Southern Recipes
376 recipes found
New Orleans Cold Drip Coffee
Unless you’re familiar with coffee concentrate, New Orleans iced coffee is a puzzling ritual. The first time I had it, I watched skeptically as a friend’s mother filled a plastic Mardi Gras cup with ice, poured in an inch of inky coffee from a mayonnaise jar, then topped it off with milk. It was as smooth as a milkshake but had a rich coffee flavor and packed a caffeinated punch. It was easily the best iced coffee I’d ever had, yet another thing that tastes better in New Orleans.
Spicy Coleslaw
This easy, crisp slaw can be made a few hours ahead of time. It goes well with ribs and a cold beer, fried chicken or whatever summer feast sparks your fancy.
Shrimp Étouffée
Found in both Creole and Cajun cuisines, étouffée is most commonly made with crawfish tails, which have a distinct flavor, but crawfish have a short season and aren’t readily available in most places. This version, with shrimp, is more than a worthy substitute, and an excellent dish all its own. The dish takes its name from the French word "étouffée,” which nods to its protein being smothered with sauce. This recipe uses a shortcut version of a roux: The flour is added after the onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic have already been sautéed in the butter. If you omit the hot sauce, add apple cider vinegar in its place.
Spicy Shrimp Boil With Lemon Butter
In this very spicy, very messy shrimp feast, diners peel their own shrimp, then dunk them in hot sauce-spiked shrimp broth, a bowl of melted lemon butter or both. Many shrimp boils call for adding corn, sausage and potatoes to the pot. This one focuses solely on the shrimp, though feel free to add the other ingredients if you’d like to bulk it up. Crusty bread for serving is a must, both to sop with the last bits of broth and butter, and as a palate-soother, for when the building heat of the cayenne and hot sauce starts to burn.
New Orleans BBQ Shrimp
Barbecue shrimp is an old New Orleans recipe that has nothing to do with barbecue or with grilling. Its name comes from the spicy, smoky flavor the shrimp derive from being cooked with Worcestershire sauce and lots of black pepper. It is a fine and almost absurdly fast dish — once the shrimp are peeled, you can have it on the table in 10 minutes — with a rich, savory sauce that completely belies the little effort it takes. But as I discovered once I started playing around with it, the key ingredient is neither Worcestershire sauce nor pepper, but rather butter. If you start with about a tablespoon for each serving of shrimp, you can add almost any flavor you like and create a sauce with the same creaminess and rich flavor. But start with Worcestershire sauce and pepper!
Candied Yams
Sweet enough for dessert but savory enough for a side, candied yams are a quintessential Southern staple for Sunday dinner, get-togethers or holidays. Many supermarkets use the terms “sweet potatoes” and “yams” interchangeably. For this recipe, any orange-fleshed varieties like Jewel or Garnet will do. Whatever you use, this dish will definitely round out anything savory on your plate, on Thanksgiving and beyond.
Sweet Potatoes Baked With Lemon
This recipe first appeared in The Times in 1992, with an article by Molly O'Neill, when Edna Lewis, many years after writing her seminal cookbook “The Taste of Country Cooking,” was the chef at the Brooklyn restaurant Gage & Tollner. The addition of lemon zest and juice make this brighter and less sweet than typical sweet potato dishes.
Sweet Potato Hummingbird Cake
This magnificent version of the popular banana-pineapple-pecan cake developed by Southern Living magazine in 1978 is adapted from the chef Ashley Christensen's cookbook, "Poole's: Recipes from a Modern Diner." It is a Thanksgiving-worthy dessert for the pie averse: a supremely moist, dense cake crowded with sweet potato, roasted bananas, pineapple, currants and green peanuts (if you live north of the Mason-Dixon line, the plain, roasted variety work just fine). A lightly sweet, butter-cream cheese frosting finishes it off. Set aside a solid afternoon for this project cake, as you have to roast the bananas and grate the sweet potato, and the assembly takes some patience and agility — but it is well worth the toil. This recipe is for a towering three-layer version (get out your biggest mixing bowls), but you could just make a more modest, but still generously sized, two-layer cake instead. To do so, cut all of the ingredients in half (use just 2 eggs); divide the batter between two 8-inch round cake pans; and bake at the same time and temperature.
