One of my mother’s signature dishes that she is known for in our family and extended family and friends is her Southern cornbread dressing. There’s nothing Stovetop stuffing about this one, no way! Made from simple ingredients and crumbled up cornbread, it’s an easy, yet deliciously satisfying side dish for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have it every single year. I grew up on this stuff.
This was a good opportunity to take notes and write down another one of mom’s recipes that resides in her head. This is yet one more recipe that my sister, niece, and I have never made. So, now I get to document it for all of you too. I’m not sure if everyone will love this, but we sure love our dressing in the South made this way. It’s a big hit in our family and tastes delicious!
Start with a medium iron skillet to cook the cornbread in. You’ll want to drizzle a little oil (I prefer canola) in the bottom of the pan and heat it in the oven while you whip up the cornbread batter to pour in. This makes for a crisp crust!
Iris’s Southern Cornbread
1 & 1/2 cups self-rising corn meal (mom uses white) (just found out from mom that self-rising cornmeal has salt in it). I did not know that!
1/2 cup self-rising flour (just found out from mom that self-rising flour has salt in it). I did not know that!
1 egg
1 & 1/4 cup buttermilk
Stir together and pour into iron skillet. Heat oven to 400* and bake 30 min. or until golden brown.
You can bake up the cornbread ahead of time and set aside to cool.
Chop up 3 stalks celery.
Slice and chop one large onion.
Chop well
Saute celery and onion until soft.
Break up cornbread in small pieces in a large pan.
Add 2 to 3 slices of wheat bread (or white if you’re feeling crazy!). 🙂
Take a large spoon and start breaking it up further, until it’s crumbly texture.
Of course, I used Knorr’s Homestyle chicken concentrate Homestyle Stock in this recipe and added the celery water as well as any chicken broth that the chicken was cooked in to add to the water. We used one chicken stock concentrate from Knorr and 4 cups water/broth mixture.
Begin pouring in the stock and you’ll need 3 to 4 cups. Add until heavily moistened. When you bake this, a lot of the broth will cook out, so you want to keep it moist. We added approximately 4 cups chicken stock.
Add sauteed onions and celery. Add 1/2 tsp. sage (optional, if you don’t like this herb).
Mix well with a big spoon. The mixture will be very wet and soupy and that is what you want.
Pour it all into a large baking dish. This is a large flat French cookware piece.
Then add pieces of cooked chicken, again optional, but I love it best with chicken added. You won’t need any more than 1 chicken breast or even dark meat chicken, cut up and added. Press it down into the dressing.
Ready to bake. Bake at 400* for 45 minutes and you’ll have this!
Golden brown Southern cornbread chicken and dressing.
Mom made a little gravy for this too and it was really good!
So, I have to know? Do you other Southern girls make dressing like this?? It’s really not hard to make now that I’ve watched her do it. Really pretty easy to put together and it feeds a lot of people.
Classic Southern Chicken Cornbread Dressing
Bake cornbread recipe (above) set aside
Chop celery and onion (3 stalks celery and 1 large onion)
Saute in saucepan until soft.
Cook 1 chicken breast in water, debone and chop or any other chicken piece you have.
Crumble up entire cornbread into large pan. Add 3 to 4 slices wheat bread (or other bread) to the mix. Press down with a large spoon to break it all up into smaller crumbles.
Add sauteed onion and chopped celery back to the pan.
Begin adding broth, approx. 4 cups. You’ll want the bread all covered and very moist. Soupy texture.
Add 1/2 tsp. sage (optional)
Mix well. Pour into large baking pan
Bake at 400* for 45 minutes.
Eat and Enjoy!
Let me know if you’ve made a Southern cornbread dressing recipe like this before or if you think you might try it out! I’d love to hear! Also enjoy those leftovers!
Talia says
OH! I’ve never had stuffing prepared this way, but am certainly going to make this. I’m not even waiting until Thanksgiving. This is on my weekend menu! Thank you for sharing your families recipes. They are always the best. Your Mom’s hands melted my heart. Beautiful and my favorite part of your post. Cherish those hands and hold them near your heart. Lovely!
Hugs for sharing!
Nancy says
Thank you so much for sharing! I grew up in GA, but had a Northern Mom. So, I loved eating this dressing growing up, but my mom never made it. Always had it at parties, etc. Now, I can finally make it for my family.
Mrs. Jones from the Circus says
I dearly love that you included your Mother’s hands in your pictures. I love to think about all the things those hands have fixed: food, broken hearted children, etc. I think your family will treasure these photos as much as the recipe!
