This southern cornbread dressing has been enjoyed in our family every Thanksgiving since I can remember. It is so simple and delicious, and perfect alongside oven roasted turkey breast!
This is my mom’s recipe. She adapted it from her mother and her Aunt Laura, so there’s no telling how many generations this goes back!
Here in the southeastern USA, it is tradition to make authentic southern cornbread dressing to go with our turkey on Thanksgiving.
And y’all, side note: Don’t miss my mom’s oven roasted turkey breast! These two dishes go together SO well. Our family counts down to Thanksgiving every year when we get to enjoy them!
My mouth is literally watering as I look at these pictures…LOL!
But back to the southern cornbread dressing! We do not stuff ours inside the turkey, but we prepare it in it’s own casserole dish on the side. I prefer it this way. It is just simpler, and I cannot imagine it tasting any better.
You can use my skillet corn bread as a base for this recipe. I have also made a pan from the White Lily cornbread mix, and it works great! But the cast iron skillet is a must. That crispy crust makes the dressing taste amazing.
Once your cornbread is baked and cooled, you just rip it up into chunks with your hands.
You will also need some sliced white bread. Sometimes my mom will use biscuits instead of the white bread. You can totally do this too! She has used sliced white bread in the last few years, though, because it is just simpler. And it still tastes great!
Just mix your ripped up bread, celery, onions.
Then pour over the melted butter next, and stir it into the bread mixture. Next, pour over the egg and broth mixture, and stir until well-combined.
Then transfer to a casserole dish, and bake it until it is golden on top.
It’s funny, as I was talking to my mom, I realized that she rarely follows a recipe exactly. A lot of her instructions are “just add more until it looks right.” Or “cook it until it’s done.” LOL!
So I tried to put some structure for y’all, with actual measurements and times. 🙂
Let me know if you try it!
Southern Cornbread Dressing Recipe
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Southern Cornbread Dressing
Ingredients
- 14 ounces corn bread crumbles (weighed on a food scale, or 4 cups)
- 4 slices white bread, torn (I used Sunbeam)
- 2 celery stalks very finely minced
- 1/2 cup yellow onion very finely minced
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
- 3 eggs
- 3.5 cups chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- cooking spray, oil or butter to grease the casserole dish
Instructions
Tear the white bread and cornbread into chunks.
In a large bowl, combine the bread chunks, onions, celery.
Pour the melted butter over the bread, onions, celery, and stir.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, and stir in the chicken broth, salt and pepper.
Pour the egg and broth mixture over the bread/ celery/ onion mixture, and stir to combine.
Transfer to casserole dish that has been greased or sprayed with cooking spray.
- Bake at 375 for about 45 to 50 minutes minutes.
This post originally appeared on A Pinch of Healthy on November 7, 2017.
Brenda Burns senburns@aol.com says
I revise my recipe every year! Two questions on this recipe:
1: What size casserole dish do you bake it in? Seems that 9×13 might be too small? You don’t give a size in the recipe directions.
2: I see you don’t add sage but that is a ‘must’ ingredient for us….Will it still be good if I add sage to it?
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
I used a corningware white 2.5 Liter baking dish. 9×13 works great too, and I have used that in years past.If y’all love sage, go ahead and add it. My family happens to have the opposite preference, so I leave it out. If you like it, it would be delicious in this recipe, though.
Adriene Hughes says
Today I am making cornbread stuffing for the first time because I had leftover Mixi type cornbread I made a few days ago. I used wheat bread instead of white but had other ingredients. Thanks for sharing your family recipe and I am excited to make it myself!
Shelby Brushwyler says
Do you dry out the cornbread for this? Like make it a couple of days before?
Marjorie@APinchOfHealthy says
Hi Shelby! You can, but the ones in these pictures used bread made the same day. So either way works.👍🏻
Shelby Brushwyler says
Thank you!
Beth Mitchell says
You certainly can make it ahead but you don’t need to. Ive been using this recipe for years and years. It was Mama Lena’s. I never used celery but our family loves it. absolutely no sage, ever!
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
That is right, Beth! (for those reading this, Mama Lena is my great grandmother!) I love how this recipe has been passed down in our family.💖 I think Aunt Laura started using celery, and them my mom did too. But YES, absolutely no sage for us either.👌🏻 Love and miss you!
Laurie says
This is very similar to my Mom’s recipe, but we sauté the onions and celery in the butter. So yummy!
Marjorie@APinchOfHealthy says
Funny! 🙂 I think my mom used to do that too. Then she figured out if you mince them up fine enough, you can skip that step. Happy Thanksgiving!
Karly says
As both a stuffing and cornbread lover, I just can’t believe I’ve never thought to make something like this. I am SO glad I stopped by and found this gem! Need to try it ASAP!
Marjorie@APinchOfHealthy says
I hope you enjoy it Karly! We have enjoyed this every Thanksgiving since I can remember.