Dolly Parton & Her Sister Rachel’s Favorite Side Dishes

For Dolly Parton and her sister Rachel Parton George, cooking a meal for their friends and family is like putting on a concert: You manage your “set list” of openers (aka appetizers), followed by the main event (entree) that is supported by backup singers and dancers to bring the performance to the next level (the way delicious side dishes enhance a meal). And, of course, you have to have an encore (dessert) before the show is truly over. 

This concert metaphor inspired the format of Dolly and Rachel’s new cookbook, Good Lookin’ Cookin’, which came out last month. The book is divided into months, so you have recipes for every season and occasion, and each chapter is complete with an “Opening Act” to get your meal started, favorite family recipes for the main meal, and an “Encore” to end things on a sweet note. 

Related: Dolly Parton Just Shared Her Favorite Vintage Dessert Recipes, Including a 5-Ingredient Pie

Standout Sides That Level Up the Main Meal

Dolly and Rachel seem to share our passion for side dishes, which are anything but an afterthought. “We just love side dishes,” Dolly tells EatingWell in an exclusive interview. “We love having things to enhance that great meal and finding those perfect pairings that are really compatible.”

Many of the recipes in Good Lookin’ Cookin’ have graced the Parton family table over the years, including their mom’s famous Skillet Cornbread. Rachel learned how to make it when she was just 5 years old, and it’s still the dish that Dolly loves to make when she gets home from traveling. “It’s one of my favorite dishes, period,” Dolly says. “If I’m making potato soup—Mama called ’em soup taters—or if I’m making a big old pot of great northern white beans or pinto beans, you have got to have a skillet of cornbread with that, no doubt about it.” Rachel concurs. When she’s making a roast—“pork roast, chuck roast, any kind of roast”—cornbread is a must. “This recipe is a staple in our life and in our family,” Rachel tells EatingWell. “There’s never a wrong time to serve it.”

Related: Lodge’s Dolly Parton Collab Just Got 3 New Additions, and Some Are Already On Sale

Beyond being a classic Southern staple, corn holds extra significance for the Partons. Growing up, Dolly and Rachel would help their father with the harvest, and their family paid the doctor that delivered Dolly with a bag of cornmeal. “We lived on a farm and grew our own corn,” Dolly says. “We had fresh corn on the cob (roasting ears, as they call ’em), cream-style corn that we would scrape off the cob, and we also shucked that corn when it dried in the wintertime, and Daddy would take it down to the gristmill to grind into cornmeal. We had big barrels of our own cornmeal that Mama used to cook cornbread all through the winter.” 

Other standout side dishes that you’ll find in the book (and on our site!) are Broccoli Salad and Southern Green Beans. “My husband loves broccoli salad, and it’s something you can prepare in advance,” Rachel says. “It’s a great time-saver.” This make-ahead recipe, which Dolly describes as healthy and hearty, comes together in just 15 minutes and calls for at least 1 hour of chill time so that the flavors can meld together. The Southern Green Beans, which are simmered over the stove for an hour and a half in chicken stock and some bacon grease and then topped with crispy bacon, is comfort food at its finest. Dolly shares that, growing up, their grandmothers, aunts and mother cooked green beans this way, and it makes them super flavorful. “They’re not your average green beans,” she says. Rachel adds that the dish “reminds us of home and of Mama’s cooking.”

Dolly & Rachel’s Favorite Vegetable

Green beans and corn were often at the dinner table growing up, but the vegetable that Dolly and Rachel love above all others? “Potatoes, without question—they are so versatile,” Rachel says. “If I had to pick one thing to eat for the rest of my life, it’d be potatoes,” Dolly says. “There’s not much you can’t do with a potato.” A loaded potato is her go-to meal when she doesn’t have time to cook or is too tired to cook. “I’ll usually just throw a big old tater in the microwave, then I’ll add some butter, salsa and some sour cream and whatever else I have and make a meal of that,” she says. “A Dolly dollop goes a long way on a baked potato.” (A Dolly dollop is a generous spoonful of sauce or cream—in this case, sour cream—because she measures with her heart.)

Related: Here’s What Dolly Parton Eats in a Day to Stay Healthy and Radiant

On Cookbook Writing and “Eating Well”

The decision to create Good Lookin’ Cookin’ was inspired by Dolly and Rachel’s love for cooking and eating, as well as for each other. “I think most families, big families certainly, kind of everything centers around the kitchen and food,” Dolly says. “We grew up with all of our grandmas and our aunts and our mom, everybody cooking such great country food.” She notes that Rachel has been collecting cookbooks and recipes for years, and is “one of those great cooks that can make food look good and taste good.” Add to that the fact that they both live in Nashville and visit and cook with each other all the time, and a cookbook made perfect sense. 

Related: Dolly Parton’s Secret to Impeccable Scrambled Eggs is Ridiculously Easy

“We knew we would have a great time, and that we’d get a chance to revisit family recipes and stories,” Rachel says. Dolly adds that they had so much fun working on the book and enjoyed the extra sister time. “We learned how much we truly do love each other and each other’s company, and we’re just happy to have something great we made together that we get to share. We hope people enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.” 

Whatever your meal lineup looks like, whether it’s a simple weeknight dinner or a holiday feast, the most important thing is to enjoy it. For Rachel, eating well means “being gathered at the table with those you love.” And, for Dolly, it means eating what feels good and tastes good. “Now, I know that a lot of people are all about healthy foods, and we all try to eat as well as we can. But, to me, eating well is really enjoying what you’re eating and having a good time doing it.”

Related: Dolly Parton Finally Confirmed the Official Recipe for Dollywood’s Famous Cinnamon Bread