61 Southern Comfort Food Recipes You'll Want To Make On Repeat

Just like with fried chicken, you're going to want to marinate this catfish in buttermilk before dredging and frying. It'll permeate the fish with flavor and make sure it stays nice and juicy after it's fried. As for the dredge, there's a lot of debate about whether you should use flour or cornmeal—we think you should use both!

Get the Fried Catfish recipe.

Homemade, buttery biscuits pooling with peppery sausage gravy is hard to beat, and honestly, we aren’t interested in trying. Topped with our thick gravy, our biscuits are wonderfully crispy on the outside, making each bite truly perfect.

Get the Biscuits & Gravy recipe.

All Creole cuisine packs a flavor punch that keeps you coming back for seconds, but red beans and rice are in a league all their own. The red beans soak up the smoky, porky, spicy, and earthy flavors and release some starch to create a rich gravy that’s perfect for spooning over steamed white rice.

Get the Louisiana-Style Red Beans & Rice recipe.

We have to agree with chef Millie Peartree: There’s nothing quite like Southern collard greens. All you need are a couple of hours, a handful of staple ingredients, smoked turkey, and your collard greens, of course, for an easy side (or meal on its own!) you can serve all year long.

Get the Southern Collard Greens recipe.

This recipe is as hand-me-down as it comes (it's literally our editor's grandma's, and she said one spoonful instantly reminded her of her childhood). This easy comfort food recipe is perfect on a cold night, and simple enough to whip up when you don't feel like making anything.

Get the Chicken & Dumplings recipe.

The word étouffée is French for “smothered,” which makes sense in this spin on shrimp étouffée. This brothy dish features crawfish and vegetables completely covered in a savory butter-and-flour-based gravy (aka a roux). Pro tip: Serve this over white rice to soak up all that flavor.

Get the Crawfish Étouffée recipe.

Fillings for Southern tomato pies always include tomatoes, mayonnaise, plenty of cheese, and Dijon mustard, but our version's got a flavorful upgrade: chopped pimiento peppers, which lend the filling all the delicious richness of pimiento cheese dip.

Get the Southern Tomato Pie recipe.

Fluffy and crispy, corn fritters are our new favorite Southern-fried side (sorry, hush puppies). Littered with fresh sweet corn, these are the perfect addition to countless summer dinners, from a crab leg feast to a rack of saucy BBQ ribs or a taco spread.

Get the Corn Fritters recipe.

If you're looking for the best pulled pork recipe to keep in your back pocket—this is it. Sandwiched between a soft potato bun, piled on top of a baked potato, or even eaten on its own, pulled pork is the versatile dish we crave year round.

Get the Pulled Pork recipe.

Fried corn is a classic side dish from the American South. It's not fried as in deep-fried, but rather in the Southern sense of the word "sautéed." It's perfect served at any barbecue, alongside oven-baked ribs, potato rolls, and a summer salad.

Get the Southern Fried Corn recipe.

To complete the journey to fried chicken nirvana, we went through 5 whole chickens, 3 gallons of peanut oil, and over 20 iterations of the recipe so that you won't have to. We guarantee this is the only fried chicken recipe you'll ever need.

There is something so comforting about a casserole. This one—a sort of Tex-Mex amalgamation of chilaquiles and Midwestern chicken casseroles—comes together quickly and is perfect for feeding a hungry crowd.

Get the King Ranch Chicken recipe.

When it comes to year-round American cuisine, baked beans could quite possibly be looked at as one of the most classic side dishes. They’re sweet, tangy, savory, and the best part, surprisingly easy to make. Not to mention, they’re a one-pot wonder!

Get the Baked Beans recipe.

Spicy, hearty, and incredibly flavorful, jambalaya is a New Orleans classic for good reason. Its complex flavor is informed by cuisines from around the world—Spanish, West African, and French to name a few. Our recipe combines three proteins and vegetable-packed rice for a flavor-packed dish that will warm you up all season long.

Get the Jambalaya recipe.

Tender Yukon Gold potatoes paired with hard-boiled eggs, celery, sweet pickles, and red onion make this Southern-style potato salad the perfect sidekick for your next BBQ.

Get the Southern Potato Salad recipe.

When green tomatoes are in season, this Southern staple is the first dish we think of. Nothing complements a juicy, tart green tomato quite like a crunchy, slightly sweet cornmeal crust. A classic remoulade is our condiment of choice, but if you don’t feel like whipping one up from scratch, making a simple two-ingredient spicy mayo will absolutely do the trick.

Get the Fried Green Tomatoes recipe.

Picture this: juicy, tender beef, a crispy, salty breaded exterior, and plenty of velvety, rich gravy. It's a Southern comfort food masterpiece, and we are here for it.

Get the Chicken-Fried Steak recipe.

Not to be mistaken for jambalaya or shrimp étouffée, gumbo comes in many forms, but it always absolutely must: 1) thickened by a dark brown roux, 2) be served over rice (or with potato salad if you’re extra Southern), and 3) feature the holy trinity of Southern cooking: onion, celery, and green bell pepper.

Get the Chicken & Sausage Gumbo recipe.

Long before the creation of fried oysters, oysters were considered a poor man’s food because they were so abundant in the waters off the East Coast of the United States. They were first breaded and fried in the Western Hemisphere in the mid-19th century and have since been upgraded with a crispy, crunchy cracker crust. TMYK!

Get the Southern Fried Oysters recipe.

Unlike the gravy you’d see on a Thanksgiving table, this sauce is lighter in color and much thicker. Sausage fat takes the place of turkey drippings, and the sauce is intended to be super-thick, so there's no need to add stock. Pour it over some freshly baked biscuits, and you'll be in Southern food heaven.

Get the Sausage Gravy recipe.