The country superstar has quite a few tricks around the kitchen, and you’ll be wanting seconds of her pudding.

From holiday carols to quality time with loved ones, it’s not hard to be dazzled by the delights of the holiday season and many will agree the food is one of the best parts. Reba McEntire knows a thing or two about holiday traditions surrounding the dinner table, holding a special place in her heart for banana pudding on Christmas day.

The Voice Coach and Happy’s Place star is a known holiday fan — with several Christmas albums within her portfolio and a known enthusiast for spending quality time with the family; it’s undoubtedly one of McEntire’s favorite times of the year. Many families have annual recipes that get busted out during the holidays, and when McEntire was growing up in Oklahoma, the dessert of choice on Christmas night was banana pudding. Better yet, McEntire has even dished on a secret ingredient she’s added to take the delicious treat to new heights.

Read on to learn all about McEntire’s cherished banana pudding recipe — and discover the secret ingredient that would have Elvis Presley going for seconds.

Reba McEntire’s banana pudding recipe is a longstanding tradition

Reba McEntire for The Voice Season 26. Photo: Art Streiber/NBC

McEntire wrote about her family’s Christmas traditions in her 2023 book Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots. “Every year, Mama would make banana pudding to leave out for Santa Claus,” McEntire wrote (via Southern Lady Magazine). “That just so happened to be Daddy’s favorite dessert too!”

In addition to reminiscing on the fuzzy holiday memories, McEntire gifted fans with her family’s banana pudding recipe, allowing anyone to get a taste of the country queen’s childhood. Find the full recipe for McEntire’s banana pudding, here.

In an interview with Southern Living, McEntire revealed that Christmas banana pudding was a long-upheld tradition that began when her grandmother would prepare it for the family. After she passed, McEntire’s mother took the banana baton, then McEntire, and now it’s on to the next generation.

“These days, my daughter-in-law, Marissa, makes banana pudding for all of us,” McEntire revealed in Not That Fancy. “Hers is every bit as good as Mama’s, and it always takes me back to Christmas on the ranch whenever I have it,”

Reba McEntire recommends adding a layer of peanut butter

Rex Linn and Reba McEntire appear on the TODAY Show on Tuesday, October 10, 2023. Photo: Nathan Congleton/NBC

With her annual recipe including many drool-inducing ingredients, McEntire’s banana pudding is a holiday season grand slam. However, after experimenting a bit through the years, she gave a banana pudding hack that genuinely transforms the dessert: peanut butter. What a simple inclusion with delicious results.

“I like to put peanut butter on vanilla wafers…” McEntire told Southern Living. “On the bottom of the bowl, you have your vanilla wafers, and you put peanut butter on it, you lay it down, and then you put your pudding, and then you put your bananas. And then you put another layer.”

While McEntire admits that the peanut butter banana pudding is a little rich, she maintains the dish’s deliciousness.