Things Every Kid Ate Growing Up in Oklahoma

There’s a TikTok trend that pops into my For You Page at least once a day called “Things Every Kid Ate Growing Up In Oklahoma.”

Have you seen it too? It’s fun to relive the nostalgia, and make cringe faces at the dishes you don't recognise at all, but it also serves as a reminder that Oklahoma has its own culinary hall of fame.

Some dishes were born here, some we borrowed, and some are just things we all grew up with whether we wanted to or not.

So, in honor of the trend, here are a few iconic Oklahoma eats that every kid in Oklahoma has probably crossed paths with at some point in their lives.

Chicken-Fried Steak – The undisputed heavyweight champion of Oklahoma food. It didn’t matter if it came from Grandma’s skillet or a diner on Route 66. It always came down to the gravy. It's mandatory to have on top, but sometimes it comes off tasting a little rancid.

Some places do the chicken-fried steak right. The Old Plantation in Medicine Park, Kendall's in Noble, JW Cobbs in Ponca City - delicious... But others find their own way to mess it up. Liquid smoke in cream gravy at Texas Roadhouse, onions in white gravy at Bricktown Brewery, and whatever weird spin Cracker Barrel puts on theirs.

Fried Onion Burger – Straight out of El Reno, where onions got smashed into thin patties back in the Depression. Cheap then, delicious forever.

Opinions vary, and while I still love Momma's griddle butter onion burgers, people argue obsessively whether the best is found at Nic's, Sid's, Johnnie's, or Robert's.

Indian Tacos – Frybread topped with taco stuff, yes please! Indian taco day was the absolute best lunch day at school growing up. 10/10.

You generally have to look pretty hard to find good frybread in restaurants across the state, it's more of a backyard "I know a lady..." kind of thing.

Barbecue – It's almost unfair to compare us to Texas. The Lone Star State owns the title of having the best brisket in the world, nobody can deny that. It's because Oklahoma BBQ restaurants only slice up the lean and usually chip the fatty end of the meat... so it's always on the dry side, but that's by design.

Oklahoma likes our BBQ sauce. It's not so much a condiment as it is an ingredient for good barbecue. It moistens that dry brisket up really nicely. It's also used in the chopped beef to give an extra depth of flavor. We’ve got our own thing going with ribs too. Dry rub ribs are the best on the planet, and you cannot discount the smoked bologna. It's a rite of passage for kids and cardiologists alike.

No sense in listing the best BBQ joints in the state, we'll just sit here and argue about it anyway.

Rural Oklahoma Garlic Bread - I don't know a single soul who hates garlic bread. It's buttery and full of flavor. Even if you didn't like garlic, it hit different. I also don't think a single soul in Southwest Oklahoma knew anything about Italian cooking before the internet made information widely available, but we managed well enough with our own recipes.

Ours never looked like the garlic bread you'd get at Chili's or behind the frozen foods door in the store. Mom used her mother's recipe from the 1950s. You'd take a loaf of white bread, spread some butter between each slice, sprinkle in an absurd amount of garlic salt, wrap the whole loaf in foil and bake it long enough to melt everything together.

It was always sopping wet with butter, and limp and chewy as it could be, but it was the only thing to eat with your plate of budget-stretching spaghetti and Mom's famous lasagna.

Catfish – Fried, crispy, and always served with hushpuppies. Usually eaten at a mom-and-pop joint with a gravel parking lot. Catfish is life at Bill's down Southwest of Waurika.

Calf Fries – The one food that Oklahomans love to trick outsiders into eating. You don’t ask what they are until after you’ve swallowed. While I've personally never had a bad one, I've never asked for seconds. Probably a texture thing.

Cornbread and Beans – Budget-friendly, hearty, and still more satisfying than anything a “fusion” restaurant will put in front of you. Also a great way to reuse the Thanksgiving ham we always prepare, yet only Dad eats.

Biscuits and Gravy – If your Saturday morning didn’t start with this, were you even raised here? Memaw might have cheated a little with canned biscuits, but she'd always add a little extra butter on top. She'd also always have Oklahoma's own Blue & Gold Sausage in the freezer ready to go... because if it wasn't B&G, it wasn't biscuits and gravy.

A friend invited me to brunch one time to try his wife's biscuits and gravy... it was chocolate gravy. It was delicious, but a 9.9 on my weirdometer. Must have been a Northeastern OK thing.

Cinnamon Toast - Surely this happened in more homes than mine. Some mornings, particularly when we were getting low on groceries, Mom would sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on white bread and bake it in the oven. It was like having a slice of a cinnamon roll before school. Delicious.

Fried Bologna Sandwiches – These days, the population of people who enjoy a bologna sandwich is shrinking. Now heavily considered a mystery meat made from the parts of the livestock you wouldn't want to eat, lips and a-holes, but those who care about taste know the secret to bologna.

You fry it in a pan.

You're not deep-frying it in oil, just a bit to help it not stick, and cook that mystery meat until it starts taking on a dark brown/black color. Add a slice of cheese, your condiment of choice, and slap it in some bread, it's an absolute delicacy.

Other states laugh about fried bologna until they try it.

Pecan Pie – Always the closer. THE best pie that can be made by anyone with ease. Bonus points if the pecans came from a tree in the backyard.

TikTok might have turned it into a trend, but Oklahomans have been living it forever. As we work into an early Fall, bookmark this page in case you need quick and easy dinner ideas on the coming cool nights.