10 Southern Dishes Your Grandma Might've Made For Church Potlucks

If you grew up in the American South, chances are high that you believe nobody can cook quite like your grandma. There's so much effort and love that goes into those old-fashioned meals that, today, you experience a sense of nostalgia every time you eat a specific favored dish. One of the best dishes your grandma probably made was for Sunday dinners and church potlucks.

Church potluck dishes were a matter of pride. Grandma knew that many members of the community would get a chance to enjoy them, and she wanted to make a good impression. Although everybody's grandma had their own unique recipes, there were a few Southern dishes that routinely made the cut in countless households. These dishes became favorites for a reason, and even just thinking about them may be enough to make your mouth water or your mind get lost in fond childhood memories. Ready to take a trip down memory lane? Without further ado, here are 10 Southern recipes your grandma might've made for church potlucks.

Hashbrown casserole was a hearty side dish that would warm you up from the inside out. It was a regular feature in church potlucks for a few reasons, including that it was relatively simple and affordable to make. Plus, it was filling, so a little could go a long way on someone's plate.

Made predominantly from shredded potatoes, this famous church potluck casserole also features a creamy sauce usually made from a "cream of" soup. Recipe variations might include onions, mushrooms, sweet peppers, bacon bits, or other mix-ins. Grandma may have used varying "cream of" soups, including celery, broccoli, mushroom soup, or another choice. Of course, the potatoes can be store-bought hashbrown mixtures or (more likely) whole potatoes shredded on a grater. The seasonings for hashbrown casserole are simple and usually only feature salt and pepper, with maybe a little garlic and onion powder, to allow the other ingredients' flavor profiles to really shine.

If your grandma was in charge of one of the main dishes, one fantastic option she had in her arsenal was chicken and dumplings. This is especially true if the church potluck happened in the fall or winter, when the weather was cooler, because chicken and dumplings is a warming cold-weather favorite in countless Southern households.

Chicken and dumplings start with a medium-thickness chicken stew, featuring a few vegetables alongside the starring protein. A few of the most commonly included vegetables are celery, carrots, green peas, and potatoes. However, every recipe (just like every grandma) is unique and could feature nearly any soup vegetable. These are cooked in chicken broth that's thickened with either a flour roux or cornstarch slurry, then seasoned with salt and pepper.

But the most important part of the dish is the dumplings that float on top, which are little balls of dough that can be homemade or created from canned biscuits. Guaranteed that everyone at the church potluck was hoping to get a dumpling or two (or three)!

Southern potato salad was such a popular church potluck dish that chances were high two or more grandmas brought their own unique recipes to share at each event. The reason this dish was so popular (and still is) was because it's simple to throw together and it's affordable to make a really big bowl of. Perfect for when there wasn't a lot of time or money!

There are many variations of potato salad, but Southern variations are usually simple and lack the vinegar or sugar of their recipe counterparts. In fact, some of the simplest Southern potato salad recipes are considered the best. These would consist of diced boiled potatoes, diced dill pickles, and a bit of boiled egg, alongside some mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper. Some recipes may use celery salt or substitute dill relish for the diced dill pickles. However, you won't usually find additions like vinegar, sugar, or sweet relish in traditional Southern potato salad like Grandma would have brought to church potlucks.

If grandma was tasked with bringing a dessert to the church potluck, there were a few go-to options she might have chosen — some grandmas may have rotated through several options, while others may have had a specific tried-and-true recipe she defaulted to. One popular recipe was always banana pudding, which invariably came with a delicious topping for textural interest.

Like every recipe on this list, there are a few different ways to make banana pudding. Some recipes call for boxed banana or vanilla pudding, while others create it from scratch. Many recipes feature banana slices that were layered between the pudding or mixed in to add some depth to the taste. Other potential mix-in options include nuts, graham cracker crumble, and marshmallows.

Almost all recipes have a topping, with common options including vanilla wafers, shortbread cookies, whipped cream, graham cracker crust, or meringue. The fanciest recipes would include two or more of these options. For example, one pudding recipe may include a layer of whipped cream that's then topped with crushed graham crackers.

If your grandma wasn't a banana pudding type of lady, then she might have opted for peach cobbler instead. Or, truly, any fruit cobbler variation, which might have included cherry, blackberry, apple, pear, rhubarb, blueberry cobbler, or another option. But, for the purposes of this article, we're going to stick with peach cobbler, as this is a very traditional Southern choice.

