Terry Bradshaw is a household name—from his four Super Bowl wins as quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s and ’80s, to his long sportscasting career, as well as appearances in movies, releasing country music albums and launching a bourbon brand. Now, he’s publishing a cookbook, together with his wife and children—The Bradshaw Family Cookbook. Bradshaw sat down with Newsweek for a video interview to talk about his new cookbook, the secret behind his legendary baked beans recipe (see below), who he predicts will win the Super Bowl this year and more.
UNDATED: Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw #12 passes the ball.
UNDATED: Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw #12 passes the ball.
Focus on Sport/Getty
Editor’s Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.
Newsweek: You’ve had a really diverse career—four Super Bowl rings, two Super Bowl MVPs, three sports Emmys, acting, country music albums, your own bourbon, and even peanut butter. What made you want to add cookbook author to that list?
Terry Bradshaw: I did not know I wanted to do a cookbook until I was offered to do a cookbook. I was offered to do a cookbook and I thought, Oh, that’d be fun. My son-in-law is an award-winning chef. All my girls cook. My wife’s a great cook. Everybody doing something together. Yeah, that’ll be fun, let’s do it.
Funny story: So I get all the girls together. I say, “Hey, we’ll get an opportunity to do a Bradshaw family cookbook.” Lacey goes, “I’m all in.” Noah, “I am all in.” Rachel, the oldest, “I am all in, Dad.” Chase, her husband, “Yeah, that’s great.” I go to my youngest daughter, Erin. [She says,] “I don’t have time. Dad. Are you all right if I don’t do this?” I said, “Sure.” And so the fun part was this: We get a check. Money. And I couldn’t wait to call my son-in-law, Scott. I said, “I just can’t believe y’all didn’t want to be a part of this. We just got a check. And it wouldn’t have been that much [apiece] if you and Erin had been a part of the cookbook. But still would have been a nice piece of change,” and he went, “What? You got paid?” I said, “Do you honestly think I’m gonna do a cookbook and not get paid for it?” “Well, she didn’t say anything about getting paid.” He was beside himself. I couldn’t wait to get off the phone and start laughing.
The Bradshaw Family Cookbook – Final Cover
The Bradshaw Family Cookbook – Final Cover
Charity Burggraaf Photography
Tell me about your baked beans recipe and what makes it special to you.
If [my brother] wasn’t here, I’d take total credit for this bean recipe. But he’s the one that introduced the idea of it to me. I brought it home, and I just started adding my touch to it. For a long time, I’d put three beans together: black beans, red beans, white beans. I’d drain them, I wash them. I’d pour them in a pan. I’d use my hands to mix them up. Big, big cooking pan. My wife laughs at me. Every time we go to the grocery store, I get more cooking pans. And she says, “You already got cooking pans.” I said, “You can’t have enough cooking pans!” Those aluminum cooking pans, I love them. I mix barbecue sauce, and then I mix them with my hands. The fun part about cooking Bradshaw beans, you got to use your hands. You got to get down in there. I will say this, take your rings off because I did lose my wedding ring mixing beans. Mixing the beans and it came off! I normally cook it outside over an open pit, but easily inside an oven. Put the oven on at 400 degrees, get it boiling, get it really hot, and back it off to 250 and just let it cook. And you can sit there and cook it for three hours. Make a giant foil pan of this stuff and then serve it in bowls. And I’m going to tell you right now, people are going to scream, this is amazing.
Do you have a go-to food indulgence?
Don’t put any ice cream in my freezer, because if it’s in the freezer, I’m eating it. If it’s peppermint ice cream, no, it can stay. I don’t like peppermint. I like peppermint candy. Can’t stand peppermint ice cream. Strawberry, love it. Vanilla, love it. Chocolate, love it. I’m an old-time guy. I like basic things in life. I like basic country music. I’m not into all the high-tech modern music. I’m just an old-school guy.
Are there lessons from your football career that have stuck with you all these years?
If we’re in, we’re in. And not only are we in, but we’re all in. We’re gonna do our best. We’re going to pour it out—doesn’t mean it’s going to be good, doesn’t mean it’s successful, but we’re are all in, and we’re committed to it.
Football is that way. You get a game plan, you got to believe in it, you’ve got to be committed to it, you’ve gotta execute it, you gotta trust the people around you. And I would say, trying to make a little bit of a food analogy, it’s the same thing. You gotta believe when someone says you gotta put this in an ingredient; you might go, eh, I don’t know about that. Noah taught me that. And so you just kind of got to trust. The main thing is if you’re going to do something, be committed to it, give it everything you got. So you don’t walk away going, oh man, it didn’t work. Well, then you gotta ask yourself, did I do everything that I could to be successful? And if you’re honest, you’ll say, yes, I did. Then it’s okay, you move on. And if [you] say, no, I didn’t, well, there’s your answer why it didn’t work. So I’m a firm believer in anything you do, just think it out carefully and then commit to it.
Has the way you’ve thought about food changed over the years? Do you eat differently than you used to?
