Jones enjoys cooking with children

Kelli Jones says the best part of cooking is being able to make things with her children and teaching them how to make tasty dishes. 

“I love the family time that comes with cooking,” Jones said. “Especially when my kids join in with me.” 

Jones was born and raised in the Tucker community and also lived in the Pearl River and Bogue Chitto communities. She is married to her husband Desmond and enjoys spending time with him and their four children, Cara, Nalani, Kai, and Ava. 

Outside of cooking, Jones works payroll for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. She recently graduated from Mississippi State University with a master’s degree in business administration. 

Jones said she began cooking when she was about 16 years old and learned from her aunt, Norma, and her grandmother, Rosie. 

“My aunt and grandmother taught me how to cook things like biscuits, BBQ ribs, spaghetti, apple pie, and a dish called hominy, which is basically white corn with chicken,” Jones said. “My father also taught me how to make chicken spaghetti.” 

Jones said that since she has a very busy schedule these days, she cooks a lot of Crockpot meals or quick 30 minute dishes such as lemon pepper chicken, tacos and nachos, shrimp boils, burgers, red beans and rice, and much more. 

“We make desserts for the kids, like Jello or fruit salad,” she said. “We have very active children and we’ve had an extremely busy couple of years. We try to stick to meals we can make quickly.” 

MAMA ROSIE’S 

CROCKPOT HOMINY

1/2 gallon dry hominy 

5 chicken drumsticks 

3 oz of a 32oz chicken broth 

12 oz salt meat 

Put the chicken drumsticks and 2 oz of the 32oz chicken broth in the crockpot. Set the temperature to high. Add hominy in the crockpot after 2 hours, and add chicken broth as needed. 

Cut two sides of salt meat and dice. Dispose pure fat pieces of meat and save the rest of the salt meat for another time. Add diced meat into the crockpot. Cook for another 4 hours (depending on crock pot wattage).

Add in chicken broth as needed to keep the mixture immersed. Substitute water for chicken broth if broth runs out. 

CROCKPOT BBQ CHICKEN

4.25-5.5 lb pack of chicken drumsticks 

64 oz chicken broth

18 oz Sweet Baby Ray’s Original Barbecue Sauce 

1/2 stick light butter 

1 teaspoon olive oil 

1 teaspoon garlic powder 

1 teaspoon onion powder 

1 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon pepper 

Combine the chicken drumsticks, butter, olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper into the crockpot. Add chicken broth. Cook in the crockpot for 6 hours on high. 

Once cooked, place chicken in a pan and cover with barbecue sauce. 

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and let the pan rest for about 10 minutes. 

SPAGHETTI

14.5 oz box of Barilla Protein Spaghetti 

2 lbs ground beef 

45 oz meat flavored Ragu Spaghetti Sauce 

Garlic powder 

Onion powder 

Salt and pepper 

Cook beef into brown. Season ground beef with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Drain beef when browned. 

Cook protein spaghetti for around 10 minutes. Combine beef, spaghetti, and sauce in a pot until ready to serve.