Southern Style dressing recipe?

[siren0119]

I've been tasked to make a side for Thanksgiving this year, and I really miss the cornbread dressing my southern roommate used to bring home from break when I was in college (like it's 25 years later and i STILL think about it!! YUM)

Can anyone share their tried and true dressing recipe? Would love to shake up our traditional New England table a little

 

[powellrj]

This isn’t exactly my recipe, but it’s really close. I have made it for so many years I know it by heart.
It’s a moist dressing which is what I like. I always add a can of oysters because we like them.

https://www.pauladeen.com/recipe/southern-cornbread-stuffing/

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

I've got my grandmother's grandmother's recipe (South Carolina and Virginia) (adapted over the years of course) that I'll post for you once I get home tonight. I'm setting myself a reminder right now...

 

[Wendy31]

I don't have my mother's recipe handy, but you need a good cornbread recipe, chicken stock or broth, eggs, a few slices of toast, chopped onion, finely chopped celery, poultry seasoning, & sage.

That's it for the basic southern cornbread dressing. Some people add sausage.

You can cook your cornbread the day before.

This one is similar to the one we use. The proportions are off a little bit. As soon as I can locate my mom's recipe, I'll post it.

Cornbread

• 1 cup self-rising cornmeal, I use Martha White
• 1/2 cup self-rising flour, I use White Lily
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons Vegetable oil

Dressing

• 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
• 3 medium onion, chopped - We don't use this much onion.
• 4 stalks celery, chopped - We don't use this much celery.
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 3 pieces toast, crumbled
• 1/2 cup milk - We don't use milk.
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 to 2 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth - We use more of this, if I remember correctly.
• 2 tablespoons butter - We don't add butter to the top.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together all ingredients for cornbread. Pour into a lightly greased 9-inch cast iron pan or a 9-inch baking pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Before using, crumble into small pieces.
3. Heat butter over medium heat in a large pan. Add celery and onion and cook until soft.
4. Add sage, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper to onion mixture.
5. In a large bowl combine crumbled cornbread and toast.
6. Whisk together milk and eggs and add to bowl. Stir in 2 cups of chicken broth.
7. Stir in onion mixture. Mixture should be very moist. Add more broth if necessary.
8. Transfer to a greased baking dish. Cut butter into small slivers and scatter on top of dressing.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until it turns light brown on top.

 

[luvsJack]

I don’t have a recipe exactly.

I make my cornbread the day before I plan to make the dresssing. Just a basic southern cornbread recipe. I replace part of the milk with chicken broth and I add cooked onions and celery and poultry seasoning. Bake the bread, let it cool and then break into crumbs. Add a couple of pieces of stale bread, toasted bread or even leftover biscuits and make into crumbs.


The next day, cook onions and celery in butter. I just use the frozen pack labeled “seasoning vegetables” sometimes. Pour into your bread crumbs. Add poultry seasoning. (taste as you go) Melt a stick of butter and pour that in. Add a can of cream of chicken soup (or your homemade version), then pour in chicken broth until soupy. Pour into your casserole dish and bake until the top is crusty.

You can add sausage, apples, cranberries, just about anything. Mom always added chicken meat. She made her own broth so she had the chicken anyway. This year I am adding shrimp and crawfish and some Cajun seasonings.

It makes a big pan of dressing.

 

[xlsm]

I have no real recipe, I just eyeball it and taste it to make sure it is as close to my grandmother's as possible (she doesn't have a recipe either, just told me the basics of what goes into it several years ago, and mine is closer than anyone else has gotten!)

I get four packets of white cornbread mix (some weird brand, that says "from the maker's of Martha White" on it - helpful, I know ) and make it the day before Thanksgiving. It has to be the plain white cornbread mix, it is NOT the same with yellow, and don't get any that is presweetened like Jiffy. Jiffy has its place, but that place is not in my dressing.

The morning of Thanksgiving, after the turkey is out of the oven (because you need the drippings), I crumble up the cornbread and put it in a huge mixing bowl. I saute onions and celery in butter and a touch of rubbed sage (I have no exact measurements, I just go by muscle memory I guess) until soft. I'd guess one full medium to large yellow onion and five or six celery stalks?? I just sort of start chopping and see how it looks. One year I chopped my onion and celery the day before, and the dressing did not taste right, so I don't recommend doing that. I'll never do that again!