Shauna Howington says
This is just the way I do it, except on Thanksgiving we use the turkey drippings in the dressing. It makes it so rich.
Marigene says
We love stuffing…never thought to make it with bits of chicken…my Dad was the one that made it in our family, he used sausage many times. I sure do miss him!
Thanks for entering me into the cookbook drawing.
Sharon L Smith says
I make dried white bread/sausage/celery/onion/sage dressing here in California! Would love to win you give away!
Judy L. Phillips says
Rhoda,
My mom’s been gone 13 yrs. This is the only dressing she ever made. It was sssssoooo delicious .Mine doesn’t compare even tho I made the same dressing. Seeing your mom’s sweet hands, reminds me of my mom’s hands.
tara says
the trick is the sage…
this recipe is VERY similar to my grandmother’s recipe….
I teared up when I saw the pictures of those hands in the pictures….what I wouldn’t GIVE to have pictures of my grandmother cooking.
Becky Kirkpatrick says
My mom passed down a similar recipe from her mom. We use poultry seasoning and sage, and then in later years we added pork sausage to it. It is really good!
Terri says
OMG…. That is my sweet Mon’s recipe!! well… minus the chicken…. My 87 year old Mother has made that dressing for every major holiday all my life …. (btw…. I just love the pics with your Mom’s hands ) so sweet!! Thanks Rhoda!!!!!! Terri
Judy @ A Meek Perspective says
My chicken dressing is very similar. I have two additions to the recipe. We always cut up 1 apple (diced) and we add a couple of boiled eggs (chopped finely). The eggs add a little richness to the dressing and the apple gives it a small sweetness. Some add eggs when you are mixing the cornbread, onion, celery and chicken together, but adding the boiled eggs erases the fear of not getting the dressing cooked well enough all of the way through.
Loved the pictures of your mother’s hands. You will cherish those pictures!
Cheryl Channell says
I make dressing very similar to this. Everytime I see your mother’s hands it makes me think of my mothers. She passed away 18 years ago and I can still see her hands working in her kitchen. I miss her so. Love to read your blog!
Kim says
I love dressing! I use biscuits instead of bread. I also love the pictures of your Mama’s sweet hands! I sure wish I had taken pictures of my Grandmother’s precious hands while I had the opportunity!
karen says
Just want to say: I think that is one of the cutest pictures of you…you look happy and content. sincerely Karen
Tonya Benderman says
This is just the right dressing recipe. Im a Tennessee girl and this is the way my grandmothers made their dressing. We also love our sage. Sometimes with the chicken and sometimes without. The pics of your mothers hands at work were awesome!
Lee in KY says
I make the dressing the way my Grandmother (94 y.o. last month) does. It’s almost the same as your Mom’s…the only big difference is instead of “white” bread we used leftover biscuits. It’s not dressing in our family without the sage!
judi says
Love this. Yes, this is how we make it too…except we don’t saute the onions and celery first – it just cooks along with the dressing in the pan. Also, the chicken in it is new to me…this would be a great way to make it at times when there is no turkey roasting in the oven:: As always, thanks for sharing!
Karol says
My Mamaw Mullen was the best cook I have ever known. Her dressing was similar but she chopped all the celery leaves and a bell pepper in with the onion. She would also save (in a Sunbeam bread wrapper tied up in the deep freezer) all the leftover biscuits, toast and cornbread for a few weeks before the blessed event of dining. And she swore by a big fat hen to make the broth. She saved out the giblets for the most divine giblet gravy to pour over her dressing. Also, always, always, we had cranberry sauce ( jellied not whole berry) to go with her dressing. When I pass from this life and make it to the Pearly Gates, I fully expect to see my sweet grandmothers waiting right beside Saint Peter. Mamaw will have this dressing and Grandmother will have her Apricot Nectar Cake and they will both tell me, “It’s all for you, Baby!”.
Tee says
Your mother’s recipe is almost identical to my grandmother’s, except my grandmother always used butter, pure butter in her dressing. Dressing without sage is boring. I have my great grandmother’s iron skillet she started keeping house with that I always use to make my cornbread. There is no sugar in real cornbread. When you add sugar that produces corncake.
Joanne B. says
Rhoda- thanks for sharing your Mom’s recipe for Corn Bread Stuffing! Most importantly, I wanted to tell you how very lovely I think your pics are of your Mom’s hands… I know she must hate them, but I loved seeing them! Seeint thoe pics reminds me of my Mom; she’s been gone 12 years and when I think of my Mom, I always picture her hands! Please cherish your Mom’s hands- they tell a wonderful story of her life! And please tell her I think they are just beautiful!…