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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My mother in law always makes the dressing for our holiday dinners and this is just how she makes it. So dang good! I don’t know why we don’t make it all year long.
Can this be made in individual muffins in a muffin pan? My friend made hers that way. She has passed on and no one has her recipe.
I haven’t tried it in a muffin pan, but that sounds like a great idea to me!
I use a muffin pan. Keeps the dressing from being “gummy”.
I was looking for a southern dressing recipe and found yours Christin. I also found your recipe for Pineapple Casserole. I decided to try it and it was fabulous!!! I have made it twice already. It is a keeper!!! It tastes like a dessert. I will try the dressing recipe next.
Hmmmm. Was very easy to make and smells yumm. Now to the taste. Far to salty for my taste. Even my husband said the same thing. I think in the future I will only use half chicken stock half water and add no salt at all.
I only use unsalted chicken stock.
Used unsalted stock and season to your taste…
I boil chicken parts to add meat and I use the broth from that so it’s to my preference of taste
This recipe reminds me of my grandmother’s dressing. It’s a keeper!
This has become my go to recipe for Thanksgiving.
Can hot water cornbread be used as well as the regular cornbread.? Also, I’m a little confused on the egg thing. Use boiled eggs or uncooked or both? This seems alot like my dad’s , He made the best dressing when he was alive. I remember sitting and talking to him when making. Seems like alot of same ingredients.. Do you put all this in food processor to cut up and make smaller- the bread part? Thank you for sharing. Merry Christmas!
I use uncooked, but many people add chopped hard-boiled eggs so you could do both. I think I would just use the regular cornbread.
I just got done making a pan. I used 2 packs of Martha White cornbread mix. I made it, let it cool then crumbled it into a bowl. (My Mom makes her cornbread homemade Nd cooks it the day before, but I don’t have time for that!) I added 2 boiled eggs, chopped. 2 raw eggs, an onion I had diced and sautéed in butter until tender, salt, pepper, sage to taste. Mix it all up with canned chicken broth (I used 1 regular size can) and put in baking dish. (The darker baking pans seem to do better). Let cook at 350 for about 45-50 minutes (or until set). It is wonderful!
You want to cut down on the liquids because the oysters will release all of their liquid and make it soupy.
I use basically the same recipe but I use raw eggs and boiled eggs. So yummy
2 dense
The uncooked eggs make it all come back together. I also you boiled eggs that have my mom made it and that the way I like it. It’s up to you the way you look it.
What if I want to add oysters? Do I change anything?
I came across this recipe trying to figure out what kind of dressing to make. I have never made dressing before but it sounded pretty good. This is probably the best dressing I have ever eaten! It was easy to make and the directions are dead on. I will definitely be making this again! We use the Paul Harvey cornbread recipe and it is great also. The only thing different I did was instead of three medium onions (my wife doesn’t like onions) I used one large onion. I also cooked the onion and celery in butter but I added about one tablespoon of bacon fat to it for some extra savory flavor.
Can you make this ahead of time and put in refrigerator?
Yes. you can get it all prepped and refrigerate it. Then you might want to add a few minutes on to the cooking time or let it sit at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes before you pop it in the oven. Happy Thanksgiving!