Cornbread Sage Dressing
In the South, whoever makes the Thanksgiving dressing is typically high up on the family culinary hierarchy. Dry turkey may be masked with gravy, but the same cannot be said for - or as easily forgiven - the dressing.
If I had a nickel for every time I have heard something along the lines of “My Granny made the best dressing, and I never learned how to make it” I’d come close to owning a cabin in Blue Ridge.
The key word in this phrase is learned. Chances are, there was no written recipe and, if there was, your Granny didn’t follow it. It took me a couple of years to create the baseline I use to make this generational classic. But once it “clicks” this becomes an exercise in muscle memory and channeling your inner MeMaw.
It isn’t hard per se, but it’s so easy to mess it up. Don’t let that intimidate you. If you follow a few simple steps and take your time, your cornbread dressing will be the star of the show. You got this!
Here is what you’ll need to do:
Recipe
1 13 x 9 pan of cornbread (do not use sweet… cook to instructions)
6 to 10 slices of white bread (You can substitute frozen or canned biscuits)
1 onion, diced
3-4 stalks celery, finely diced
3 tablespoons rubbed sage
3 tablespoons poultry seasoning
3 tablespoons of dried Thyme
10 (or so) leaves Fresh Sage
4 to 5 springs of Fresh Rosemary
Salt
Pepper
2 to 4 eggs beaten
2 to 4 quarts of low sodium chicken stock
2 sticks butter
In a large sauté pan, melt one stick of butter. Sauté onions and celery with 1 tablespoon each of rubbed sage, poultry seasoning, thyme, and salt and pepper until tender. Set aside to cool.
In large mixing bowl, crumble cornbread, white bread, and/or biscuits. Add onion, celery (with the remaining butter from the sautee pan), remaining rubbed sage, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, and eggs. Start with a quarter of the chicken stock and begin to mix by hand to desired consistency, adding stock as you go. You'll want this to be a little on the “wet” side (think wet sand to “soupy”). Cover and refrigerate overnight (preferably).
Remove from fridge 2 hours before cooking if possible. Check for consistency, adding more stock if necessary.
Preheat oven to 400. Add mixture to a greased 13 x 9 casserole dish (or roasting pan). Dot the top with the fresh sage leaves and place the fresh rosemary across. Cover. Bake for 45 to 1 hour before checking.
Melt 1 stick butter in a saucepan. Remove the cover and pour butter over evenly over the dressing. Return to oven and bake an additional 30 minutes or until browned.
Serve with giblet gravy and fresh cranberry sauce.
Cornbread Sage Dressing - To die for!
NOTES
Cooking Times
Cooking time can vary with this. During a holiday prep, ovens tend to get opened and closed frequently as various items are going in and out. Also, if you pull this out of the fridge and place straight into the casserole/roasting pan for cooking, the dressing batter will be cold and will take longer to cook. I typically take my dressing batter out of the fridge first thing and let it begin to come to room temperature. You also want to be careful that the sides and bottom don't burn before the top is browned. Again, allow to come up to room temperature as much as possible to avoid this, or adjust placement in oven. (I have a glass casserole I often use, so I can see the sides)
Seasonings
I don't measure anything in this other than the Martha White mix used to make the corn bread. Personally, the ONLY thing I think this can have too much of is salt. However, apparently some folks do not have the same affinity for sage that I do. The fresh rosemary is a MUST and it makes for an incredible presentation…. Not to mention bringing that savory "holiday smell" to your home. Lastly, storing overnight in fridge allows for all that goodness to marry and be absorbed by the bread mixture.
Consistency
Folks ask me how to keep it from being dry. When you're mixing your batter, you want it to ultimately have the consistency of wet sand with chunks of onions and celery. So, when you think that you're "there"… add a little more stock and give that a mix. Also, check it again in the morning. Remember, when pull it out it is going to be cold, so it will be thicker than it would be at room temp. However, you should be able to tell if you're on the dry side or not. This is also why I cook mine mostly covered during the process before adding the melted butter for browning. Additionally, that stick of melted butter you're going to drizzle over the top at the appropriate stage in baking is going to do WONDERS here. On the flip side, if it is "too wet" cook it uncovered for a bit longer to allow moisture to evaporate before adding that butter.
Chicken and Dressing
Chicken and Dressing is the country cousin of this dish, and you can make this into chicken and dressing easily. Either make it as described herein and add a rotisserie chicken. Or boil a chicken with come carrot, onion, garlic and celery (couple stalks of each until done. Pick the chicken meat off the bones and add to the dressing batter using the broth from the boil instead of chicken stock.
