Southern Cornbread Dressing

If you need just one new recipe this Thanksgiving, my Southern Cornbread Dressing is it. This is the only dressing recipe my family has ever made!

Southern Corn Bread Dressing:

This is the best recipe I got; it's all here, folks. I may turn out the lights on this blog after sharing this.

My Southern Corn Bread Dressing was saved for years to put in my second cookbook because I knew it would be a game-changer.  You will also find a 'Thanksgiving for Two' feast in the book, and this cornbread dressing is in it, albeit in a small pan for two. Here, I doubled it to serve 4-6 for our small Thanksgiving series we've got going on.

When serving, use the oblong pan in the photos, or an 8x8 baking dish. The pan I just linked you to has a lid, so if you're doing a potluck Thanksgiving, it's perfect for you!

If you are looking for Thanksgiving recipes, we have an entire section devoted to it.  Plus a Thanksgiving for Two series, and a collection of Thanksgiving Recipes Sides for you to enjoy.

Like all good things, this recipe is first my Mama's. She says she clipped it from a Southern Living magazine decades ago, and quite frankly, it's the only type of dressing or stuffing I've ever tasted in my life. I don't need to try any other dressings; this is as good as it gets.

Our cornbread dressing is the reason people drive for hours all over Texas to descend on my parents' house for Turkey Day. Once you taste it, you will beg for an invite.

Perfect Southern Cornbread Dressing Tips:

• If you are looking to avoid all the pitfalls of other dressing recipes, this recipe is for you.  First of all, the crumbled cornbread and bread cubes are left out overnight to dry, so the dressing is never too wet. There's milk, eggs, and chicken broth to make sure it's never too dry. While other dressings might bake up flat and dense, this one has eggs for lift and fluff. Any potential set-backs to enjoy this carb-loaded, best-part-of-Thanksgiving, I-might-skip-the-turkey-for-this-recipe has all been precariously planned for and diverted.
• The spices are doubled and tripled what they used to be in the original Southern Living recipe, and still, I manage to amp them up every time I make the recipe. It just keeps getting better. Come to my house in 10 years, and I'll be adding an entire cup of sage.
• If you make this, you can address all fan mail to my Mama. I understand that no other dressing recipe will ever grace your table after you taste this one, so if you want to start a social media revolution and send me snaps, Instagrams, and tweets of you burning the recipe card with your previous stuffing recipe, we can totally do that. You can find me anywhere on social media with the name 'dessert for two.' I'll be waiting for you; that's how good this Southern cornbread dressing recipe is!

Step-by-step photos to make Southern cornbread dressing:

The recipe first starts with a batch of cornbread. Use a packaged mix as my Mama does, or you can use my small batch of cornbread, doubled. I baked it in 12 muffin cups, but you could also do an 8x8" pan.
First, combine the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

Next, stir in the buttermilk and egg. (If you need a recipe to use the extra buttermilk: small batch biscuits).

Finally, add the butter. See all the bubbles starting to form in the batter? That's because buttermilk is magic.

Divide the mixture into 12 muffin cups, or use an 8x8" pan.

Now take all the pretties and crumble them up--some large chunks are fine.

Next, cube 4 slices of white bread. This is literally the only time I ever buy white bread.

To the crumbled cornbread and bread cubes, add the spices and salt. It's supposed to be 1 ½ teaspoons of rubbed sage and 2 teaspoons of poultry seasoning, but I'm clearly adding an entire tablespoon. You just can't over-spice it. Also, don't skimp on the salt: 1 ½ teaspoons is perfect.

So, this is the part that is ideally done the day before. My Mama leaves her bread and spice mixture out overnight on the counter to go stale. If you didn't plan ahead, dry it in the oven to 10 minutes while the oven preheats.

The next day (if you left your bread and spices on the counter overnight):

Now, this next step is a bit weird but stay with me. We've come this far. You're going to saute ⅔ cup of onions and celery in 6 tablespoons of butter plus ⅔ cup of water. I know it's weird to saute in water, but trust me in this Southern Cornbread Dressing quest.

Saute for about 5 minutes to soften the veggies.

Pour this golden mixture over the bread. (My butter is so golden yellow because I use Kerrygold!)

Next, add 1 ½ cups chicken broth or turkey broth.

Then, add ½ cup of milk.

And two beaten eggs. I suppose you could beat the eggs into the milk and add them, but then you'd miss out on another blurry photo opp.

When you stir it all together, it will be very moist. Don't worry your pretty little head over this.

Scrape it all into a dish. I used this oblong one, but it's equivalent to an 8x8" square pan. Perfect dressing for 4-6 people! Don't smoosh and flatten the dressing. The craggy top develops a great crust.

Bake at 400-degrees for 20 minutes. Taste. Tell me it's the only Thanksgiving dressing recipe you'll ever need in life. Amen.