Grandma's Southern Cornbread Dressing Recipe

An old fashioned cornbread dressing recipe like Grandma used to make. Made the southern way in a big casserole. Simple ingredients, yet big flavor! It's a perfect side dish for your holiday meal.

For Thanksgiving dinner, if you gave me a plate just filled with my grandma's cornbread dressing, I would be a happy woman.  Of course I love everything else that graces our Thanksgiving table (turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad, green bean casserole, cranberry salad, rolls, etc), but the cornbread dressing is what really does it for me.

I've had a lot of dressings/stuffings in my thirty nine years of life, but I have yet to find a recipe that is as delicious as my grandma's cornbread dressing.  With simple ingredients of cornbread, bread, onion, celery, eggs, salt, pepper, sage, and chicken broth, it just goes to show that simple flavors and down home cookin' recipes can still be the most delightful. I hope you enjoy this much loved family recipe.

Cornbread Dressing vs Cornbread Stuffing

People have different names for that bready concoction that shows up next to the turkey on Thanksgiving. Is is dressing or is it stuffing? What's the difference?

They both contain some kind of stale bread, some vegetables, spices and herbs, chicken or turkey broth, and sometimes eggs or meat. Sometimes you will even see some kind of fruit or nuts depending on the variation.

There is, however, one major difference in dressing and stuffing.

Dressing is baked separately in a casserole dish.

Stuffing is, like the word explains, stuffed into the turkey while it cooks.

I much prefer dressing to stuffing for several reasons.

1. I think there is less risk of food borne illness when cooking the dressing outside of the bird.
2. It is difficult to time it right where the turkey and stuffing are both done at the same time, especially with a large bird.
3. I like the taste of dressing better, especially cornbread dressing.
4. Last but certainly not least, that's how Grandma did it and I'm not one to mess with perfection. We often enjoy the familiarity of what we grew up eating and dressing is what I have grown to love.

Ingredients Needed

To make cornbread dressing you only need a handful of simple ingredients.

prepared cornbread: The most important part of this recipe is the cornbread. Instead of simply bread for our dressing, we are using half bread, half cornbread. Bake your cornbread a day or two before assembling and cooking your dressing. This helps it to be dried out and soaks up the chicken stock.

bread: Any bread will do: white bread, wheat bread, sourdough, gluten-free. You just need plenty of it and you want the bread cubes dried out as well. Stale old bread works great for this.

salt and pepper: I'm a huge proponent of salt and pepper. Every recipe has to be salted properly to taste good. Don't be afraid to add salt. My homemade broth is mildly salted. If you are using a store-bought broth, go for low sodium so that you don't risk over salting.

sage: The star seasoning of this dish is dried sage. Don't go thinking this won't be flavorful because there's no poultry seasoning or rosemary. It will be; trust me. Sage is all you need.

onions and celery: The onions and celery add tons of flavor as well as some texture. Do not skip them. There is no need to sauté onion and celery ahead of time in a skillet. Just finely chop them and throw them in. The cooking time is long enough that they get tender inside the casserole.

chicken broth: If you really want to make this special, boil a whole chicken or chicken parts to get your broth the day before.  You can even use a cup of the chicken meat in the dressing itself.  That's how Grandma does it. You could use a store-bought broth if you are in a time crunch, but trust me, the homemade version will be so much better and more nutritious.

To boil the chicken, place it in a stockpot and cover with water and add 1 tsp salt. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam that rises to the top. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cook for about an hour. After chicken is cooked through, remove chicken and strain broth through a fine mesh sieve. You can see a cooking demonstration video in my post on how to get multiple meals from a whole chicken.

eggs: Use large eggs and not small or medium. Lightly beat them before pouring into the dressing mixture.

 

What kind of cornbread do you need for cornbread dressing?

You need a single batch of a savory cornbread for this recipe. It doesn't have to be buttermilk cornbread.

Do NOT use a sweet cornbread mix like Jiffy. You want it to have a savory taste.

I like to use my homemade cornbread recipe. It uses simple ingredients that you likely already have in your kitchen already and doesn't require buttermilk. It is a moist cornbread though, so you will need to let it dry out at least overnight. If you are in a time crunch, you may need to cut the cornbread into cubes and toast it in the oven a bit to dry it out a little. Don't worry if it is not super dry.

If you want to use a boxed cornbread mix instead of homemade, my grandma likes to use Martha White's hot rise mix.

I prefer to use my homemade recipe because it doesn't have the extra additives that a boxed recipe contains. I think they both taste very similar though.

 

How to make grandma's cornbread dressing

1. Prepare cornbread (either homemade or Martha White hot rise mix) and let dry out a day or two.
2. Cut or tear bread into ½ inch cubes and dry out bread overnight on a baking sheet. Toast on a large baking sheet if you are in a time crunch.
3. The next day, heat oven to 400 degrees f.
4. Crumble cornbread into little bits.
5. Combine cornbread, bread cubes, salt, pepper, sage, finely diced onions and celery in an extra large bowl and mix together.
6. Add five cups of the broth and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed before adding the eggs.
7. Whisk eggs and stir them into the cornbread mixture.
8. The cornbread mixture should be very wet in consistency. Add the additional cup of broth if needed.
9. Pour into a well greased, 10 x 15 inch casserole dish and spread out in pan.
10. Bake covered, at 400 degrees for 1 hour.
11. After the elapsed time, uncover and shake the dish. If it jiggles, it is not done. If it is firm, it is done.
12. If it doesn't look set, uncover, and bake for additional time until it is firm but still moist on the inside. This could take 5-20 minutes more depending on how deep your casserole dish is or how dry your bread was in the beginning.

More Thanksgiving Recipes

Here are more winning recipes for your holiday table.

Best turkey recipe for Thanksgiving

Easy turkey gravy drippings

Homemade rolls

Fresh cranberry salad

Spinach and apple salad

Honey roasted carrots and beets

Maple roasted sweet potatoes