Any Oklahoma resident will be the first to tell you: their state’s cuisine isn’t known for being exceptionally nutritious. But if you’re looking for a hearty, delicious meal, the Sooner State’s most famous foods and drinks will hit the spot.
Listed below, in no particular order, are our ten favorite dishes and drinks from Oklahoma:
Fried Onion Burger
The fried onion burger is maybe not the most Instagram-worthy dish on this list, but it doesn’t have to be. It was created out of necessity during a time when many Oklahomans didn’t have extra money to spend on meat.
Sometime during the 1920s, with the Great Depression rapidly approaching, cafes and diners in Oklahoma began adding onions to their hamburger meat. Onions cost far less than beef, so this was an easy way to bulk up sandwiches while stretching dollars.
Cooks would slice up nearly half an onion and use their spatulas to press it into a layer of ground beef. The onions caramelized as the burger cooked, giving the dish a sweet crunch. The onion burgers were a hit and spread quickly throughout the state.
Today, many diners and fast food joints in Oklahoma feature onion burgers. One of the most popular is Sid’s Diner in El Reno. They serve up delicious American fares, such as quarter- and half-pound fried onion burgers, french fries, tater tots, and milkshakes.
Fried Pies
Fried pies exist in places outside of Oklahoma, but there’s something special about the crispy, flaky pastries found at Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies. Maude Pletcher, a woman from Springer, OK, created a recipe for fried pies in the 1800s. She shared the pies with her family, neighbors, and other community members. She became known as “the pie lady”.
Several decades later, one of Maude’s nine children bought a piece of property in Davis, OK. In the mid-1900s, he turned it into a service station and bakery. He added his mother’s famous fried pies to the bakery menu, and business began to flourish.
The Pletcher family still owns Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies. They operate in four states, with seven locations in Oklahoma. The menu includes dozens of pie flavors, from classics like apple and cherry to unique options, such as peanut butter chocolate and pizza-style.
Strawberries
If back-to-back fried foods have you feeling a little sluggish, let us cleanse your palate. Oklahoma designated the strawberry as its state fruit in 2005. Strawberries grow well throughout the state, but they’re especially cherished in the tiny town of Stilwell.
Stilwell has held the title of “Strawberry Capital of the World” since 1949. The climate in the area, along with the rocky soil, makes it easy for the little red berries to thrive. At one point, there were hundreds, possibly even thousands, of acres of strawberry farms in and around Stilwell.
Today, there are far fewer strawberry growers in the region, but the berry is still a significant part of the town’s heritage. For more than 70 years, the Stilwell Strawberry Festival has attracted thousands of locals and visitors.
Held each May since 1948, the strawberry festival includes a Strawberry Queen pageant, carnival, parade, car and motorcycle show, and many vendor booths. There is also a champion strawberry competition and auction. Near the end of the day, the Kiwanis Club gives out free strawberries and ice cream.
Fried Okra
Many states have official state desserts, fruits, or vegetables. Unlike most other states, however, Oklahoma has an official state meal. And boy, is it a doozy. The meal includes three different kinds of meat, four different vegetables, and a handful of other food items (including strawberries, the state fruit).
Fried okra is one of the vegetables in Oklahoma’s state meal (whether it still counts as a vegetable after being deep-fried is up for debate). It’s a culinary staple throughout the South, brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans.
Most chefs coat their okra in flour or cornmeal, then either shallow- or deep-fry it. It comes out golden brown, crispy, and salty-sweet.
Chuck House in Oklahoma City is a popular American-style restaurant that offers fried okra and several other Sooner State favorites. They serve generous portions of gravy-slathered food, so be sure to arrive hungry.
Chicken-Fried Steak
Chicken-fried steak, another element of Oklahoma’s state meal, has an uncertain history. It’s undoubtedly a favorite dish for many Oklahomans, but it may have originated in Texas, Louisiana, or another nearby state.
Chicken-fried steak is similar to country-fried steak, with two exceptions. Both dishes are made with pan-fried beef, but country-fried steak is usually coated in flour and topped with brown gravy. Chicken-fried steak, on the other hand, is breaded with eggs and bread crumbs and is often covered in white gravy.
The result is that chicken-fried steak is a crispier, thinner piece of meat that can take up an entire plate. It’s often paired with a variety of sides, including cornbread, fried okra, squash, or black-eyed peas.
