about some chicken and dumplings.”<\/p>\n 6 ICONIC AMERICAN RESTAURANTS STILL SERVING UP NOSTALGIA AND CLASSIC FLAVORS<\/strong><\/p>\n “I like a good meatloaf. It’s easy to make,” she told the publication. “But I also love to make chicken and dumplings. I get a couple of chickens, and I get enough for everyone because everyone loves my chicken and dumplings!”<\/p>\n The 1989 recipe associated with Parton begins by simmering a whole chicken with onion and celery leaves in salted water, according to The Kitchn.<\/p>\n Parton said it would take her “all day” to make chicken and dumplings the way she liked them.<\/p>\n Parton said her homemade chicken and dumplings could take all day to prepare.<\/span> (Theo Wargo\/WireImage)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “I may read a while or try to relax while I check in on my cooking,” she told Country Living. “It’s the same thing with a meatloaf or fried chicken.”<\/p>\n But Parton wouldn’t give away all the details of her famous dish.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER<\/strong><\/p>\n “I don’t give out the recipe,” she said. “Mine is all these secret ingredients \u2014 and the main one is love.”<\/p>\n One of Parton’s favorite breakfast foods was biscuits and gravy.<\/p>\n “Everybody makes biscuits, but how many people make buttermilk biscuits unless you really are from the South?” Parton said in a 2023 interview with Eater.<\/p>\n Parton was known for embracing hearty Southern fare, once saying that she liked to use plenty of butter and bacon grease in her cooking.<\/span> (Pete Still\/Redferns)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “I love it all. I eat gravy and biscuits at least once a week for breakfast with sausage or whatever. With the same pan, I’ll get a biscuit and put apple butter or jam or jelly on there. Whatever looks good. There\u2019s no bad way to eat a biscuit.”<\/p>\n Parton described herself as more of a cook than a baker, but banana pudding was among her favorite desserts.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS<\/strong><\/p>\n “Everybody loves banana pudding,” she said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in 2022. “That was always one of my favorite things, a big old bowl of banana puddin’.”<\/p>\n Parton once described banana pudding as one of her favorite treats, recalling “a big old bowl” of the classic Southern dessert.<\/span> (David Redfern\/Redferns)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A recipe for the Southern staple, inspired by her mother’s method, is included in “Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s” and calls for a 12-ounce box of vanilla wafers and five to six sliced bananas.<\/p>\n Parton admitted to Wired that potatoes were her weakness.<\/p>\n “Every diet I ever fell off of has been because of a potato,” Parton said. “Either french fries or mashed potatoes or baked potatoes. Potato, potato, potato! I never met a spud I didn’t like.”<\/p>\n TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ<\/strong><\/p>\n Parton said a mayonnaise-based potato salad was her go-to dish to bring to a barbecue. She recalled that Sunday fried chicken served with potato salad was “one of the greatest things ever” from her childhood.<\/p>\n “When that happened at our church and that big bowl of potato salad got there, you didn’t have to worry,” she said during an interview on the “Today” show in 2022. “Even [if] it was sunny, it wasn’t gonna last that long! It wasn’t gonna go bad \u2026 not if I was around!”<\/p>\n Another love of Parton’s was roast pork, “especially the fatty part,” Parton said in a 1992 interview with The New York Times. “I can’t help it. The greasier the food, the better.”<\/p>\n The country music icon said food was central to life growing up as one of 12 children in Tennessee.<\/span> (UPI\/Bettmann Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Parton revealed to the Times in 1992 that one of her favorite meals to serve guests was roast pork with green beans, turnip greens and fried okra.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chess pie, a traditional Southern custard-style pie typically made with eggs, sugar, butter and flour or cornmeal, was Parton’s favorite pie, she told USA Today in 2019.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/p>\n “I don’t eat much cake,” she said. “I usually have pie on my birthday. My favorite pie is chess pie. That is ‘chess,’ not ‘chest,’ pie.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Dolly](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1200\/675\/dolly_parton_2019.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n![\"Dolly](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1200\/675\/dolly-parton-entrees.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nChicken and dumplings<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Dolly](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1200\/675\/dolly_parton_2023.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nBiscuits and gravy<\/h2>\n
![\"Dolly](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1200\/675\/dolly_parton_young.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nBanana pudding<\/h2>\n
![\"Dolly](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1200\/675\/dolly_parton.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nPotatoes<\/h2>\n
Roast pork<\/h2>\n
![\"Dolly](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1200\/675\/dolly_parton_vintage.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nChess pie<\/h2>\n