The Great Southern Food Road Trip

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Come along on a Southern food road trip from Texas to Tennessee, filled with family memories, Southern comfort food, Cajun flavors, and plenty of recipes along the way.

There’s something special about a road trip through the South.

Maybe it’s watching the scenery change outside the car window as the miles roll by. Maybe it’s crossing a state line and realizing that the food changes right along with the landscape. Or maybe it’s simply knowing that wherever the road takes you, there’s probably something delicious waiting when you get there.

A couple of years ago, our family loaded up and headed out on one of those trips. And as I look back on it now, I realize how many of the places we traveled through connect to food memories from other seasons of my life, too.

So that’s what we’re doing today. We’re retracing that family road trip, but we’ll take a few detours along the way. I’ll share some of the foods we actually ate, some places I remember from other trips, and plenty of Backyard Texas Grill recipes that would be perfect if we ever packed up and did the whole thing again.

This isn't just a trip through the South. It's a little journey through my food memories, too.

So grab your keys and come along.

But first?

We’d better eat.

First Stop: Home in Southeast Texas

Before we start crossing state lines, I’m feeding you at my house.

We live northwest of Houston, in that Spring/Magnolia neck of the woods where the city eventually gives way to tall trees, back roads, big yards, and plenty of people who are perfectly happy spending an evening gathered around a grill.

And around here, that usually means Zach is cooking.

If we’re about to set off on a long family road trip, I want something hearty enough to fill everybody’s bellies but casual enough that nobody has to fuss over it. This sounds like a job for our Drunken Chicken (Beer Can Chicken), a whole chicken cooked on the grill until it’s juicy inside with beautifully seasoned skin outside. 

Alongside it, I’d serve Texas Skillet Potatoes and Onions, a pot of Pinto Beans with Sausage, and some Honey Cornbread on the Smoker. 

Nothing fancy. Just a good Texas supper at home with the people you love.

Because before we start eating our way across the South, I want you to know where we’re starting.

This is home.

Now fill your plate. We’ve got a lot of miles ahead of us.

A Completely Unnecessary Detour to San Antonio

Now, if we were being geographically sensible, San Antonio would not be our next stop.

But this is a food road trip, and I make the rules.

Before we point the car east, I’m taking you west for one of the things Texas does especially well: Tex-Mex.

San Antonio has long been one of my favorite Texas cities. Between the River Walk, the missions, Market Square, and all that wonderful food, it’s the sort of place where I’m always happy to linger awhile.

Around here, Tex-Mex isn’t something we have to travel to San Antonio to find. We eat it at home all the time. But San Antonio still feels like the perfect place to spread everything out on the table.

I’d start with our Skirt Steak Fajitas on the Grill, cooked hot and fast and sliced for piling into warm tortillas. Then I’d add Easy Beef Enchiladas with Corn Tortillas and a generous helping of our Spanish Rice: A Texas Family Favorite. 

And before any of that hits the table, somebody needs to bring out the chips. Our Easy Homemade Guacamole and Firecracker Salsa should keep everybody happy while the fajitas are sizzling. 

Was San Antonio part of this particular family road trip?

Nope.

But what’s a road trip without an unnecessary detour?

Besides, no food tour of my Texas would feel quite right without Tex-Mex.

Now we really should turn the car around.

Although...

There’s one more Texas stop I want to make.

Fort Worth: Where Beef Is What’s for Dinner

All right, we’re still going the wrong direction.

At this rate, we’re never going to make it to Tennessee.

But if we’re talking about Texas food, we need to talk about beef. And there’s no better place to do that than Fort Worth.

I’ve taken my grandkids to the Fort Worth Stockyards to watch the cattle drive, and it was one of those wonderfully Texas experiences I was glad to share with them. There’s something about seeing those enormous Longhorns lumber down the street with cowboys alongside them that makes you feel as though somebody opened a little window into another time.

And after watching all those Longhorns parade past?

Well...

Let’s talk about beef.

If Zach gets a say in this part of our food tour—and believe me, he does—we’re starting with his Texas-Style Smoked Beef Brisket. This is the kind of cooking Backyard Texas Grill was built around: good meat, plenty of smoke, and enough patience to let low-and-slow cooking work its magic. XML Sitemap

Since we’re at the Stockyards, one cut of beef hardly seems sufficient. We might as well add our Simple Reverse-Seared Steaks and Ultimate Bacon Double Cheeseburgers. 

