The 10 Best Reese Witherspoon Recipes, from Watermelon Margaritas to Fried Chicken (2024)

There’s no shortage of reasons to love Reese Witherspoon. Whether you’ve seen Legally Blonde too many times to count or are a devout member of her book club, it’s safe to say she’s an American treasure. But it turns out that she’s also a pretty experienced home cook (and an amateur mixologist to boot). Read on for our favorite Reese Witherspoon recipes of all time, which run the gamut from her easy-peasy watermelon margaritas to her grandmother’s fried chicken.

If you watched Little Fires Everywhere, odds are you noticed that Reese and costar Kerry Washington have flawless hair and skin. Well, it turns out they’ve been drinking the same smoothie (which calls for two heads of lettuce, BTW) for breakfast every day for at least the last decade. Make of that what you will.

Like most great Crockpot recipes, this wintry dish is as simple as prepping the ingredients, plopping them in the slow cooker and letting the appliance work its magic. Her recipe doesn’t include exact measurements or cook times, but we took the liberty of adding some of our own here.

This co*cktail is just as adorable and sweet as its creator. It comes together in a flash once all your ingredients are prepped; the toughest part is puréeing the watermelon (unless you can find some fresh juice at your local farmers market.) In case you need help, this is the best way to slice a watermelon.

Two Southern icons in one video—we love to see it. In case you thought it couldn’t get any more wholesome, Reese made the cake in honor of Jennifer Garner’s birthday and used Garner’s own brand of fruit purée, Once Upon a Farm, in the batter (which also makes for really tasty frozen yogurt bark…).

The Sweet Home Alabama star is always endearing, even when she’s being sprayed by an overly effervescent bottle of club soda. You only need four ingredients to pull off this bittersweet co*cktail: apple cider, Aperol, soda water and bubbly (prosecco, cava or Champagne will all work just fine).

6. Grandma Dorothea’s Corn Salad

Reese started her own clothing line, Draper James, in honor of her grandparents, Dorothea Draper and William James Witherspoon. Not only was Dorothea a fashionista in her own right, but she was also a stellar cook and baker. Her corn salad is simple, summery and comes together in just 25 minutes with nothing but fresh produce and pantry staples.

7. Grandma Dorothea’s Buttermilk Biscuits

According to Reese, her grandma always sent guests home with vegetables from her husband’s garden and freshly baked biscuits. This buttery, tender batch is only six ingredients and 30 minutes away.

8. Grandma Dorothea’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Whatever leftover buttermilk you have from the biscuits can go right into the marinade for this Southern-style fried chicken. Reese’s family is from Tennessee and Georgia, so you know it’s the real deal. We’ll take hot sauce with ours, please (and save the rest for tomorrow’s waffles).

9. Reese Witherspoon’s Spiced Tea

We did not see this one coming, but it’s pretty ingenious. Reese got her recipe from her Grandma Dorothea, who would combine instant tea, lemonade mix, Tang and warm spices in a mason jar, shake it up and add two scoops to hot water whenever she felt like having tea.

10. Reese Witherspoon’s Sour Cream Cake With Praline Frosting

The moist, tender sour cream cake recipe is Dorothea’s, but the too-good-to-be-true frosting is all Reese. Its flavor is just like its namesake: caramelized, buttery and sugary sweet. This dessert was featured in her cookbook, Whiskey in a Teacup.

_{Taryn Pire is PureWow’s associate food editor. A former bartender and barista, she’s been writing about all things delicious since 2016, developing recipes, reviewing restaurants and investigating food trends at Food52, New Jersey Family Magazine and Taste Talks. When she isn’t testing TikTok’s latest viral recipe, she’s having popcorn for dinner and posting about it on Instagram @cookingwithpire.}