2023 Southern Food Trends That Topped Google's List Of Most-Searched Recipes - Southern Living

In addition to being the season for holiday hosting, gift shopping, and Hallmark movies, the final two months of the year are prime time to look back—and ahead.

'Tis the season for both "best of" retrospectives and trend predictions. In the food space, everyone from Whole Foods Market to Yelp to TikTok chimes in about what's been buzziest in the previous 12 months and what they anticipate will be the next big thing during our next trip around the sun. (In case you missed it, we couldn’t resist getting in on the fun and already revealed our top 8 food trends you'll see everywhere in 2024!)

One of the latest trend reports to enter the chat is courtesy of Google, which just released their annual review. Google's Year in Search 2023 reflects the top trending searches that saw the highest spike in search traffic sustained over a period year over year in categories like news, musicians, movies, TV, recipes, and more. 

For searches based in America, the war in Gaza and Israel (news), Jason Aldean (musicians) and Barbie (movie) understandably swept the charts in their respective categories. The food lineup was much less predictable—and full of a few surprises.

Top Trending Recipes of 2023, According to Google Search

It felt like we couldn’t escape the whirlwind of all things cottage cheese in 2023, but it took to number 10 on the top 10 list of recipes for that en vogue dairy product to make an appearance. Ranking above it, you’ll find a variety of refreshing drinks, one wildly popular fast-food milkshake, and two thoroughly Southern recipes: Cowboy Butter and Chicken Cobbler.

1. Grimace Shake
2. Lasagna Soup
3. Chicken Cobbler
4. Black Cake
5. Pumptini
6. Hugo Spritz
7. Cowboy Butter
8. Coronation Quiche
9. Brazilian Lemonade
10. Cottage Cheese Ice Cream 

Caitlin Bensel; Food Stylist: Torie Cox

We asked Jenny Lee, lead data analyst for Google, for the inside dish about why each of these Southern recipes rose to the top.

"This year we saw a record-high spike in May for chicken cobblers, even though they’re typically most popular every summer in July,” Lee tells Southern Living. “The viral biscuit mix hack to help simplify the recipe could be the reason we saw the timing of the trend shift this year.”

Lee is referring to the chicken cobbler rendition that made waves on TikTok this spring and summer. Unlike our classic Chicken-And-Biscuit Casserole and Chicken-and-Biscuit Cobbler, which are topped with homemade cheesy biscuits and buttermilk-bacon biscuits, respectively, that viral recipe Lee mentioned involves a few store-bought shortcuts.

The filling features frozen mixed vegetables, rotisserie chicken, and a can of cream of mushroom soup. Then on top, instead of crowning the casserole with homemade dough, the TikTok recipe swaps in Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix. As a result, the family-sized dinner recipe asks for just 5 minutes of prep time and 6 ingredients.

To be honest, this sounds pretty delicious. However, if you’d like to find a happy medium between the semi-homemade recipe that helped chicken cobbler come in at number three this year and a from-scratch format, we highly recommend our Chicken-And-Biscuit Pot Pie. It involves a quick and easy homemade filling, then we trim down on prep time (and mess) by capping things off with store-bought frozen buttermilk biscuits. Or try this cozy Skillet Chicken Pot Pie With Puff Pastry, which combines a from-scratch chicken and vegetable mixture with flaky frozen puff pastry sheets.

With that mystery solved, Lee moved on to give us the skinny about that buzzy butter. 

"'Cowboy butter ingredients' was a breakout search in the United States this year, which means in some cases, these queries are new and had few—if any—prior searches," Lee explains.

We’ve whipped up batches of Cowboy Butter for years, and adore using the zippy compound butter as a spread, steak or pork garnish, or a dip for radishes. (Oh yes, and you’ll never eat spuds any other way after you melt a pat inside a split baked potato.) We’re glad the rest of America is catching on that this Southern condiment is a winner. Why stick with plain butter when you can dress it up?

"Southern cuisine continues to grow in popularity," Lee confirms. 

We’re happy to build a longer table to welcome new and returning Southern food fans. We’re glad you’re here, y’all! If you’re seeking more culinary inspiration, try cooking and baking your way through these 75 essential Southern recipes everyone should make In 2024.

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