Brisket. Steak. Burgers.

Now that’s a Texas-sized meal.

Okay. We’ve eaten at my house, driven to San Antonio for Tex-Mex, and gone all the way to Fort Worth for beef.

We haven’t even started our vacation yet.

Somebody turn the car east.

Heading East: Through Louisiana and Into Mississippi

Now we’re really going to Tennessee.

We headed east into Louisiana, passing through Shreveport and Monroe on our way toward Mississippi.

I know what you’re thinking. Louisiana? Surely we’re stopping to eat.

Not this time.

On this particular stretch of the trip, Louisiana was mostly part of the journey. We watched the miles roll by and kept moving toward Jackson.

Don’t worry, though. Louisiana gets another chance before this road trip is over. And next time, we’re getting out of the car.

Mississippi: Pull Up a Chair

By the time we reached Mississippi, I was ready for some good old-fashioned Southern food.

Not fancy food. Not necessarily food that belongs exclusively to Mississippi, either. I’m talking about the dishes that have shown up at Southern family tables, church suppers, Sunday dinners, and potlucks for generations.

Let’s start with Chicken and Drop Dumplings. Tender chicken, soft dumplings, rich broth—this is comfort food in its purest form.

Then we’ll fill out the table with Classic Southern Deviled Eggs, Old-Fashioned Southern Potato Salad, and a basket of Cast-Iron 2-Ingredient Biscuits. 

And I’m certainly not leaving without dessert. Our Old-Fashioned Southern Blueberry Cobbler with Pie Crust feels right at home here—the sort of dessert that begs to be served warm with something cold and creamy melting over the top. 

Chicken and dumplings. Deviled eggs. Potato salad. Biscuits. Cobbler.

Now that’s a Southern table.

And no, I’m not claiming all of those dishes originated in Mississippi. Southern recipes have never been particularly good at respecting state lines. They move through families, churches, neighborhoods, and generations, changing a little every time somebody writes one on a recipe card and passes it along.

That’s part of what I love about them.

Now we’d better get moving. Somewhere beyond Alabama and Georgia, the scenery is going to start changing.

The mountains are waiting.

Tennessee: This Part of the Road Feels Familiar

By the time we crossed into Tennessee, we were heading into the mountains toward Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Dollywood, and the Great Smoky Mountains.

This was the destination our family had been looking forward to.

But for me, Tennessee came with another layer of memories.

I actually lived in East Tennessee for a couple of years while I was in college, in the Tri-Cities area. Coming from Texas, I remember being struck by how much slower life seemed to move there. I was young and probably didn’t appreciate that slower pace nearly as much as I would today.

But one thing I appreciated immediately was the food.

Where My Love of Soup Began

When I was in college, there was a place in Johnson City called the Soup Kitchen Annex. We loved going there for lunch. They offered what seemed like every kind of soup and sandwich imaginable, and I could happily have worked my way through the entire menu.

Looking back, I’m pretty sure that’s where my lifelong passion for soup began.

And apparently it stuck.

All these years later, I’m still making big pots of soup, and Backyard Texas Grill now has an entire Soups, Stews & Chili collection. 

We’ve got everything from Loaded Baked Potato Soup and Chicken Noodle Soup to Creamy Tomato Soup, Chicken Stew, and Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup. 

Funny, isn’t it, how a little restaurant you loved in college can leave such a mark? I couldn’t have known then that decades later I’d still be stirring soup pots and remembering those lunches in Johnson City.

Franklin, Writing Conferences, and Fried Chicken

Years later, Tennessee showed up in my life again when I traveled to Franklin for a writers’ conference.

By then, writing had become a huge part of my life, but apparently my habit of remembering trips by what I ate hadn’t changed much.

One of the places I remember was Puckett’s, and I’m pretty sure I ordered fried chicken. It was exactly the sort of down-home Southern meal that suited the setting—good food in a comfortable place where nobody seemed particularly interested in rushing you out the door.

That memory makes me think of our Chicken-Fried Chicken with Cream Gravy here at Backyard Texas Grill. It’s crispy, hearty, smothered in creamy country gravy, and exactly the sort of meal I want when I’m craving Southern comfort food. 

College brought me to Tennessee first.

Writing brought me back.

Eventually, family brought me back again.