Country Panzanella With Watermelon Dressing
Consumed plainly or with a salt sprinkle, fresh watermelon conjures warm-weather memories. In the U.S. (primarily in the American South), master gardeners are growing heirloom (seedful) varieties: sugar baby, jubilee and Georgia rattlesnake. In Apex, N.C., Gabrielle E.W. Carter is the new steward of the property once owned by her maternal great-grandfather, where she grows herbs, tomatoes and watermelon. As a multimedia artist, she is documenting the food ways of Black families in Eastern North Carolina and preserving cooking traditions using fruits and vegetables straight from the garden. Crimson-flesh watermelon transforms the classic panzanella with a balanced sweetness. Using a coarse grater is essential in achieving a vibrant, textured dressing. Bocconcini can be substituted for feta cheese in this salad, which pairs well with festive mains like dry-rub mushrooms and spicy tamarind pork ribs.
Fried Green Tomatoes With Bacon Rémoulade
Tart unripe tomatoes are the star of this dish: Tossed in a cornmeal batter, then fried in bacon fat for just a couple of minutes per side. The crisp outside yields to a soft middle, finished with a relish of pickled tomatoes and smoky-sweet bacon. Or, skip the relish, and do as our commenters suggested: Pair it with a creamy mayonnaise sauce, infused with red peppers or even sriracha.
Green Tomato Chowchow
Here is a chunky relish of cabbage and bell pepper commonly served in the South with salty cold cuts and meats. It couldn’t be simpler: simmer chopped vegetables for 15 minutes in a spiced brine — we use judicious amounts of clove, allspice, cinnamon and toasted coriander — and pack into jars. We tip the balance more toward green tomato than cabbage when green tomatoes are available because we love the tomatillo-like flavor of a green tomato — a near-apple flavor, but without the sweetness. It’s a delicious substitute for any relish you would spread over a hot dog or a burger, but we take it in other directions, too. Mixed one-to-one with good mayonnaise, green tomato chowchow makes the perfect dressing for coleslaw. Sometimes we’ll strain out the brine before we add the mayonnaise to make a killer tartar sauce. Or if we’re feeling indulgent, we’ll drain the chowchow, toss it with squid or small bay scallops and flood it with a fruity extra virgin olive oil for easy mock-ceviche.
Market Table's Quinoa Hush Puppies with Chile Aioli
These hush puppies, served at Market Table in Manhattan, have a nubby texture and craggy surface, a perfect delivery method for a spicy, creamy aioli. You can make the quinoa mixture one day ahead, and you can even fry these a few hours in advance. Just crisp them under the broiler for a few minutes.
Sausage Balls
These classic Southern hors d’oeuvres, made with only three ingredients, taste just as good with beer as they do with bourbon. And they come together in about 20 minutes from start to finish.
Louisiana Crunch Cake
This version of the Southern staple falls somewhere between a Kentucky butter crunch cake, with its coconut topping and sugary-crisp exterior, and a sock-it-to-me cake, with its sweet, crunchy layer baked into the cake. You may know Louisiana crunch cake from the Entenmann’s box, but that version evolved from one baked by the Burny Bros. Bakery in Chicago. (The bakery was sold in 1963, and Entenmann’s eventually acquired its assets.) This cake will make you a coconut lover: Make sure to toast the coconut because it adds a nutty warmness; almond extract enhances that quality. It’s a perfect holiday cake, or anytime cake, ready to warm you up and get you talking.
Cheese Grits
There’s very little simpler than cooking grits. A few ingredients come together into something comforting, good for a cold morning and just as good for Sunday dinner. Use the best ingredients, pull out that pepper mill and season well. Make sure you pay attention to the details. The trick to good grits is cooking out the grittiness. The extra cream and frequent stirring here give it a consistency that’s not too dense and not too liquidy. Don’t leave it alone too long: If you stir it frequently, giving it love, it will love you back.
Salt-and-Pepper Beef Ribs
These beef ribs are an adaptation of the ones the chef Kenny Callaghan used to serve at the restaurant Blue Smoke, in Manhattan. For best results, order the ribs ahead of time from a butcher. (Pre-packaged ribs are generally too well-trimmed of meat for good barbecue purpose.) Ask for two back-rib racks trimmed from the prime rib, keeping as much meat on the ribs as possible, each rack approximately 6 ribs wide. That will do you brilliantly. Cook for a while in a bath of hickory smoke, then finish in the oven. Beef, salt, pepper, smoke, fat. You'll need napkins.
