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Southern Cornbread Dressing

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Description

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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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. 
  4. Add the sage, salt, and black pepper to the cooled bread crumbs. Mix well. 
  5. Add the sauté celery and onions along with the butter to the cornbread crumbs.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.