Pigeon Forge: This Time I Brought the Whole Crew

For this trip, Pigeon Forge was home base.

We rented an Airbnb big enough for the whole crew, and each family took responsibility for preparing a meal while we were there. We ate out some, too, of course, but a big part of the fun was simply being together at the house. Somebody always seemed to be cooking, looking for something to eat, or digging through the snacks.

If I were planning that trip again today, I’d definitely bring some of our big-family breakfast recipes along. The Ultimate Breakfast Fatty with Chorizo would be especially fun for a hungry vacation crowd, and our Southwest Breakfast Casserole makes it easy to feed a bunch of people without somebody spending the entire morning standing over the stove. 

And then there were the snacks.

Lots and lots of snacks.

That’s just part of sharing a vacation house with a big family. Nobody is hungry enough for another meal, yet somehow everybody is hungry enough to wander through the kitchen every twenty minutes to see what’s available.

Our Savory Southern Corn Dip, Cowboy Caviar, and Garlic Parmesan Bread Crisps would fit right into that kind of vacation-house grazing. 

A Lumberjack Supper

One of our Pigeon Forge adventures was the lumberjack show, and this was one outing where we didn’t have to figure out where to eat afterward.

They fed us.

I love that memory because it fits the whole feel of Pigeon Forge—fun, casual, family-oriented, and nobody going home hungry.

That hearty supper puts me in the mood for some of our own favorite Southern sides: Old-Fashioned Southern Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Classic Creamy Coleslaw, Texas-Style Baked Beans, and warm Texas Dinner Rolls. 

The sort of meal that makes you glad you've been walking around playing tourist all day.

Dollywood—and That Cinnamon Bread

Of course, we couldn’t go to Pigeon Forge without spending time at Dollywood.

We rode rides, explored the park, soaked up all things Dolly, and did our best to take it all in.

But if you ask our family about the food, I can pretty much guarantee one thing will come up.

That cinnamon bread.

We all flipped for it.

Warm, buttery, covered in cinnamon sugar—it was one of those things everybody agreed was worth the calories. We loved it enough to take more back to the Airbnb with us.

And apparently I wasn't willing to leave that memory in Tennessee, because I eventually recreated my own version over at Out of the Box Baking. So if our road trip has you craving something sweet, I’ll send you over there for my Dollywood-inspired Cinnamon Bread.

Some recipes exist because of a memory.

That one definitely does.

Gatlinburg, the Smokies, and a Bear

We also spent time exploring Gatlinburg and the Great Smoky Mountains, where we got one of those vacation experiences everybody hopes for but nobody can schedule.

We saw a bear.

That’s the thing about the Smokies. You can go for Dollywood, the attractions, restaurants, shops, and all the other things there are to do. Then you look up at those mountains and remember that they’re the real show.

For me, returning to East Tennessee with my family brought several chapters of my life together in one place. I first came here as a college student. I returned later as a writer. And now I was back as a mom and grandmother, watching another generation make memories of its own.

Eventually, though, every vacation reaches that moment.

The suitcases get packed. The leftover snacks get gathered up. Everybody finds their shoes. You take one last look at the mountains.

And you point the car toward home.

Only this time, we were taking a different road.

Natchitoches: This Time We're Stopping in Louisiana

On the way home, we made our way to Natchitoches, Louisiana.

And unlike the drive through Shreveport and Monroe at the beginning of our trip, this time we weren't simply watching Louisiana through the windows.

We were getting out of the car.

If you’re a fan of Steel Magnolias, you already understand part of the appeal. Much of the movie was filmed in Natchitoches, and we had fun wandering around town and visiting places we recognized from the film.

There was something particularly fitting about ending a big family trip in a town associated with a movie about family, friendship, celebrations, food, and loving people through every season of life.

And naturally, all that sightseeing made us hungry.

Lunch Is on Me

We stopped for lunch at what I’m almost certain was Merci Beaucoup, a Cajun restaurant downtown.

And I decided everybody was eating on me.

With our crew, saying, “I've got lunch!” is not an insignificant financial commitment.

But every once in a while, Grandma gets to pick up the check. And I did. Happily.

This is where our Cajun Red Beans and Rice finally gets its moment. We didn’t necessarily eat this particular dish that day, but after a Cajun lunch in Louisiana, it feels like exactly the right recipe to share. 

And now you know why I didn't give you red beans and rice when we drove through Louisiana at the beginning of the trip.