Sweet Tea
This sweet tea toes the line between just right and puckery sweet. The formula reflects the way my grandmother Leona Johnson made sweet tea: strong tea, lots of lemon juice and even more sugar. Start by adding half a cup of sugar to the batch, then add up to 4 more tablespoons to your preference. By making it extra potent, tart and sweet, this brew still tastes good even after the ice starts to melt.
Classic Carrot Salad
Maybe your family has made carrot salad forever, or maybe you’ve seen it at potlucks, but if you’re not familiar with this Southern classic, your inner voice might be screaming, “Raisins don’t belong in salad!” But relax: This just might be the only time they do. The soft, sweet raisins complement the crunchy carrots, which are finished with a tangy dressing. Soak the raisins in hot water to give them a different, more plump texture. If you aren’t a fan of mayonnaise or yogurt, use 2 tablespoons avocado oil or olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice, and add some chopped fresh parsley. Let the crunchy-sweet flavors roll over your tastebuds as you realize you’ve made a simple, and delicious, dish in less than 15 minutes.
Chocolate Church Cake
Layer cakes are formative for Southerners: They grace wedding tables, shiva gatherings, quinceañeras, baptisms and funerals. Because of this — and because layer cakes may be as close as some will ever get to a holy experience — they’re often called church cakes. This chocolate one is a perfectly moist and stacked rendition of a pudding cake, with just the right amount of richness from the frosting. This formula needs no alterations, but there’s no sense in breaking the tradition of Southern bakers, who personalize recipes as a point of pride. Add pulverized praline to the center, or cinnamon or instant-coffee granules to the batter. Don’t be afraid to make it your own. To make it a true church cake, serve it to those you hold in the highest regard, for celebrations or to simply indulge in the good glory of company.
Spoonbread
Popular in Virginia, the Carolinas and elsewhere in North America, spoonbread has a long history thought to date back to the Sewee tribe of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Somewhat closer to soufflé than cornbread, its tender texture comes from eggs and the creamed corn. It’s slightly sweet from the kernels, a bit of sugar and vanilla extract, but gently tangy from sour cream, relying upon simple ingredients that come together into something great. This version uses fresh or frozen crawfish, but don’t worry if crawfish isn’t available to you: Spoonbread is still wonderful without it.
Southern Macaroni and Cheese
There is macaroni and cheese, and then there is special occasion macaroni and cheese like this one. Unlike most recipes, which start with a roux, this one begins with a milk-and-egg base, which gives the dish an incredibly rich, silky taste. It’s adapted from Millie Peartree, the owner of Millie Peartree Fish Fry & Soul Food restaurant in the Bronx, who has been making this dish since she was a little girl. The recipe was passed down in her family for generations, but because of the generous amount of cheese used, the dish was only made for events like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Extra-sharp Cheddar adds tartness and a layer of Colby Jack creates a gooey, molten center. If you can’t find a Colby Jack blend, shredded mozzarella or a Mexican-style blend will work in its place.
Cornbread
This basic recipe is so easy and forgiving that you may find yourself making cornbread as often as your mother made mashed potatoes. Only a few ingredients are pretty much fixed: the salt, the baking powder, cornmeal and flour (you want a little flour for lightness). Other than that, feel free to experiment with bits of cooked bacon, sautéed onions or shallots, chili powder or cumin, chopped chilies or herbs, grated cheese, mashed or puréed beans or fresh, canned or frozen corn. The options are practically endless.
Husk Cornbread
A good cornbread recipe is an essential part of any good Southern kitchen. Here, Sean Brock of Husk restaurant in Charleston, S.C., uses a specific grind and brand of cornmeal to create a fluffy texture, though similar results can be had by using a blend of cornmeal and flour. The cornbread can be cut and pan-toasted in bacon fat to provide a good base for salads or poached eggs dishes, in which the slight crunch of a pork-flavored crouton is called for.
Miniature Home-Cured 'Ham'
My version of Southern biscuits and ham exposes me as a Yankee impostor, since it's not made with real country ham. It is, instead, a much smaller brine-cured pork tenderloin, easy to cure and cook (though it does take some advance planning). Serve with tender, hot biscuits, sweet butter and mustard.