Southern Cornbread Dressing is deliciously moist and wonderfully seasoned with sage, onions, and celery. It’s a classic that makes it to the Thanksgiving table year after year.
Thanksgiving is quickly approaching and it’s time to start planning that Thanksgiving menu. This year I want the food to be extra good and special since this is the first year my son has been away at college. I miss him dearly and I know he misses my home cooking. (Note: This post was originally published November 10, 2015. But my son is still coming home for Thanksgiving 😊)
You cook for your boys mamas, and they’ll always want to come home to see you. 🙂
The Thanksgiving side dish that my kids look forward to the most is the dressing.
What Is Dressing?
Dressing is what southerners call stuffing. Typically dressing is made with cornbread. Variations on cornbread dressing are many and varied. Depending on the region of the south, ingredients like pecans, sausage, crawfish, or oysters can be added.
Thanksgiving Dressing Recipe
Probably the most looked forward to part of Thanksgiving dinner, besides dessert, is the dressing and it’s not uncommon for us to have more than one kind. I personally really love this Andouille Sausage and Cornbread Stuffing.
This Southern Cornbread Dressing is a more traditional southern dressing made with crumbled cornbread along with lots of onion, celery, and sage. It’s savory, moist, and delicious.
How Far In Advance To Make The Cornbread
You should make the cornbread a day or two in advance. You want the conrbread to be somewhat dry and stale. This will allow it to absorb more liquid and flavor.
Recipe Tip
Since we typically fry our Thanksgiving turkey, I solely use canned broth to make dressing, but if you have turkey drippings, you could add them to the dressing and it will taste even better.
Along with cornbread dressing we love to have Cheesy Green Bean Casserole, mashed potatoes, and Broccoli Casserole for Thanksgiving dinner. And this year I think I’ll add Savory Sweet Potato Casserole to the list. You can never have too many casseroles! I also always make these Yeast Rolls and Southern Sweet Potato Pie.
Equipment Needed
- Cast Iron Pan– You will need a 9 to 10-inch cast iron pan for baking the cornbread. A 9-inch cake pan or baking dish can be used instead.
- Baking Dish– a 9×13-inch baking dish is a good size.
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Watch the video below to see how easy it is to make Southern Cornbread Dressing.
Southern Cornbread Dressing
Equipment
- 9 to 10-inch cast iron pan
Ingredients
Cornbread
- 1 cup self-rising cornmeal, I use Martha White
- 1/2 cup self-rising flour, I use White Lily
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons Vegetable oil
Dressing
- 8 tablespoons butter, (1 stick)
- 3 medium onion, chopped
- 4 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 3 pieces toast, crumbled
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 to 2 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, stir together all ingredients for cornbread. Pour into a lightly greased 9-inch cast iron pan or a 9-inch baking pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Before using, crumble into small pieces.
- Heat butter over medium heat in a large pan. Add celery and onion and cook until soft.
- Add sage, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper to onion mixture.
- In a large bowl combine crumbled cornbread and toast.
- Whisk together milk and eggs and add to bowl. Stir in 2 cups of chicken broth.
- Stir in onion mixture. Mixture should be very moist. Add more broth if necessary.
- Transfer to a greased baking dish. Cut butter into small slivers and scatter on top of dressing.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until it turns light brown on top.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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How much cornbread does this single cornbread recipe make? 2 cups 4 cups?
Everything is really based on the individual, But overall, “Lord YES”. I made this for a company lunch and it was a HUGE success. Very easy to make and like a few others I increased the sage, personally it make the entire dish, and this version was basically vegetarian. I did use cream of mushroom soup in place of the milk simply adding the vegetable stock to make it creamier. I will make this again, but with sausage this time.
This is a wonderful recipe. I am from Alabama and I have made this dressing for years. Do not be afraid to try!
I just made this as I wanted to try it before Thanksgiving. It takes closer to an hour to bake here in AZ (I used a glass baking dish). Also I tripled the sage and next time would add even more..just for my taste. The consistency is absolutely perfect.
Hi do you use 3 whole onions?
Very close to the recipe that I started with.
She uses 3 medium onions, which I would think would be pretty small. I would want about equal parts celery to the onions, but if you really love onions, you can certainly use as many as you like.
I do, but you can use less onion.
This brings back some of my Best Memories it’s Just like my Nanny used to make for me when I was a little kiddo 🥰
This is very, very good
Question: You make your cornbread a few days ahead. Do you let it “dry out” a bit? The dressings I have seen have you toast the main “bread” so I am not sure about this? I make a cornbread from scratch that is awesome so I would like to take that and use your recipe. I need to try once before Thanksgiving since I have an unforgiving crowd.
Hi.
Would you be willing to share your awesome cornbread recipe?
You can use any cornbread recipe you have. It does need to dry out a bit, which is why you make it a few days ahead. I wouldn’t use a jiffy corn muffin mix. it has sugar in it and I don’t think dressing should be sweet.
When you dry it out a day or two before should it be very dry? Like croutons?
My family loves this dressing. I’ve been told that from now on I’ll be making this dressing for all the family gatherings.
What size baking dish do you use for the dressing (not the cornbread) – is it 9×13? Thanks!
Yes use a 9×13 or I like making this in my muffin pan that way everyone gets a little crust and it’s easier for serving at gatherings
I love this recipe except I use jiffy box stuffing. Make it a little easier. And it makes the dressing a little sweet which I love.
How many boxes of Jiffy cornbread mixes do you use for this recipe?
One.
If I used Jiffy my family would disown me!
Same here!! Jiffy tastes more like pound cake to me-TOO sweet for savory dressing!
So do I! We love our cornbread sweet, but then again, I’m from Michigan 😂
Ok I am not a cooker at all, so the question I am going to ask is going to be silly to the majority of those on this forum. Butttttt, when it says “transfer to a greased baking dish” does this mean all ingredients? Please do not laugh. I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO COOK! I was never taught and never had the desire to learn until now that I have my own family.
Bravo! Learning to cook and fixing a real crowd pleaser. After you have mixed all the ingredients together (as noted in steps, 1-7 of the recipe underneath the narrative), you will place the mixture in the greased pan. Top with sliced butter. You can do this! Good luck!
must be over looking the amount of cornbread to use in this recipe. Could you please tell me the amount? Thank you!