“They just had the two of them and the preacher. They had a quiet little thing.”
Dolly Parton is opening up about the one side dish she can’t do without.
The 79-year-old country music icon has never been shy about her love for cooking and has published two cookbooks in her career, including “Dolly's Dixie Fixin's” in 2006 and “Good Lookin’ Cookin’” in 2024.
She also launched a line of baking mixes and frostings under the Duncan Hines brand in 2022.
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In an interview with Today, published May 27, Parton discussed her latest venture into the culinary world as she launches a new line of Southern-inspired frozen, single-serve meals and sides with Conagra.
And, yes, they include one of her personal favorite side dishes: potatoes.
“I have to have something with potatoes,” Parton told Today.
“I mean, I’m just one of those people that I have to either have a baked potato, some mashed potatoes, or some french fries, or something to do with potatoes,” she explained.
Her comment echoes a claim she made in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, published May 21.
“I’ve served potatoes on potatoes on potatoes,” she told ET of her love for potatoes. “I order mashed potatoes and then dip them out with french fries.”
“That’s how much I love potatoes,” she quipped.
That’s why it’s no surprise to see mashed potatoes as a side dish in her Country Fried Steak frozen meal, which is now available in grocery stores across the country.
But even that’s not enough to satisfy Parton.
“Even though there’s some potatoes in it, I would put some coleslaw or some mashed potatoes in addition to that,” she explained to ET.
In fact, her love for potatoes doesn’t end with her — and runs with the family.
In Parton’s newest cookbook, co-authored with her sister Rachel Parton George, the latter revealed her secret to making the world’s best baked potato.
Where other cooks poke holes in the potato and wrap it in tin foil, Parton George lets it cook naturally — directly on the oven rack — to give the potato a crispy exterior and fluffy interior.
“When we were putting the book together, they kept saying, ‘Are you sure you need another potato recipe?’ and we said, ‘Yeah—we love potatoes,’” Dolly said in an interview with Allrecipes in September.
“Potatoes are our holiday,” she added.
Parton says she’s a big believer in frozen meals and meal preps
In her interview with Today, Parton revealed that frozen meals have played a big role in her life.
While she says she enjoys “good, hearty food,” she often struggled to find the types of foods she was craving while touring the world. Instead of settling for whatever’s out there, she planned ahead.
“When I used to travel on my bus, I would start cooking a few days before so I would have good food that I was going to be craving when I’m out on the road,” she told Today.
“I would always have things like that in my freezer on my bus,” she added.
Now, she hopes to bring that same type of energy to her fans’ kitchens all over the country — even revealing that she was involved in the tasting process and provided advice on how to make them better.
“I hate bland frozen foods. So this is not bland,” she says of her new frozen meals. “These are just rich and hearty, and just got all the seasoning in the world.”
She says her frozen meals will help satisfy cravings without the added work in the kitchen.
“Whatever you grew up with — if you had a family of love and you loved grandmas and you loved mama and your aunts that made all that good food, you’re going to want to eat that,” she told Today.
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“That was another thing that inspired the idea of having just good, tasty, hearty Southern food be frozen,” she added.