If you aren't familiar with it, a cobbler is a type of pie that usually features two distinct crust types. There may be a standard pie crust on the bottom, and a crumbly biscuit-like crust on top. It's this top crust that truly makes a cobbler what it is, and some recipe variations even forgo the bottom crust altogether.

This specific cobbler is made with a sweet, gooey peach filling. While some recipes use fresh peaches, others use canned options because it makes it a lot simpler and quicker to throw it together. Sugar, spices, vanilla extract, and lemon juice are also common ingredients.

Collard greens are a Southern favorite that Grandma might've brought along to church potlucks because they're simple, cheap, and (in some instances) can be made with ingredients straight out of the garden. It's the perfect side dish for almost any Southern meal, so it paired well with what others brought to the church potluck.

Fresh collard greens are the best option if you have them. These need to be washed, de-stemmed, and sliced before cooking. You can skip that part of the recipe if you choose to use frozen collards instead. Either way, they're usually cooked in a pan with bacon grease, but butter or your favorite cooking oil can work in a pinch. Some recipes call for a pinch of sugar, salt, garlic, and vinegar. Other recipes feature a spicier version of the dish, utilizing a few sliced hot peppers, hot pepper juice, salt, pepper, and garlic. In either variation, bacon is sometimes included to add extra savoriness and textural interest.

Grandma knew that not every sweet dish had to be relegated to the dessert table — a few of them could be perfectly fine side dishes. One of those sweeter side dishes she might've brought to church potlucks was Southern sweet potato casserole. This dish has always been a Southern favorite year-round, but often finds itself on the supper table nationwide during holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why did Grandma love making it so much? Probably because it's simple to make, it cures a sweet tooth, is filling, and predominantly features a vegetable that's otherwise good for you.

You can use canned sweet potatoes, or you can boil whole sweet potatoes and mash them yourself. Add brown sugar, some spices (like cinnamon), butter, and the tiniest bit of sweet milk before combining thoroughly with a whisk. This mixture is layered in the bottom of a casserole dish and cooked until warm, before a layer of marshmallow is added on top. The key to extra delicious Southern sweet potato casserole is to make sure the marshmallows are brown and a little bit crunchy on top. Some recipes will also incorporate nuts in the sweet potato mixture.

Tomato aspic is a grandma's church potluck meal that has largely gone out of style and isn't served much today except in very select regions or specific households. However, there was a time when this gelatin dish was all the rage and made appearances at numerous church potlucks and "covered dish" events. Tomato aspic is one of those dishes that took extra time and effort to make — and extra love, too, of course.

The primary ingredients in tomato aspic include just four things: gelatin, sliced tomato, tomato juice, and sliced boiled egg. The egg and tomato are arranged in a pattern throughout the tomato-flavored gelatin mold, which is then seasoned with things like salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cloves, and vinegar. This is then served either as is, on a bed of lettuce, or even on a singular large lettuce leaf. The result is a savory, rich dish that's particularly cooling on a hot summer day.

Ambrosia salad was all the rage with grandmas of the 1990s, and this fruit-based salad regularly found its way on the table at church potlucks. Today, this fruity dish is less common, but you may have still seen it or heard of it, even if you haven't had it yourself. The best part about this dish is that Grandma could have made it as either a side or a dessert, because it works well for both.

Here we have another classic example of everyone's grandma having their own recipe with slight variations. However, a simple version of ambrosia salad would consist of canned mandarin oranges and pineapple tidbits combined with a jar of maraschino cherries. Once the base fruit is combined, add sour cream, mini marshmallows, and toasted coconut before stirring gently. Some recipes would skip the coconut flakes, while other recipes substituted the sour cream for whipped cream, Greek yogurt, or mayonnaise.

Is there any food more synonymous with Southern cuisine than fried chicken? And, this cultural favorite definitely made its way onto most (if not all) church potluck tables. If Grandma was in charge of the main dish, this was a surefire way to please the crowd.

You may be surprised to discover there are countless recipes for Southern fried chicken, but it's true. Each recipe begins with chicken — usually legs, but sometimes wings, breast pieces, or thighs. This is then dipped in flour and coated in egg. From there, however, the chicken may be drenched in either buttermilk or whole milk.

The breading in the final step before frying is where recipes really deviate. Some may use basic seasonings in their breading, while others use things like red pepper flakes to give the food a little bit of heat. There are even recipes that utilize seasoned cornflakes instead of flour. Regardless, whatever recipe a person's grandmother made is likely the one they'll swear is the best.