Southern Cornbread Dressing Recipe
Make this homemade Southern Cornbread Dressing recipe for your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner! Made with sausage, this old fashioned holiday side item is perfect with turkey, chicken, or ham.
Introduction
This might be one of my favorite recipes!
Cornbread dressing is the absolute quintessential side dish for Thanksgiving. I mean – where there is turkey, there is dressing. It's also a great stand-alone dish. In the south, chicken and dressing is a popular casserole for a weeknight dinner.
And in the south, you're kind of known for your homemade dressing recipe. Everybody's idea of dressing is a little bit different. Many include vegetables like celery and onion, some don't. Some make cornbread dressing, some use white bread, some use crackers. On the other end, some recipes are dry, some is almost like a pudding. Everybody has a little different twist on their recipe.
That being said – I'm pretty proud of mine. 😉 It's kind of a mix of veggies and several different kinds of breads, with a creamy element that makes it really special. And yes, for you true southerners, I use Jiffy cornbread – I know, I know, but it gives the recipe a little bit of sweetness that plays well with the savory elements. Trust me on this one.
What's the difference in dressing and stuffing?
If you're from the north, you might know this recipe as stuffing. There is really very little difference between dressing and stuffing. Dressing is the southern cousin of stuffing; it's just baked in a casserole dish instead of stuffed in a bird and baked. Stuffing tends to include more veggies (and sometimes even fruit like apples and cranberries), whereas in dressing, the breads are the star of the show. And, from my experience, dressing is “wetter” (sorry, couldn't think of a better word) than stuffing, which tends to not have a lot of added liquids.
How to make Southern Cornbread Dressing
Take a look at this easy recipe!
Video
Variations on Southern Cornbread Dressing
Cornbread dressing has the perfect combination of creaminess and heartiness and goes wonderfully with turkey or ham (I've had it with both). I include sausage in my recipe, but like I mentioned earlier, you could easily substitute shredded rotisserie chicken to make a great weeknight casserole dish. Just pair with a veggie side item for a complete meal!
Can I freeze dressing?
This recipe makes a whole lot of food, so I recommend either halving this recipe or freezing some of it (it freezes beautifully…just make sure you wrap it well). It will completely fill a 9×13″ baking dish or two smaller aluminum pans.
Southern Cornbread Dressing
Ingredients
- 2 boxes Jiffy Cornbread prepared, cooled, and crumbled
- 7 slices oven-dried white bread cooled and crumbled
- 1 sleeve saltines crushed
- 16 oz hot sausage
- 1 stick butter
- 2 cups celery chopped
- 1 onion chopped
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp ground sage
- 5 eggs beaten
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook sausage until browned and crumbly. Add celery and onion and cook until veggies are translucent.
- In a large bowl (ie the biggest one you've got), mix together cornbread, white bread, and saltines.
- Once sausage mixture is cooked, pour into cornbread mixture and stir well. Add soups, pepper, teaspoon ground sage, and eggs.
- One cup at a time, add chicken broth until mixture is stirrable but not watery. (You might not add all 5 cups of broth; I mix in a cup at a time until I get it to the desired consistency.)
- Bake mixture in a 9×13" baking pan at 350° for 45-50 minutes, until top is browned and center is no longer jiggly.
Nutrition Facts
Thanks for stopping by today! Check out more of my Thanksgiving inspired recipes below.
More Thanksgiving Side Items
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Why 5 eggs?
With that much bread, they help to hold everything together! You don’t taste egg in this at all, I promise.