Dolly Parton’s Coleslaw Has a Secret Ingredient That Blew My Socks Off

Dolly Parton has given us so many gifts—her incredible voice and heart-tugging tunes, the American classic movie “9 to 5,” and perhaps most surprisingly, the best tip for making crave-worthy coleslaw.

Not content with beauty and musical talent, Dolly has also written two cookbooks (including her newest, Good Lookin’ Cookin’, which she co-authored with her sister), and before that, she contributed recipes to a collection called Dollywood Presents Tennessee Mountain Home Cooking. I’ve never owned a copy of that spiral-bound masterpiece, but fortunately, the internet pointed me to one of its best recipes: Dolly Parton’s Cole Slaw.

Dolly Parton’s Tip for Making the Best Coleslaw

Dolly’s tip for the perfect coleslaw is to use a simple pantry ingredient to amp up the tartness and bring in a little sweetness. To accomplish this, she uses pickles in two ways. First, she adds sweet pickle juice to the dressing and a tablespoon of chopped dill pickles or dill pickle relish to the mix.

This works so well because coleslaw is all about finding a balance of creamy, sweet, tangy, and crunchy, and the pickles and pickle juice deliver when it comes to sweet and tangy. The recipe makes such a bright, flavorful version of the barbecue staple that once you bring it to a party, you can expect to be asked to do so many times thereafter.

How To Make Dolly Parton’s Coleslaw

Dolly wouldn’t ask anyone to assemble a bunch of fancy pants ingredients. This is a simple recipe with a little bit of sunshine. To make it, finely mince (or shred if you prefer) one medium cabbage, an onion, a carrot, and a red bell pepper. To that, add 1/4 cup of sweet pickle juice, 1/4 cup of white vinegar, one tablespoon of minced dill pickles or pickle relish, one cup of mayonnaise, two tablespoons of sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, and one teaspoon salt. Stir to combine, and serve. That’s it!

Tips for Making Dolly Parton’s Coleslaw

• Dolly, very sweet herself, calls for a lot of sugar in this recipe. I’ve made it her way, and it was delicious, but you don’t lose much by cutting that sugar in half or even swapping it for honey or Splenda. The sweet pickle juice does a lot of the heavy lifting in the sugar department anyway.
• For coleslaw that retains its texture longer, salt the cabbage in a colander before combining it with the other ingredients. This will remove some of the water in the cabbage, making the coleslaw less soggy.
• Play around with the combination of vegetables. Swap red onion for yellow. Add a yellow or green bell pepper. If Dolly can give her blessing to Beyonce’s cover of Jolene, she definitely won’t mind if you tweak her coleslaw recipe to make it your own.