This Southern Cornbread Dressing is super moist and absolutely delicious! It will be the only cornbread dressing recipe that you will ever need! Serve it with turkey or chicken for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Sunday Dinner.
Southern Cornbread Dressing is one of the “Holy Grail” dishes of Southerners. Our Cornbread Dressing is sacred to us. We serve it with a juicy slice of roasted turkey drizzled with delicious giblet gravy and cranberry sauce! My mouth is watering now!
Cornbread dressing is the pride and joy of a Southern holiday. You’ll never find stuffing on a Southern Thanksgiving table, not that stuffing isn’t good, it’s just that it’s not a Southern tradition.
Classic Southern Cornbread Dressing is very savory, made of course with cornbread, buttery sautéed celery, and onions and seasoned with sage and lots of black pepper. Plus, eggs, cream of chicken soup and lots and lots of rich broth.
This will be the best dressing that you have ever had. My grandmother made the best dressing and she passed down her dressing-making secrets to my mother and she passed them down to me. Now, I’m going to share them with you.
So what makes a good tasting dressing? It’s got to be extra moist and the seasoning has to be perfect. For a successful Thanksgiving Dinner, a lot is hinging on how well the dressing turns out. But, don’t worry or stress out, I’m going to show you how to make the world’s best tasting Southern Cornbread Dressing. Let’s get started!
Ingredients that you will need to make Southern Cornbread Dressing (Be sure to see the full printable recipe below this post.)
- White self-rising cornbread mix (I use White Lily)
- Self-rising flour
- Vegetable oil
- Eggs
- Buttermilk
- Butter
- Celery
- Yellow sweet onions
- Rubbed sage (Be sure not to use ground sage. It will turn your dressing green.)
- Salt and pepper
- Cream of chicken soup
- Rich chicken broth
3 simple tips on making the perfect Southern Cornbread Dressing beside from the recipe. (These are from my mother and they are very important.)
-
- Use broth from a container, not canned broth, such as Swanson’s. Use only a little broth from the turkey that you bake. (About 1 cup from the turkey broth.) The turkey broth is very rich (and delicious) but if you use too much your dressing will be greasy.
- Fill the uncooked dressing to almost to the very top of the casserole dish. You want a nice thick, juicy moist dressing. You might think it is too much filling but trust me it’s not. This is simple but hugely important. If you only fill ⅔ of the dish, the dressing will be too thin and dry.
- Don’t overcook the dressing. Dressing will be a little wobbly in the center but will continue to firm up and cook after it’s removed from the oven.
Step-by-step directions for making cornbread dressing
- Make the cornbread first. If possible, make the cornbread the night before. This will be a very big pan of cornbread, but that’s what you’ll need for the dressing. We are adding a good bit of flour to the cornbread batter so you won’t be needing to add bread to the dressing mix.
- Crumble the cornbread into fine bread crumbs. You can use your hands or a food processor. Let the cornbread cool completely before mixing it with the other ingredients.
- In a large skillet, melt butter and add the finely chopped celery and onions and sauté until tender but still a little crunchy.
- Add the sage, salt, and black pepper and mix well into the cornbread crumbs.
- Next, add the melted butter, cooked celery, and onions to the cornbread crumbs, eggs, and cream of chicken soup, and mix well.
- Next, add the chicken broth. This is an extra moist dressing so it does take a lot of chicken broth. Mixture will be soupy.
Mix well and pour the cornbread batter into 1 well-greased 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish and 1 well-greased 8-inch square baking dish. Fill almost to the top of the casserole dish. Bake the dressing in a preheated 375 oven, uncovered for 40 to 50 minutes or until it’s golden brown and hot and bubbly. Let the dressing set for about 10 minutes before serving. This will give it a chance to firm up a bit.
Serve hot with roasted turkey or chicken, gravy, and lots of cranberry sauce!
Can You make the Dressing up a day or two ahead and cook it the day of serving?
Absolutely! Just store the uncooked dressing batter in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You will need 1 or more cups of chicken broth to the batter because it probably has absorbed some of the moisture.
You can also freeze the uncooked dressing batter too. Thaw out in the refrigerator overnight. There again, add a little more broth to it.
Be sure to check out some of my favorite side dishes to serve with cornbread dressing.
Sweet Potato Souffle Marshmallows
I hope you enjoy this delicious Southern cornbread recipe and you pass it down. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
Thank you for stopping by!
Enjoy!
Aletia
Be sure to follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, and please subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss a recipe!
Southern Cornbread Dressing
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
This Southern Cornbread Dressing is super moist and absolutely delicious! It will be the only cornbread dressing recipe that you will ever need! Serve it with turkey or chicken for Thanksgiving, Christmas or Sunday Dinner.
Ingredients
INGREDIENTS
Cornbread for Dressing (Make first)
- 5 cups white self-rising cornbread mix (I use White Lily)
- 2 cups self-rising flour
- 1 ¾ cups vegetable oil
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 5 cups buttermilk
Dressing
- 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
- 2 cups finely chopped celery
- 3 cups finely chopped yellow sweet onion
- 3 Tablespoons rubbed sage (Note: Do not use ground sage. Ground sage will turn your dressing green.)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon freshly ground black pepper (No typo 1 Tablespoon, lots of black pepper is delicious in cornbread dressing!)
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1 (10.75-ounce) can cream of chicken soup
- 9 cups chicken broth or stock (It’s better to use the broth in the carton rather than the can broth. It has a richer taste or you can use some of the broth from the Turkey or chicken that you roast.)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal mix, self-rising flour, vegetable oil, eggs, and buttermilk. Mix until ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into a well-greased 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.
- Cool completely. (Note/Tip: Actually it’s better and easier to make your cornbread the day before.) After the cornbread has completely cooled, crumble it into crumbs and place the cornbread crumbs into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
- For the Dressing: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add the finely chopped celery and onions and sauté until tender. Set aside.
- Add the sage, salt, and black pepper to the cooled bread crumbs. Mix well.
- Add the sauté celery and onions along with the butter to the cornbread crumbs.
- Next add the beaten eggs, cream of chicken soup, and chicken broth. Mix well. Note: The mixture will be soupy but all the chicken broth will make the dressing extra moist and so delicious! Pour into 1 well-greased 13 x 9 x 2-inch and one 8-inch square baking dish. Be sure to fill the casserole dishes to the top of the dish. Filling almost to the top will produce a moist dressing. If it’s too thin, you will have dry dressing. My mother taught me this simple trick. Note: This recipe makes a lot of dressing so you’ll have enough dressing for another smaller baking (8-inch square) dish or you can freeze the unbaked dressing for another time.
- Bake dressing in a preheated 375-degree oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until golden brown. The center will still be a little wobbly. Be sure not to overbake.
Notes
Do ahead/Freeze Tip: You can make the dressing batter two days ahead and cook it an hour before serving. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container. (You probably will need to add a cup or more broth to the batter before baking.) Uncooked dressing can also be frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and then bake according to the directions. You may need to add a little more broth to the dressing. Also, any leftovers can be frozen as well.