Clanton’s Cafe in Vinita is the oldest continually owned family restaurant on Route 66. They offer chicken-fried steak from morning till night, meaning you can order the dish for any meal. The restaurant was featured on The Food Network’s Diner’s, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
Cornbread
If you’ve ever sat down to a hearty family dinner in the South, you’ve likely been offered cornbread as a side dish. Corn grows well throughout the southern United States, so it’s a common ingredient in many dishes there.
Cornbread, or a version of it, was invented by Native Americans thousands of years ago. Over time, it was adapted by European colonists and enslaved African people, particularly in the South. Today, it’s usually baked or fried and has a crispy, buttery crust with a lightly sweet taste.
The best cornbread is homemade and served warm. Florence’s Restaurant in Oklahoma City is a family-owned restaurant that has been in operation for more than 70 years. They make their cornbread from scratch each day.
Grits
Grits are about as Southern a food as you can find, but like many other American dishes, they originated with Indigenous people. The Muscogee tribe lived in what is now the Deep South for hundreds of years before European explorers arrived.
Porridge made from corn was a substantial part of the Muscogee diet. When colonists arrived in the area, the Muscogee people taught them how to make their porridge, and the colonists named the dish “grits”.
There are many ways to prepare Southern grits. They’re often mixed with butter and served with a number of savory additions, including cheese, gravy, bacon, or sausage. Some people also combine their grits with sugar to create a sweeter dish.
Cheever’s Cafe near downtown Oklahoma City serves a very popular shrimp and grits dish for breakfast and lunch. They also have an extensive selection of alcoholic drinks. Reservations are available online.
Calf Fries
In other regions, calf fries are called Rocky Mountain oysters. Both names sound relatively innocent, but don’t be misled: no matter what you call them, this dish consists of deep-fried bull testicles.
While eating the reproductive organs of any animal may initially sound off-putting, they’re a traditional dish in many cattle ranching communities. Vinita, Oklahoma, however, claims the title of “Calf Fry Capital of the World”.
For more than 35 years, the town of Vinita held the “World’s Largest Calf Fry Festival and Cook-Off”, where cooks could enter a competition for best calf fries. There were also cooking competitions for a variety of other foods, including salsas, desserts, and breads.
There’s no online record of the festival happening since 2019, but you can still find calf fries throughout Oklahoma. Thunder Roadhouse Cafe in Oklahoma City serves American-style fare with calf fries as an appetizer option. Guests can relax with food and drinks while watching and betting on horse races on TV.
Banh Mi Sandwich
Near Uptown Oklahoma City sits the “Asian District”, an area that takes up 10 or 15 square blocks. It’s often called Little Saigon because, though the neighborhood is home to businesses from many Asian cultures, it’s a predominately Vietnamese district. In fact, around 1 in 60 people in the capital city are Vietnamese-American.
People began immigrating to Oklahoma from Vietnam in the mid-1970s, and with them, they brought traditions, recipes, and cultural celebrations. The banh mi sandwich is one Vietnamese dish you can find in restaurants throughout Little Saigon and elsewhere in the state.
Banh mi consists of Vietnamese ham (or another cold cut), cucumber, pickled carrots, daikon, and a variety of herbs, spices, and condiments, all sitting in a French baguette.
Riviere Modern Banh Mi offers eight varieties of banh mi sandwiches. They also serve banh mi tacos for those with gluten sensitivity.
Weber’s Superior Root Beer
Dating back more than 130 years, Weber’s Superior Root Beer is Tulsa’s favorite soft drink. Oscar Weber Bilby began making root beer on his farm in 1891, combining 14 ingredients for a sweet, creamy drink. It wasn’t until 1933, however, that Oscar’s son opened a root beer stand and began brewing the soda using his father’s recipe.
The Weber’s root beer stand is the longest-running business in the Brookside District of Tulsa. For 90 years, the Bilby family has served hamburgers and mugs of root beer to Tulsa locals and visitors alike.
The walk-up stand also sells fresh-cut onion rings, chili, coney dogs, and root beer floats. They take phone-in orders for food, and cans of their root beer can be ordered online and shipped.
From cowboy fare to Southern comfort food, Oklahoma’s culinary landscape is one you won’t soon forget. Just be sure to loosen your belt a few notches and leave time for a post-meal nap.