Nothing is more ready for Thanksgiving this year than my family's old fashioned southern cornbread dressing recipe. Flavorful chicken sage sausage is crisped up in a pan full of butter with onions, celery, and sage, then tossed in turkey-broth-soaked cornbread and crackers and baked until our southern dressing is deliciously moist on the inside and crisp and decadent on the top. This is a crowd pleasing make ahead recipe that everyone will ask for more of!
This week I got an email from long time reader and ST+T OG, Abby. We've gabbed over Thanksgiving traditions, biscuit folding, and family over eight years. She's a real OG here.
In honor of her grandmother who passed this year, she asked if I could share an old fashioned recipe for cornbread dressing. And of course, I got right down to it. Because if there's anything I understand, it's missing that familiar taste of comfort from grandma's cooking.
I make my Grandma Reid's southern cornbread dressing every year, a soulful side dish with crisp chicken sage sausage and tons of fresh sage mixed into homemade cornbread and turkey stock. Honey, it never gets a chance to be leftovers; I'm lucky if it makes it to my Thanksgiving table, before it's picked and nibbled away to nothing!
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Jump to:
- My Family's Southern Cornbread Dressing
- Origins of Traditional Cornbread Dressing
- Ingredients
- How to Make Old Fashioned Cornbread Dressing
- What's the Difference between Dressing and Stuffing?
- Variations and Pro Tips for the Best Cornbread Dressing
- Make this Dressing Ahead of Time (Storage + Reheating)
- Equipment
- FAQs
- More Southern Side Dishes for Thanksgiving
- Old Fashioned Southern Cornbread Dressing Recipe
My Family's Southern Cornbread Dressing
When it comes to thanksgiving, there are some dishes that can't be missing on our table, no matter the menu. And my family recipe for dressing is one of them! My mama would make two types: sausage and oyster dressing, mostly because I just wasn't an oyster dressing type of girl
It's a simple dish to make, especially if you already have a batch of stale-behind cornbread awaiting ya (and if you don't that's okay, I'll tell you how to make a fresh batch of cornbread stale enough to use ASAP). Sizzle up the savories in a buttload of butter, toss it with the cornbread and broth, and bake. It's really that easy!
Origins of Traditional Cornbread Dressing
Old-fashioned cornbread dressing calls its origins from Senegambia in West Africa, in a dish called Kusha. Kusha is a dish made with couscous and is heavily influenced by the Islamic community there, but those who were kidnapped and trafficked during the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the Southern U.S. made do with what they had to create kush, kusha's descendant.
Kush was created out of necessity; a cornbread dish made of the rations the enslaved were given: corn or cornmeal, scraps of pig and fat, along with herbs and peppers from their gardens and wild onions, sizzled up in a cast iron skillet.
This simple, flavorful meal filled and nourished the ancestors' bellies in the field and in the 'house'...and eventually ended up on the plates of their traffickers and whites high and low. What can we say? Kush was the talk of the town.
And it's the ancestor of cornbread dressing!
Ingredients
- Stale Cornbread - you want it pretty dried out so it can soak up all the broth and eggs.
- Saltine Crackers - many recipes call for white bread but to me, the best dressing is made with saltines, like my Grandma Reid makes it.
- Chicken Apple Sage Sausage - the protein you put in cornbread dressing is very regional. My mama would make it Low Country style and make oyster dressing every year. Some will use fat back or bacon as the ancestors did, the Gullah Geechee will add in boiled eggs with that too, and many elders will tell you to use a sage sausage. I really love the flavors of the sausage I used, which had bits of apple in it, but any pork or chicken sage sausage will work.
- Celery, Onions, and Garlic - the aromatics really give us that flavor that we want and need in our dressing.
- Butter - you're using over a stick of it here. It's the holidays, honey!
- Fresh Sage and Dried Sage - I have fresh and dried, but if you can't find any fresh just dried works.
- Smoked Paprika - this is my own little hit of spice. I love the gentle, subtle smokiness it gives the vegetables and sausage, especially since the sausage is a bit sweet.
- Eggs
- Chicken or Turkey Broth - this is the ahem 'moist maker' here. We're essentially making a savory bread pudding, a custard based bread dish and the broth brings both moisture and flavor.
How to Make Old Fashioned Cornbread Dressing
Step 1 | Crisp up the sausage in a large pan and a stick of butter. We're infusing that butter with the flavor and fat from the sausage while also getting plenty of browning and flavor thanks to the Maillard Reaction.
Step 2 | Add in the celery and onions. Sauté until the onions are starting to become golden brown. Then add in the garlic, sage, black pepper, and smoked paprika. Sizzle that up until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
Step 3 | Crumble the cornbread and crackers into a big mixing bowl. We want some good sized bread cubes so it doesn't just turn to mush.
Step 4 | Add in the sausage mixture and make sure to scrape in alllllll of the butter in the pan.
Step 5 | Mix in the beaten eggs and the turkey broth or chicken stock, a little splash at a time. How wet you want your dressing is up to you. I like mine the consistency of a soggy shoe after you ended up in a puddle, but some people like it to basically be a soup. When it cooks, it'll turn into a bread pudding-ish consistency.
