Dolly Parton’s Macaroni Salad

Dolly Parton is one of my favorite people on earth so it wasn’t even a question whether or not we should try out her Macaroni Salad. You see, Dolly does more than just sing — she’s also a great cook and has her own line of baking mixes and a few cookbooks chock-full of homey, comforting recipes. (In fact, her Five Layer Dinner is a long-time 12 Tomato favorite.) 

We made this Macaroni Salad as a part of our Celebrity Macaroni Salad Recipe Showdown. The showdown is a fun project where we take four celebrity recipes — some celebrity chefs, some not so much — cook them, and then taste and compare them to see how they stack up. This match-up included Dolly Parton, Alex Guarnaschelli, Guy Fieri, and Mark Wahlberg. We ended up with four very different mac salads!

What’s In Dolly Parton’s Macaroni Salad?

Well, it’s a lot of what you would expect and a little that you wouldn’t.

For starters, she calls for: elbow macaroni, green bell pepper, relish, onion, mayo, hard-boiled eggs, and salt and pepper. The things you wouldn’t expect as much are cucumbers, sour cream, and milk.

How Do You Make Dolly Parton’s Macaroni Salad?

Dolly has you run the cooked pasta under cold water and drain and then mix in diced cucumber, green bell peppers, grated onion, and relish. The dressing is mixed separately, which is a combination of mayo, sour cream, and milk, and then stirred into the macaroni mixture. Chopped eggs go in last — and gently — so as not to break them up too much. She suggests you chill it up to overnight to let those flavors meld.

I was a little hesitant at the sour cream and milk and worried that the dressing would be tooliquidy, but actually everything absorbs quite nicely!

So, How Does Dolly Parton’s Macaroni Salad Taste?

I wasn’t sure about that milk-sour cream-mayo mixture but the creaminess ended up being totally on point! I would use that dressing strategy again any time. It’s a very good Macaroni Salad, one you’d be happy to find at any picnic or party, but surprisingly the flavor isn’t quite classic. Thanks to the cucumber and the tang of the sour cream, it gives a little bit of a tzatziki feeling, but that’s not a bad thing! It’s very refreshing and has a ton of crunch. Dolly knows what she’s doing!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb macaroni
• 2 cup diced cucumber
• 1 cup diced green pepper
• 2 tablespoons grated onion
• 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
• 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

PREPARATION

1. In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the macaroni to al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. Place in a large bowl.
2. Add cucumber, green pepper, relish, onion, and mix together. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, add mayo, sour cream, milk, and season with salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
4. Add dressing to macaroni mixture, then stir to combine. Add hardboiled eggs and gently fold to combine.
5. Cover and chill until ready to serve, preferably overnight.