This Is What Cowboy Kent Rollins Actually Eats

Cowboy Kent Rollins is unlike many food content creators on social media or YouTube. "Cowboy" isn't just some moniker but a genuine title that sums up the majority of his life. Born and raised by the Red River, close to Hollis, Oklahoma, Rollins learned early on to ride out at dawn with the cowboys and return home by sundown, eager for the warm food his mother had prepared and laid out on the table.

Today, Rollins is the person manning the stove — a 345-pound, wood stove he fondly named Bertha — and feeding everyone. He and his wife, Shannon, go around ranches with a 1876 Studebaker chuck wagon, cooking for cowboys at ranches during herding season. Their day typically starts at 2:45 a.m., and they'd have coffee and a full breakfast for the cowboys and ranch hands by 4 a.m. Later, they'd have dinner ready at around 6 p.m. and the dishes washed by 7 p.m.

"My mother started me cooking when I was probably 6 or 7 years old," Rollins told CBS News. "There never was much of a recipe. It was a little dab of this and a pinch of this. But I learned a valuable lesson from my mother at that time: she said, 'Cook what you love. Love what you cook.'"

With this philosophy guiding him, Rollins has become America's beloved cowboy cook and storyteller who spent over two decades teaching people how to cook hearty, Southwestern-style comfort food. In this article, we turn the spotlight to him and the food he enjoys.

An American classic and all-time favorite of adults and kids alike, Pop-Tarts are a household staple and a favorite among people who indulge their sweet tooth and those who never have time to prepare a proper breakfast in the mornings. Unsurprisingly, Kent Rollins, a man who doesn't like to "get it all fancy," also loves Pop-Tarts.

The variety of flavors stumped him, though. "I had no idea that there are so many flavors of Pop-Tarts," he remarked when he demonstrated how to make homemade Pop-Tarts. "I'll just stick with my two childhood favorites that have lasted with me ... and that is brown sugar and cinnamon, and cherry."

Rollins is very precise about what he wants in his Pop-Tarts: they should have a nicely baked crust that screams homemade, delicious filling, and shouldn't take all day to make. No, he doesn't use frozen puff pastry dough; he still rolls the dough from scratch, but keeps his recipe simple. There's no skimping on butter, though! It's crucial for achieving the flaky exterior as well as making the dough itself tasty and to complement the filling. Whether store-bought or made from Rollins' recipe, Pop-Tarts are an indulgent, toaster-breakfast treat and perfect to start your day with.

Who doesn't love a good taco? This Mexican original is literally comfort food in your palm. Traditionally prepared with grilled fish and veggies, tacos have evolved into a versatile snack filled with meaty bits, fresh salsa, and condiments ranging from avocado guacamole to hot sauce.

Anyone can make tacos using soft or hard tortilla shells and anything they have in the fridge that can be chopped and goes well with a corn tortilla. Kent Rollins' breakfast version consists of scrambled eggs, bacon and chorizo, and shredded cheese in a soft tortilla warmed in bacon grease. It's so easy to cook and put together, but Rollins goes the extra mile by making sure the eggs that go into his breakfast tacos are the "fluffiest eggs ever."

We haven't seen someone take as much care in cooking scrambled eggs as Rollins does, and it's a treat to watch because he's so enthusiastic about it. Pro tip from Rollins: use a whisk and add some mayonnaise to turn simple scrambled eggs into fluffy, cloudy goodness that are perfect for breakfast tacos.

Fun fact: Kent Rollins hadn't had a McGriddle until he had to taste one to try and recreate it to satisfy a cowboy's appetite. He found it good enough for a breakfast waffle, but there were areas of improvement that would make it more satisfying to grown men with a full day's work ahead of them — starting with the sausage patty. Rollins' homemade patties are easily ¾ of an inch thicker and juicier than the rather flat one by McDonald's. He also made them bigger, so one could take a full bite and still have a lot left to sink their teeth into.

Rollins' McGriddle remake also takes a spin on the egg and cheese. Instead of slapping a cheese slice below the patty and folded scrambled eggs above it, he makes an egg omelet with Kraft singles ("because they melt so good") folded in the center. Then that goes into the sandwich together with the sausage. The result is a more filling version of the popular McGriddle, so good and satisfying it makes cooking outdoors in frigid weather worth it.

When cooking for cowboys who work from dawn to dusk, lunch has to be a hearty meal that will give them more calories to fuel them for the rest of the day. The classic Southern-style chicken and dumplings is perfect for this. It's comfort food, very filling, and will warm up anyone who's been on horseback on a chilly day, all day.