Step 6 | Obscenely butter up your casserole dish and put the dressing mixture in there. I don't like to smooth the top, I like it to have some crisp, crunchy, beautifully browned bits on the top.
Step 7 | Bake in the oven until golden brown. I like decorating with a few fried sage leaves for a little bit of fancy, some prettiness.
What's the Difference between Dressing and Stuffing?
Stuffing and dressing are the same, basically. Stuffy folks in the 1800's thought the word 'stuffing' was vulgar, so they called it dressing.
Stuffing, though, is usually stuffed into the turkey on Thanksgiving, while dressing would never be stuffed in anything.
If you want to call this cornbread stuffing, you can! But if you ask anyone in the south, it's dressin'.
Variations and Pro Tips for the Best Cornbread Dressing
- Plan Ahead - make the cornbread a day or two ahead of time so it has time to stale. Throw it in the fridge in a zip-top bag for extra staleness.
- Didn't plan ahead? - use a boxed cornbread mix if you are out of time to make cornbread yourself. Or if you have fresh cornbread, put the cornbread on a baking sheet and dry it out in a low oven.
- Cream of Something Soups - I know many people who use cream of chicken soup or cream of mushroom soup. Swap out some of the broth for that if using those is what you're used to, and remember to keep an eye on the consistency of the mixture before baking.
- Don't use a Sweet Cornbread - we're not going for the Jiffy cornbread mix here, it's too sweet for dressing! You'll want a savory cornbread, I have the recipe for my favorite included in the recipe card.
- Add more Veggies - bell peppers, spicy chiles, carrots, really any veggie that you like can be diced up into our dressing.
Make this Dressing Ahead of Time (Storage + Reheating)
This dish can be made two days ahead of time and kept wrapped up in the fridge until Turkey Day.
Make the cornbread ahead of time and keep it in the fridge (this stales it out much quicker!) and make the sausage and aromatics mixture the day before so you can just whip up the cornbread the day of!
Equipment
- Casserole Dish
- A Wide Skillet
FAQs
Yes, you can freeze cornbread dressing! Allow it to cool completely, then wrap tightly in plastic wrap or foil and store in an airtight container. When ready to eat, thaw overnight in the fridge and bake at 350°F until heated through and crispy. If frozen right before baking, bake from frozen, adding extra time. The texture may soften slightly, but it will still be delicious.
More Southern Side Dishes for Thanksgiving
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Old Fashioned Southern Cornbread Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 ounces salted butter
- 16 ounces sage sausage, removed from casing and crumbled into small pieces
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 celery ribs, diced
- 5 fresh sage leaves, chopped
- ½ teaspoon dried rubbed sage
- 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
- 5 heaping cups stale savory cornbread, recipe in notes
- 1⅓ cup saltine crackers, or 3 slices of stale toast
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 3 cups turkey broth
- 1 tablespoon salted butter, for buttering pan
- 5 fried sage leaves, optional
Instructions
- In a large pan, melt 1 stick of butter over medium heat. Add sausage and cook until crispy and browned, about 5 minutes, allowing the butter to absorb all the flavor.8 ounces salted butter, 16 ounces sage sausage
- Add diced onion and celery to the sausage in the pan, sautéing until the onion is golden brown, around 4-5 minutes. Add garlic, sage, black pepper, and smoked paprika. Cook for 2 more minutes until fragrant.¼ teaspoon smoked paprika, 1 yellow onion, 2 celery ribs, 5 fresh sage leaves, 1 tablespoon garlic, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper, ½ teaspoon dried rubbed sage
- In a large mixing bowl, crumble the cornbread and crackers (keep them sizable to avoid mushy dressing).5 heaping cups stale savory cornbread, 1⅓ cup saltine crackers
- Gently fold in the sausage mixture, making sure to scrape all the flavorful butter from the pan.
- Mix in the beaten eggs. Add the broth a little at a time to reach your preferred consistency, I like around 3 cups of broth. (For a wetter, more custard-y dressing, use more broth)2 large eggs, 3 cups turkey broth
- Butter a 9x13 inch casserole dish generously and transfer the dressing mixture into it. Don’t smooth the top—leave it rough for extra crispy bits.1 tablespoon salted butter
- Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 35-40 minutes, until the top is golden and crispy. Garnish with fried sage leaves for an extra touch of fancy (optional). Enjoy!5 fried sage leaves
Recipe Notes
Savory Cornbread Recipe
- 2 cups fine ground cornmeal
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- ¼ cup vegetable oil, + 2 tablespoon oil for the pan
- Preheat your oven to 450 °F. Pour two tablespoons of oil into a 10-inch cast-iron skillet and place it in the oven for ten minutes.
- While the skillet heats up, combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl, whisking them together. Set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, and vegetable oil.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until the dry ingredients are just incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Carefully take the hot skillet out of the oven with oven mitts. Tilt the pan slightly and swirl the vegetable oil around to coat the bottom and up the sides. Then, pour the batter into the skillet.
- Bake for about 20-22 minutes, or until the top of the cornbread turns golden brown and begins to pull away from the edges of the pan. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
- Let cool (and for this recipe, let it stale in the fridge in a zip top bag).
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