Cornbread Dressing

Mom never stuffed a turkey with dressing for Thanksgiving when I was growing up, it was always cooked in a foil pan made with cornbread. I remember mother pulling a big bag of leftover frozen cornbread from the freezer and watching her and my grandmother get the dressing ready to go in the oven. Although the turkey cooking duty has fallen to me over the last few years, every year my mother still makes cornbread dressing for thanksgiving, and each year it is a little different. I once asked her about her recipe and she told me she just throws it together with whatever she has. It is always different, but it always good. While I am all for spontaneity in the kitchen, my culinary training caused me to cringe slightly when she told me this. After all how can you consistently reproduce a product if you just throw things together “willy nilly”? I know, I know, I just said “willy nilly”, but my point is you at the minimum need to have a good base recipe to start with, one that you can build upon and modify to suit your own tastes and that of your family.

So to that end, this year I decided I would work on streamlining my basic cornbread and sausage dressing recipe loosely based on one that my mother had made a few years ago. The good thing about cornbread dressing is that, generally you use the same herbs and spices you would for a traditional stuffing, and coming up with a basic recipe which both I and my wife like was pretty straight forward. I hope you will enjoy this dressing as much as my wife apparently did as she could not stop eating it...[GRIN].

Cornbread Dressing

Cornbread dressing is a good use for any leftover cornbread that is not eaten in the first few days after it is made. In anticipation of making dressing, any leftover cornbread we have goes right into the freezer to make dressing with although we do not really have much leftover cornbread. If you do not have any leftover cornbread, then you will have to make a batch. You can either make it form scratch using my 'Jiffy Style Southern Cornbread' recipe or use any pre-made box or package cornbread mix.

Dressing Recipe

1 recipe cornbread, crumbled

8 ounces breakfast sausage

2 cups chicken stock

2 large eggs

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon sage

½ teaspoon thyme

¼ teaspoon marjoram

¼ teaspoon rosemary

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Brown breakfast sausage in skillet, then add celery and onion and saute until the onions are translucent, approximately 5 to 10 minutes.

Crumble cooled or leftover cornbread in a large mixing bowl then add dried herbs and spices and mix completely. Then add 2 cups of chicken stock and combine mix well, taste, and add additional salt, pepper to taste. Here is the one step where you have to decide if you like your stuffing more wet or dry. If you like a wetter stuffing add enough liquid until you find the consistency you like. If you like a drier stuffing use less. I think 2 cups works well, and if it is to dry, well there is always turkey gravy to go on top right? Personally I would rather have my dressing a little dry then too wet.

In a small bowl whip the eggs with a fork until combined then add the eggs to the cornbread dressing and mix completely. Pour dressing into a baking dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and cover with foil and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until done.

In this particular recipe I use 8 ounces or half a package of breakfast sausage, I put the rest of the breakfast sausage in my red beans and rice recipe which I will post of the blog when I get the chance. My grandmother used breakfast sausage in her dressing, my mother generally adds some leftover chopped chicken to her dressing along with a few boiled eggs diced up small. If you do not want to add any meat that is fine, after all this is your dressing make it as you wish.

Conclusion

I hope you will enjoy making this quick and easy cornbread dressing. As noted in the pictures, I made this dressing about a week before Thanksgiving and placed it in the freezer to be cooked on Thanksgiving day. Of course I had to bake a small batch to try and my wife who generally only like her mother's cornbread dressing kept eating it, so that is a good sign.

Cornbread dressing is also a good way to enjoy small amounts of leftover chicken and rabbit, simply substitute them for the sausage in the dressing and it makes a complete casserole type meal. You do not have to wait until Thanksgiving to enjoy this recipe, and using leftovers really helps to stretch your food dollar. As always, if you have enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends and don't forget to send us a friend request on Facebook and Google+ so that you will not miss out on any of our new articles.

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