"Chicken 'n Dumplings is one of the most nostalgic comfort foods for me," Kent Rollins wrote in his blog. He remembers sneaking into their kitchen as a kid, trying to scoop out a dumpling without getting caught. Mama Rollins would cook it on Sundays after church all year, so it's extra special for our cowboy chef.

"I really think it's one of the most traditional comfort foods that ever survived the Dust Bowl," said Rollins. By the way, his cooking video for chicken and dumplings is absolutely lovely and a must-watch. It's a thoughtful love letter to the earlier generations who lived through the Great Depression. Rollins shares some stories from his father during the video, which adds insight into the origins of this particular dish, or at least how people in that era prepared it in light of their difficult circumstances.

Another chicken dish that Kent Rollins learned from his mother is chicken and rice casserole. He learned to cook it when he was between 10 and 11 years old. He remembers having it on the table at dinner whenever the weather is cold, surely a most welcome sight after being on horseback and working outdoors all day. "Mama would put this out there on some of that old CorningWare, that casserole dish, and lay it on the table," he tells his YouTube audience. "We had blessed the food and ate it. And to me, there's nothing more special than that moment growing up because there was all the family there."

The casserole calls for lots of chopped onions and celery which, when cooked in butter, gives off an aroma that doesn't fail to cheer up Rollins. He cooks this casserole in a cast iron Dutch oven for about 45 minutes at medium heat. This is how he keeps the chicken moist and tender. The excess moisture is then absorbed by the rice, so all the flavors stay intact and will make it to your plate.

Rollins' chicken and rice casserole recipe is clearly a beloved one inherited from his mother. If you don't have a recipe yet for this dish, Mama Rollins' is a good one to build on and make into your own.

There's an expectation on celebrity chefs and food content creators that they look down on food kits and instant meals. But Kent Rollins seems to adore frozen meals or "TV dinners," which harken back to the black-and-white television era when people used to eat out of trays on tiny tables in front of the TV. He especially loves Hungry Man Salisbury steak, and according to his wife Shannon, he's had it too many times to count.

"These things have got me through some really hard times," Rollins said. He'll likely keep eating it too, so you won't hear anything bad about them from him.

It's easy to see why the frozen meal would appeal to a cowboy with a healthy appetite. A box contains two Salisbury steaks in mushroom gravy, a scoop of mashed potatoes, some blanched beans, plus a brownie for dessert. It truly is a full meal in a box! Convenient and reasonably priced, the steaks are ready to eat after a total of seven minutes in the microwave.

Of course, Rollins has his own version of the Hungry Man Salisbury steak. He showed his YouTube audiences how to put this meal together from scratch should they want Salisbury steak, but don't want to hit the frozen section of the grocery store.

We think it's absolutely lovely that Kent Rollins recreates some of his favorite childhood food and doesn't hesitate to share his mother's recipes to his YouTube followers. Here's another dish of his mom's that he recreated and filmed a YouTube video for: the classic tuna casserole.

Rollins said this was one of the things his mom used to cook a lot when he was younger. They used to have it with a bread similar to Wonder Bread, the soft, white bread. With a little bit of butter on the bread, sometimes toasted, they'd put it on top of the tuna casserole. "It didn't get no better than that," Rollins said about his mom's tuna casserole.

For his version, Rollins doesn't use canned condensed mushroom soup but makes his own roux from chicken broth thickened with a bit of flour and heavy cream. He does use canned tuna for convenience and affordability. His brand of choice? Chicken of the Sea's white albacore tuna in water.

Tuna casserole is so easy to prepare: Rollins had once prepared it to feed a group of cowboys in just 40 minutes. And since he tops everything off with Monterey Jack, cheddar cheese, and crushed Ritz crackers, the casserole comes sumptuously cheesy with just the right amount of salty crunch to balance out the creaminess of the roux.

Cowboy Kent Rollins loves desserts. Back in 2016, when he first published his cookbook, "A Taste of Cowboy: Ranch Recipes and Tales from the Trail," Rollins revealed his favorite recipe in the book is one he didn't want to share until his wife Shannon convinced him to include it in his cookbook: bread pudding in a whiskey cream sauce.

There's a reason he wanted to keep the recipe for this one secret. Nearly 30 years ago, Rollins had some bread pudding in Biloxi that he really loved and hoped to get the recipe for. He jokingly told Suzy Chase in a podcast interview that he tried to swap his sourdough biscuits recipe for the bread pudding, but the chef who created it refused. And so, Rollins spent the next few years recreating the sumptuous dessert; and when he finally perfected it, he kept it secret for a long time.

