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All About Reba McEntire's Famed Sweet Potato Casserole — with a Twist
The Happy's Place star considers sweet potato casserole a holiday staple.
Reba McEntire is a source of holiday joy anytime you hear her singing Christmas classics like “Mary, Did You Know?” or “I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus.” But The Voice Coach has also been serving up holiday cheer for years with her famous sweet potato casserole recipe.
McEntire’s recipe includes a sweet and crunchy twist that’ll have you going back for seconds and thirds. Read on to learn all about her sweet potato casserole, the holiday traditions she’s creating, and her “throw-it-together” cooking style.
Reba McEntire’s sweet potato casserole recipe has a crunchy topping
McEntire revealed her famous sweet potato casserole years ago, including her special sweet twist that takes this holiday dish to the next level.
In addition to many of the traditional ingredients used for sweet potato casserole, McEntire shared with Good Housekeeping in 2007 that she tops the dish with pralines. McEntire’s version of the sweet confectionery is made with pecans, packed brown sugar, margarine, and flour, all of which are mixed together and then sprinkled on top of the sweet potatoes to be baked together.
Reba McEntire told Country Living in 2016 she considers sweet potato casserole a holiday food staple.
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Reba McEntire has served sweet potato casserole at her Oklahoma restaurant
Not only does the Happy’s Place star want her sweet potato casserole served at Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, she also put it on the menu for Reba’s Place, her restaurant in Atoka, Oklahoma.
The Oklahoman reported in January 2023 that the Reba’s Place menu featured sweet potato casserole as a side dish, as well as her beloved tater tots, browned butter mashed potatoes, blue corn grits, braised greens, roasted Brussels sprouts, among others.
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You can also order McEntire’s favorite cinnamon old fashioned cocktail that's perfect for the holidays at Reba’s Place.
Reba McEntire’s cooking style is very relaxed
While McEntire wrote a cookbook, Not That Fancy, and has dozens of delicious recipes up her sleeve — her cheesy green bean casserole is particularly legendary — she admits that she’s not the most advanced chef out there, unlike her boyfriend and Happy’s Place co-star, Rex Linn.
“I'm a kinda throw-it-together type person, where Rex will put brine in, and then he'll smoke it, and then he'll talk to it, and then he'll rub on it a while. And then he'll put it in the oven, and three days later we eat. And I'm like, ‘What’s in the refrigerator that I can just throw together and eat something?’” McEntire said in an interview with Audible in 2023. “But it's great that we're different like that. If I'm hungry really quick and he is too, I fix. And if we've got a little time, he cooks. So, it works out great.”
Indeed, McEntire’s approach to cooking is so laid-back her cookbook’s tater tot recipe says to just drive yourself to Sonic.
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And just like her vibe in the kitchen, McEntire doesn’t make her Christmas celebrations too extravagant. In an interview with E! News in December 2024, McEntire shared that she and Linn will head to the movie theater and eat lots of yummy food, all while enjoying an artificial Christmas tree.
“We have our Christmas on Christmas Eve and he likes to go see movies, so we'll do that first thing in the morning before the crowds hit the theaters,” she said. “Then we'll come back and we'll have our meals … I said 'meals,' because we'll have lunch and supper and probably a midnight snack. That will be our tradition.”