I was saving our appetite for the way home.

You Can't Talk About Steel Magnolias Without mentioning that infamous Cake...

There is, of course, one food image from Steel Magnolias that is almost impossible to forget.

That red velvet groom’s cake.

You know the one.

The armadillo.

We didn't sit down in Natchitoches and eat an armadillo-shaped cake, thank goodness, but touring the filming locations certainly put red velvet cake on my mind.

So this is one place where I’m sending you away from Backyard Texas Grill for dessert. Over at Out of the Box Baking, I have my own Red Velvet Cake recipe.

Mine looks considerably less like roadkill.

Sometimes food connects us to places because we ate it there. Sometimes it's because somebody cooked it for us years ago.

And sometimes it's because we watched Shirley MacLaine hack into the back end of a red velvet armadillo.

Food memories come in many forms.

Back to Texas: Through the Piney Woods

After Natchitoches, we climbed back into the car and pointed it west one last time.

Before long, we crossed the river and found ourselves back in Texas, winding our way through the Piney Woods toward home.

There’s something about crossing your own state line at the end of a long trip that feels completely different from crossing one at the beginning.

When you're leaving, you're watching for what's ahead.

Coming home, you're watching for things you recognize.

The mountains were behind us now, replaced by tall East Texas pines. Little towns appeared and disappeared. Mile by mile, everything started looking familiar again.

We'd visited Dollywood, eaten that cinnamon bread, watched lumberjacks, spotted a bear, revisited places from my past, wandered through Steel Magnolias country, eaten one last Louisiana lunch, and accumulated enough family stories to last us for years.

It had been a wonderful trip.

But I was ready for my own bed.

And apparently, after eating our way across the South, there’s only one sensible thing left to do.

Throw a party.

Home Again: Come on Over!

Give me just enough time to unpack the suitcases and catch up on the laundry.

Then everybody can come over.

Not for another enormous sit-down dinner. We've had plenty of those on this trip.

This time, I'm covering the table with appetizers.

Zach can fire up the smoker while I start setting out bowls and platters. Somebody will inevitably show up carrying another dish even though I told them they didn't need to bring anything, and before long we'll have enough food to feed twice as many people as we invited.

In other words, a pretty normal gathering around here.

We’ll start with Smoked Brisket Queso, because apparently we're not capable of ending a Texas food story without bringing the brisket back out. Then we'll add Smoked Pig Shots, Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Jalapeños, and one of our versions of Smoked Cream Cheese. 

While Zach handles the smoker, I'll put out the chips with Cowboy Caviar, Firecracker Salsa, Creamy Black Bean Dip, and Savory Southern Corn Dip. 

If that still isn't enough food—and around here, apparently we consider that a possibility—we have a whole Smoked Appetizers & Party Foods collection waiting in the wings. 

Then everybody can grab a plate, find a place to sit, and hear all about the trip.

Every Good Road Trip Eventually Leads Home

Looking back, I love that this particular journey carried me through more than geography.

Some of these foods we actually ate along the way. Others remind me of the places we visited. And still others connect to completely different seasons of my life—a college lunch spot in Johnson City, a writers' conference in Franklin, a vacation house filled with family, or a movie filmed in a beautiful little Louisiana town.

That's the thing about food memories.

They're rarely just about food.

They're about the people who were sitting beside us, the places we were when something happened, the things that made us laugh, and the moments we didn't realize we'd remember until years later.

We leave home looking for something new.

And somewhere along the way, we collect stories.

Then eventually we cross that familiar state line, drive through those familiar pine trees, pull into our own driveway, and bring all those stories home with us.

So pull up a chair and grab a plate.

The road trip may be over, but the party's just getting started.

Thanks for stopping by, friends! If you make any of these recipes and enjoy them, please leave a comment or review. Before you go, please pin some photos to your Pinterersts boards.

About the Author

Janice Thompson is an author, baker, blogger, and proud mom and grandmother who loves good Southern food and a great family adventure. She's the creator of Out of the Box Baking and a frequent contributor to Backyard Texas Grill, where her daughter Randi and son-in-law Zach share their passion for grilling, smoking, and delicious home-cooked meals. While Zach handles much of the grilling, Janice is usually nearby with a dessert, a story, or a few hungry grandkids. This Southern food road trip combines some of her favorite things: family, travel, wonderful memories, and plenty of good food!