What's so special about this bread pudding? Burger buns. "They keep their texture the same way and I grew up eating bread pudding that was made out of 10 day old biscuits and a little scalded milk and sugar," Rollins told Chase. "But this is really light. It's a great dessert." Our chefs at Mashed also agree. And then there's the sauce. "It goes over everything real well. It's great in your coffee the next morning, on your pancakes, anything you want to use it on," Rollins promises.

As an outdoor cook who often has to work with whatever ingredients and baking tools are on hand, Kent Rollins has tweaked the classic chocolate chip recipe into one made specifically for baking on a cast iron Dutch oven. His recipe is perfect for people who bake in similar conditions and don't have an electric oven.

Rollins says three things make up the world's best, Dutch oven-baked chocolate chip cookies: no overmixing the batter, no overcooking the cookies, and parchment paper. And like a true cowboy, he doesn't use your conventional stand mixer (there's nowhere to plug them in, anyhow, when they're cooking out in camp). He plugs a mixing paddle in a cordless drill instead and uses that to incorporate the wet and dry ingredients together.

The video for this recipe shows how well Rollins has mastered the Dutch oven and outdoor cooking. He goes into detail on how to bake with these tools and gives tips like how to keep the temperature even, how to prevent the sugars from burning too fast, and if your choice of coal would be hot enough to bake the cookies. Baking in a Dutch oven, outdoors, isn't a walk in the park. But it makes succeeding at baking chocolate chip cookies perfectly sweeter.

As one can expect from a famous cook, Kent Rollins has some go-to dishes for special occasions and major holidays. Every year on Thanksgiving, for example, he and his wife Shannon prepare three side dishes that have become a mainstay on their household's Thanksgiving table.

The first is the green onion and ham scalloped potatoes. This is actually a version of Rollins' mom's recipe with some additions from Shannon, like diced ham and, the pièce de résistance according to Rollins, onion dip in the roux. The result is a hearty Thanksgiving classic with a sharp kick of flavor that lets the potatoes stand on their own.

The second side dish is a green bean casserole: chopped bacon and mushrooms mixed with creamy roux, then layered on a bed of crunchy, blanched green beans. Rollins tops it off with fried onions before baking.

The third is cranberry marshmallow salad, which Rollins said his family always had during the end-of-year holidays. Rollins' recipe incorporates freshly chopped cranberries, pineapples, and pecans into whipped heavy cream with mini marshmallows.

What's great about these side dishes is you can bake the potatoes and green bean casserole simultaneously in two Dutch ovens, one placed above the other on a trivet. It saves time, coal, and energy, plus these two dishes specifically don't have to be rotated. The green beans can stay on top the entire time because they need less heat to cook.

One of the most endearing qualities of Cowboy Kent Rollins is he keeps things real. If he doesn't like an ingredient, he won't add it in the pot for the sake of. For example, he refuses to add green peas to his tuna casserole and shepherd's pie. His cooking style has also been shaped by the limited resources in a camp, so he seldom cooks with fresh meats or seafood. Nothing fancy or fussy is cooked on Bertha.

As such, Rollins didn't used to be a fan of sushi or avocados. Shannon was the one who introduced these types of food to him. It was "a long process" to get her husband to appreciate these foods, she told CBS News. "He told me he had stepped in too many things in a pasture that looked like avocado," Shannon continued. But like any food lover, Rollins tried these things that were once new to him and eventually developed an appreciation for them even if they're not necessarily his favorites.

Apple fritters were Kent Rollins' favorite snacks as a child. He used to buy one for 25 cents and pair it with chocolate milk. Since he's now going around camps and cooking for cowboys, he came up with a grown-up version of apple fritters.

What makes his apple fritters more suited to grown-ups? He cooks the apple slices in butter and cinnamon first, to give it more nutty-butter flavor, unlike with conventional recipes where the apple slices go into the batter right away. Then the kicker: a healthy splash of Fireball whiskey. He carries a small bottle in his pocket whenever he plans to prepare this dessert (space is limited and precious in camp, so there's no room for a full bottle of whiskey).

These apple fritters are perfect for cowboys because they are filling and have just the right level of sweetness and crunch. And of course, it has just a bit of a whiskey taste to balance everything out.

Cowboy Rollins is one of the most charming and wholesome cooks on the internet today. His sincerity about cooking delicious food that warms the heart and soul shines through every video. On that note, one can safely assume that every dish Rollins has shown in his channel is something he actually eats.