Growing up, there wasn’t fast food. My mom cooked dinner. Fast food for the most part has not been a good thing for American society. We don’t cook at home anymore like we used to. Tammy and I love it when our girls come to the house and bring their kids, and we all cook together. I remember growing up in my grandmother’s house. Everybody piled in there on the weekends, and it was all about the food. We seem to be in a hurry 1756291451. There’s no time to go home and cook. You can get anything you want to through a drive-through window. I just think that it’s important for the family to be together. I love it when I’m having meals with my children. I love sitting in a chair outside under a tree with our big smoker going and everybody’s cooking, drinking wine, beer, Bradshaw Bourbon, whatever. Those are heavenly times.
Do you have a prediction for who’s going to win the Super Bowl this year?
I do.
Awesome…. Who?
Oh, I gotta share it? [laughs]
Well, my wife’s a Kansas City Chiefs fan, and she’s staring me down pretty good right now. But it’s not going to be the Chiefs. The Ravens and Buffalo, I think it’s going to be in the championship game. And I’m going to go with…I think Baltimore’s going get over the hump this year. I’m pulling for Pittsburgh, always will. I don’t think they’re ready yet. Cincinnati, I don’t think their defense is good enough yet. But the four best teams: it’s Cincinnati, it’s Kansas City, Buffalo, Baltimore. Then you’ve got Pittsburgh with Aaron Rodgers. They could shock some people. Chargers are gonna be so much better this year than people imagine. Denver might be the sleeper in the bunch because their defense is amazing and [Bo] Nix, their quarterback. I really like him. I’ve got six teams. But you’re asking me right now, and I’m on vacation in Hawaii. So don’t hold me to this. I’m going Baltimore. [But] don’t put any money on it. [laughs]
Terry’s Legendary Bradshaw Beans*
Perfect for tailgating on game day or for any large gathering, this crowd-pleaser is best mixed by hand
Terry’s Legendary Bradshaw Beans
Terry’s Legendary Bradshaw Beans
Charity Burrgraaf Photography
A family meal without Bradshaw Beans just wouldn’t be complete. This recipe has been in our family for years. I’m the one who perfected it, although my brother Gary may have something to say about that. I like to spice up the beans with jalapeños and eat on it for a week before freezing what’s left for later. Serve the beans as a side or as a main dish.
—Terry Bradshaw
Serves 10 to 12
2 pounds (80 percent lean) ground beef
3 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained
3 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
3 (15-ounce) cans great northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 pound bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large white onion, diced
2 cups diced green or red bell pepper
1 (or more) jalapeño, stemmed, seeded and diced (or include the seeds if you like spice)
2 cups Bradshaw Bourbon Barbecue Sauce (right), or more to taste
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
Instructions
1: Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2: Crumble the beef into a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat, using a wooden spoon to break up the meat. When cooked through, about 10 minutes, drain the rendered fat from the pan and transfer the beef to a large heavy-duty all-purpose aluminum pan (approximately 15 × 11 × 2 inches).
3: Add the kidney beans, black beans, great northern beans, bacon, onion, bell pepper and jalapeño(s) to the pan with the beef. (Note: The number of jalapeños, and whether you seed them, is entirely up to you and your desired spice level.)
4: With clean hands, mix everything together, adding the barbecue sauce 1∕2 cup at a time until your desired consistency is achieved. (We like using 2 to 2 1∕2 cups.) Sprinkle the top with the brown sugar.
5: Cover the pan with foil and bake for 4 hours.
6: Check to make sure there is still enough liquid in the pan after 3 hours (see Coach’s Corner). Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
COACH’S CORNER
If you’d like to add a touch of smokiness to the dish, transfer the cooked beans from the oven to a preheated outdoor smoker and smoke, uncovered, for about 15 minutes. The natural smoke will really elevate the beans.
Bradshaw Bourbon Barbecue Sauce*
As a chef, I enjoy creating sauces, so naturally, when I moved to Texas, I convinced Terry that we had to develop a barbecue sauce. Ours pulls the caramel and vanilla notes from the bourbon and combines them with brown sugar and a touch of cinnamon, making this sauce a key ingredient in recipes like our finger-lickin’ chicken wings and Terry’s legendary beans.
—Noah Hester
Makes 3 to 4 cups
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups finely chopped white onions
1 cup straight bourbon whiskey
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
1 ½ cups ketchup
½ cup natural rice vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 7 minutes. Carefully stir in the bourbon and brown sugar and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture resembles syrup, about 5 minutes. Stir in the ketchup, rice vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, garlic powder, onion powder and cinnamon. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to very low. Loosely cover the pan with a screen or lid to prevent splattering. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is reduced to your desired consistency, at least 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside. Transfer the barbecue sauce to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
* EXCERPTED FROM THE BRADSHAW FAMILY COOKBOOK. COPYRIGHT © 2025 BY TERRY AND TAMMY BRADSHAW AND FAMILY, WITH JAMES O. FRAIOLI. EXCERPTED BY PERMISSION OF FLATIRON BOOKS, A DIVISION OF MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS. NO PART OF THIS EXCERPT MAY BE REPRODUCED OR REPRINTED WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER.
Dining and Cooking