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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First time making dressing last year for my family and they loved it. This recipe reminded me of my grandmother’s dressing and it is delicious!
First time making dressing usually someone else has always made it in our household Everyone loved it!
like this one with the sage and poultry seasoning
The delicious dish incorporates Southern Cornbread Dressing and is wonderfully seasoned with sage, onions and celery. Nowadays there are many variations like geometry dash bloodbath but I still like the traditional version.
Good recipe but I didn’t see any celery. Also a can of cream of chicken soup helps make the recipe moister.
Chef Pam as usual a delicious recipes that you have made it so easy and quick for us to follow, just the way I like it, thank you so much for sharing this corn bread dressing recipe with us, my mouth is watering because corn bread dressing is just what I love to eat at Thanksgiving Geometry Dash Lite adventure game.
I never cooked from scratch before I know I will enjoy thank you
Confession: I prepared a variant without butter. My variations include: I made chicken stock from bones and skin from baked chicken, sautéed vegetables in olive oil, adjusted salt pepper and sage as I worked, used two L eggs, added fresh chopped Basil leaves and freshly ground cumin, added chopped red bell pepper, one whole Vidalia onion, dark meat of one chicken chopped, stirred dressing half way through baking and reflattened.
No butter, no milk, no wheat flour, no toast. Thank you Christin Marlig for a helpful point of reference.
That is not southern dressing
Amen!I frequently have to adapt recipes to avoid dairy, but I try to stay true to the integrity of the recipe
I agree
So, basically, you made a completely different recipe than hers that doesn’t even come close to any southern cornbread dressing that I’ve seen in my 40 years of living in the deep south and then gave her recipe four stars?
WHAT DO YOU PUT ON TOP TO BROWN THE CORNBREAD DRESSING WHEN BAKING
Try substituting 1/2 your cornbread used for the recipe with a prepackaged Jalapeno Mexican cornbread mix. After you make both kinds of cornbread, crumble them together to use in your recipe. (If you try it once, you’ll never make this dish again without it!) I also boil some chicken and add it before baking. You can even make this recipe, and add a side vegetable, and serve as a meal any other night of the year!
Haven’t made it yet but I will Thanksgiving day. I’m sure it will be great. Can’t wait! Thank you for sharing.
This cornbread is really delicious if you use a package of premixed Jalapeno Mexican cornbread mix, and either half of the recipe for your cornbread, or a package of regular cornbread mix, and add some shredded boiled chicken to it too. (Try it just once using the Jalapeno cornbread mix and you’ll never want to make it again without it!)