The onion/celery mixture goes into the crumbled up cornbread, followed by more rubbed sage, and a teaspoon or two of baking powder. I ladle on turkey drippings until it's fairly wet, and mix. I taste it to make sure there's enough sage flavor (too much makes it sweet, yuck! but too little makes it bland - there's a fine line) and add more as needed, same with the turkey drippings - you don't want dry dressing! I also keep some chicken stock nearby if I need more liquid (because I save some of the turkey drippings for gravy), but I don't usually need too much of that, if any. I don't add any salt, b/c what comes from the turkey takes care of that (my turkey is rubbed down with only unsalted butter and sea salt, with butter shoved up under the skin.)

Then it all goes into a 9x13 glass pan (the same one the cornbread was baked in the day before), more drippings poured over the top if needed, and it bakes for at least 30 min on 350, sometimes longer, until the edges start to brown.

Everyone always goes nuts for this, I make a huge batch so I can have leftovers. Because it's a family recipe, it's difficult to share exactly what to do b/c *I* know what tastes right, and how it's supposed to look, but it can be hard to judge when making it for the first time. My stepmom cannot get it right, she always ends up making it sweet and no one touches it. If she didn't already hate me, the fact that I can make it and she can't would push her over the edge, LOL!!

But it's been made for over 100 years by my grandmother and her mom before her, so it's a simple Ozarks classic for sure. I've never had anyone I've ever served it to NOT go back for seconds or thirds.

 

[cvjw]

Google bates house of turkey cornbread dressing recipe. That is the recipe multiple generations of my very southern family has used. It is so delicious!

 

[LilyWDW]

https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/stuffing_dressing_my_favorite_thanksgiving_food/

This is the recipe I use with some minor adjustment. For example, I add Sage to the rest of the herbs. It always gets good reviews even in Tennessee!

 

[OneOftheB's]

The one I use is very similar to Wendy31's: bake a 10" skillet of cornbread the day before, as well as a batch of biscuits and let them sit overnight and get stale (this is a running joke between several of my friends;we post our pans of cornbread resting the day before Thanksgiving and Christmas).

1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
4 cups crumbled cornbread (stale)
2 cups crumbled biscuits (stale)-I use canned biscuits for convenience
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp course ground pepper
4 tablespoons melted butter (1/2 stick)
3 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons parsley (I use a little less)

Bake at 400 degrees in 8x8 pan for 50-60 minutes, until top is lightly brown and dressing is firm to the touch.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Easy Classic.... (except you have to make cornbread, which might not be easy if you can't find a good cormeal/cornbread mix in your area.
Try this....

I make one small to med. skillet cornbread, but any good baking pan would work if you don't have a cast-iron skillet.
Cook, cool, dice, and can keep in a good airtight ziplock type bag.
If there is simply no way to make a good fresh cornbread, a dried, diced, cornbread cubed from the grocery might work???
But, I am from the South. We do the real deal.
And, like a prev. poster mentioned... not any kind of sweetened, sugar, or flavored. Just a basic white cornmeal mix.

Fresh bread... several slices, depending on how much you are making... I probably use twice the amount of diced cornbread to the fresh white bread crumbs. A 2/3 ratio.
Just zap each slice of bread in your blender, instant fresh bread crumbs.

Turkey stock, or a good quality turkey or chicken stock from the grocery store.

Onion, diced into small-to-med. size diced pieces.
Celery - also diced.

You could add additional diced veggies/fruit... I simply do not do any meat or sausage or nuts at all in mine.

And, lastly, Spice Islands gourmet poultry seasoning. This is WAY better than most of the others which are mostly cheap black pepper. More herbs.

Bring stock to a simmer and throw in the veggies.
Let this simmer long enough for the veggies to become done and very tender.
Add salt, as needed.

Place diced cornbread and bread crumbs into large mixing bowl - tossed together.
Add poultry seasoning. You can always start with a little, and add more, to taste.
with a ladle or large serving spoon, ladle the veggies along with some juice, into the mixing bowl, and gently mix everything together.
Add enough of the remaining stock to make sure that the dressing mix is not dry - but also NOT dripping wet.
If you think you might have added too much liquid, it might work to put the dressing mix into some kind of straining colander. Let excess liquid drip through.

Put the dressing mix in a lightly greased baking dish/pan, and bake at a medium temperature, maybe 350', until it is done and the top is becoming golden brown.