Dolly Parton's 5 Ingredient Casserole

Let's make Dolly Parton's famous 5 Ingredient Casserole! This easy, old-fashioned beef casserole layers potatoes, seasoned mince, onions, tomatoes and capsicum into one comforting meal. From the Queen of Country herself who loved to cook.

About Dolly Parton's 5 Ingredient Casserole

Dolly Parton's 5 Ingredient Casserole is a delicious, easy recipe from the Queen of Country herself. It is made with 5 stacked layers of food with sliced potatoes, minced or ground beef, onions, tomatoes and capsicum bell peppers. It's a budget friendly old fashioned casserole that is easy to make.

Dolly's 5 Layer Dinner appears in her book "Good Lookin' Cookin': A Year of Meals - A Lifetime of Family, Friends, and Food" that she wrote with her sister Rachel Parton Wilde in 2024.

Why This Recipe Works and Why You'll Love It

It's a really tasty, easy meal in one. It uses a pound or 500g of minced beef and a whole lot of vegetables all baked together. It ain't fancy but it's humble, comforting and tasty and made of real ingredients without additives.
Dolly uses just salt and pepper to season her 5 Ingredient Casserole but I'm going to show you how to spice it up to add a bit more flavour.
It's very economical and feeds 4 people or up to 6 people if you served it with garlic bread on the side or corn casserole for an easy dinner.
Dolly was known for her quick wit and brains and I have to say that layering the potatoes on the bottom is genius because they absorb all of the flavours from the other layers!
This casserole is very versatile and if you don't want to use beef, try minced chicken, turkey or pork (or vegan mince)! Crumbled, skinless sausages also work in place of the mince.
Likewise the vegetables can be swapped out. Use corn, mushrooms or green beans in your layers.
This recipe is awesome for meal prepping and refrigerates well into portions.
I personally think frozen potato gems or tater tots would be great as the bottom layer if that's what you have! Did you know that Dolly's favourite food was potatoes? She said "I've never met a spud I didn't like" and "Every diet I ever fell off of has been because of a potato".
Dolly's recipe is for the oven but I'll show you how to make it in a slow cooker too!

Video How To Make Dolly Parton's 5 Ingredient Casserole

Video: Dolly Parton's 5 Layer Dinner recipe

Ingredients For Dolly Parton's 5 Ingredient Casserole

Beef - It's up to you whether you want to use lean or regular minced or ground beef. If you have extra mince, this Ground Beef Turkish Pasta is another easy dinner.

Extra virgin olive oil - Dolly doesn't mention extra virgin olive oil but it works here. Always look for extra virgin as that is the purest type (avoid Virgin Olive Oil or Pure Olive oil)

Potatoes - I had itty bitty kipfler potatoes but use russets, Sebago or Dutch cream potatoes.

Italian dried herbs - A mix of dried herbs like garlic, basil, oregano, sometimes tomato, parsley and marjoram.

Onions - Any colour onions you like.

Tomatoes - We use fresh tomatoes for this but diced tinned tomatoes would also work.

Capsicums or bell peppers - We use orange and yellow ones but any colour will do.

Green chillies - Optional to give it a spicy kick. Omit these if you don't want it spicy.

Salt and pepper - It's important to season each layer to bring out the flavour, especially when it comes to potato and tomato, two ingredients that really need salt!

Tips For Making Dolly Parton's 5 Ingredient Casserole

1 - Use a slotted spoon to add the beef to the baking dish so that you can leave behind the grease from cooking the beef.

2 - Spice it up! As I mentioned, Dolly just uses salt and pepper in her 5 Ingredient Casserole but I crave a bit more spice so I used Italian herb seasoning. You can also add garlic - two cloves of crushed garlic or 1 teaspoon of garlic powder added to the beef mince. Otherwise red pepper flakes also work. I like things spicy so I added two green chillies to the mix. Tajin is also fantastic in this to give it a Tex Mex vibe, especially if you like American comfort food flavours.

3 - This casserole works with tinned tomatoes or jarred capsicum. Make sure to drain the capsicum well especially if jarred in oil to prevent the casserole from becoming too oily.

4 - Dolly uses green capsicum bell peppers but I used yellow and orange just because they're a bit sweeter.

5 - We both loved this with a scoop of sour cream on top and some Tajin seasoning.

6 - I also served this once with corn chips as a Dolly-fied nachos! Usually nachos don't use many vegetables but this with its potatoes, tomatoes, capsicum bell peppers and onions ups the vegetable content.

7 - To make Dolly's 5 Ingredient Casserole in a slow cooker, prepare as instructed but layer inside a slow cooker or crockpot. Then cover and set to cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours until the potatoes are tender. For another slow cooker comfort dinner, try these Smothered Pork Chops.

8 - A layer of cheese on top is also very tasty!

Dolly Parton's 5 Ingredient Casserole Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 70 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients Needed

450g/1lb minced or ground beef
Extra virgin olive oil
450g/1lb/3 cups sliced potatoes
2 tablespoons Italian dried herbs
120g/4oz/1 1/4 cups sliced onions
400g/14oz/2 cups chopped tomatoes
200g/7oz/1 1/4 cups yellow and orange capsicums, sliced
1-2 green chillies
Salt and pepper to season

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 MINCE - Preheat oven to 160C/320F fan forced or 180C/350F conventional. Heat a large frying pan on medium heat and if you're using lean beef, add 1 teaspoon of oil (oil isn't needed if the beef isn't lean). Add the beef (450g/1lb minced or ground beef) and brown all over releasing the fats, around 8-10 minutes total. Sprinkle with Italian dried herbs (2 tablespoons Italian dried herbs), salt and pepper and toss to season.

Step 2 LAYER - Layer the potatoes (450g/1lb/3 cups sliced potatoes) on the base and season with salt and pepper. Add beef layer on top. Then add the onions (120g/4oz/1 1/4 cups sliced onions) and sprinkle evenly. Add the tomatoes (400g/14oz/2 cups chopped tomatoes) and season these with salt and pepper. Top these evenly with the capsicums (200g/7oz/1 1/4 cups yellow and orange capsicums, sliced) and chillies (1-2 green chillies). Drizzle with olive oil and season on the top. Bake for 60 minutes. Tip: after 45 minutes check if the casserole is browning too much, if it is cover with foil and bake the remaining time. Stand for 15 minutes and then serve.

Personal Note

Monica sent me this recipe after Dolly sadly passed away. She found it on Reddit on an OldCelebrityRecipes forum by user ciaolavinia. Dolly really was an extraordinary person from her Imagination Library that has given more than 330 million free books around the world to her donations to science and towards natural disaster survivors among many, many other things.

All I can think is how lucky are we to be alive at a time when Dolly was around. And as wonderful as her singing voice was, I loved watching interviews with her because her wit and accent were so charming. When Dolly laughs you laugh too! Talk about serotonin as a person.

So after I make another batch of Dolly's 5 Layer Casserole (because Mr NQN absolutely wolfs this down, the sour cream was his idea), I'm going to rewatch 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias and toast to Dolly's sparkling life.

So tell me Dear Reader, were you saddened by Dolly's passing? Would you enjoy a casserole like this?

Dolly Parton's 5 Ingredient Casserole was written by Lorraine Elliott and published on Sunday, September 6, 2026 in Budget Recipes, American, Beef Recipes, Everyday Dinners, Easy Recipes, Potato Recipes, Slow Cooker and Delicious Recipes.