Better than your Granny’s cornbread dressing?! Ok, well maybe just the next best thing. Holiday dinners with my family are built aroundwhat most consider to be just a side dish – dressing. Chicken dressing is the glue that brings the ham together with the mac-n-cheese, the strong bond that makes the greens and turkey have true meaning. This easy cornbread dressing recipe can stand up to Granny’s for sure, and it is easy enough to not scare anyone away from attempting to successfully recreate it. I’ll hush now. Let’s get cookin’!
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Ingredients
32 oz chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom
3 sticks/ribsof celery, chopped
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1/3 cup bell pepper, chopped(optional)
ground sage
garlic powder (opt)
salt & pepper
Aunt Jemaima’s self-rising corn meal mix (or however you choose to prepare unsweetened cornbread)
1 egg for the final mixture
eggs per cornbread instructions
milkper cornbread instructions
vegetable oilper cornbread instructions
Directions
Prepare cornbread
Prepare Cornbread by following the directions on the package, prepare 2 large or 3 mediumpansof cornbread. (pans pictured above made 2 large pans of dressing)
Let cornbread cool. With your hands or with a food processor, crumble cornbread completely, thoroughly, and smoothly into a large roasting pan or aluminum pan. My granny would freeze and save leftover cornbread starting early in the month – eating cornbread was nearly a daily thing back then.
Related: Cake for dessert? Make this Vintage Pound Cake Recipe
Prepare cornbread dressing mixture
Preheat oven to 350 °
Begin bymixing in 1/2 can of cream of mushroom and 1/2 can of cream of chicken and all of the chopped vegetables into the crumbled cornbread, and mix well.
Next, pour 1/2 – 3/4 of your chicken broth. Fold and stir until the consistency is even all over. Once this is folded in completely to the mixture, if the consistency isn’t smooth or slightly chunky, continue to add the creams in. If necessary, add more broth. You want to mixture to be smooth – no huge chunks, but definitely not runny with liquids.Once the mixture has reached a smooth but thick consistency add in sage, garlic powder, salt, pepper. For safe measure, add in 1/2 tsp of sage at a time. For the risk takers (like me), just sprinkle it on and season to taste. Your mixture should never become green from adding too much sage, and it should never be over salted. Too much seasoning is indeed, a bad thing.Test taste your mixture.
Lastly, stir one egg and add it thoroughly throughout the entire mixture. This helps to hold it all together.
Bake
Smooth the top of the mixture to an even level. Cover (with lid or foil) and place in preheated oven for 1.5hours, until golden brown on the top and lightly browned on the edges. While the dressing is cooking, Do not stir the mixture after it has started baking. Taste and check the texture of the dressing if necessary, but do not stir.
After removing from the oven, let the dressing sit – do not eat it immediately. It is still very hot and continues to cook from its internal heat at this point.
There ya have it! This recipe was complied from lessons on the art of cooking cornbread dressing by my sister, my Aunts, cousins and my friend Jasmine. It takes a village. We hope y’all enjoy!
What is one dishthat is just absolutely necessary at your family holiday gatherings?Let me know in the comments below!
Wow, that looks amazing! We always have dressing (I still call it stuffing though we don’t stuff it) and my family ALWAYS has LeSeur Very Young Small Early Peas. I think we just like the name. (But they taste great too!) Pinning this.
Reply
Addiesays
Thanks, Kirsten! I haven’t had those peas before, but I love peas so that sounds like a yummy tradition!!
Reply
Nelda Andersonsays
The Dressing Recipe is very similar to the way I make Dressing. I make a large Roaster full. I crumble the cornbread the same. But then I toast it with my oven broiler stirring occasionally to insure all is toasted. This prevents Soggy Dressing. I use a lot of chicken broth and add a fair amount of chicken for even better flavor. I use about three eggs depending on the amount I’m making. I make it pretty soupy with the broth and just a tiny bit of milk. Adding onion and celery precooked in broth that I use. Also a small amount of onion for a slight crunch. Cook until firm but don’t overcook which would make it dry.
Reply
Joycesays
This is a fantastic recipe for cornbread dressing, I can’t wait to try next month for thanksgiving
Reply
Addiesays
I hope you enjoy it! I’m excited for some dressing this time of year, too!
While both styles generally use the same ingredients -- cornmeal, flour, eggs, and baking powder -- the variance lies in the flavor and texture. Northern-style cornbread tends to be sweeter, moister, and cake-like compared to its Southern counterpart.
However, modern cornbread recipes, even in the South, now include wheat flour and sugar. This change wasn't driven by wider availability of sugar and flour, but by changes in how corn was grown, dried, and milled.
Avoid bland dressing by making sure to include plenty of onions, celery, and herbs in your recipe. Now is not the time to go easy with the sage, thyme, and pepper. The dressing should taste different from your cornbread.
Cornmeal: Opt for yellow cornmeal for this recipe, as it's sweeter than its white counterpart. Sugar: Use ⅔ cup white sugar for the perfect amount of sweetness. Baking powder: Baking powder acts as a leavener, which means it helps the cornbread rise.
Among them was a version of Indian bread made of cornmeal, salt and water called pone or corn pone. The name came from the Algonquin word apan, meaning "baked." The Narragansett word for cornbread, nokechick, became no-cake and then hoe-cake.
But for the Thanksgiving side dish in the South, the term dressing was adopted in place of stuffing, which was viewed as a crude term, during the Victorian era. Although dressing and stuffing are interchangeable terms, the signature ingredient of this Thanksgiving side dish in the South is cornbread.
Stuffing should be moist, not dry, because heat destroys bacteria more rapidly in a moist environment. Once the bird is stuffed, it should be placed immediately in an oven set no lower than 325°F. Check out the cooking chart for recommended cooking times for stuffed turkey of various sizes.
The term "pone" most likely entered English from Native American language terms like apan, oppone or supawn, meaning baked, possibly related to earlier ash cakes baked in hot coals. A "corn pone" is usually a small round loaf of cornbread, about the size of a biscuit, traditionally baked in a round cast iron skillet.
Also referred to as “crumble-in,” this hearty snack of cornbread doused in milk is beloved among communities in the Southern United States, stretching from Appalachian West Virginia to the heart of Texas.
Diabetics should approach cornbread with caution due to its high carbohydrate content, which can lead to spikes in blood sugar levels. Traditional cornbread recipes often contain refined flour and added sugars, further exacerbating the issue.
Why is my cornbread dressing gummy? One potential reason for gummy cornbread dressing could be using cornbread that is too moist. It's best to use cornbread that has been left out overnight or is slightly stale to ensure a drier texture.
The stuffing should be moist but not wet. If there is a puddle of broth at the bottom of the bowl, you've added too much. Add more bread to soak up the excess moisture. If the mix is still dry and crumbly, add more liquid and toss gently until it starts to clump together.
The verdict: Northern cornbread's cakey texture and sweetness allow it to be a stand-alone dish, complete without any mix-ins. It can still be used to soak up other foods, like cranberry sauce, but its sweetness makes it less versatile than Southern cornbread, and more suited to accompany other sweet foods.
The most common theory is a change in cornmeal itself. Until early in the 20th century, Southern cornmeal was made with sweeter white corn and it was water-ground. When industrial milling came along, that changed. The steel-roller mills used yellow corn that was harvested before it was ripe, so it had less sugar.
It ranges in texture from fine to coarse. For this recipe, I like to use coarse cornmeal because it adds that traditional cornbread texture. When you mix it with flour, it provides the perfect crumb. I prefer to use stone-ground cornmeal, which you can find in the baking aisle or bulk bins.
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