It is now 1:00 in the morning on Thanksgiving Day and I just pulled some golden, delicious cornbread out of the oven. There is nothing like good southern cornbread..none of this yellow sweet cornbread, but golden, crisp on the outside cornbread. I plan to crumble it all up up for some good ol' southern dressing-not stuffing tomorrow! Living in the north I am often asked what the difference is between stuffing and dressing. I have only had two kinds of stuffing, one was stove top the other was homemade stuffing and I didn't care for either, dressing on the other hand is something I look forward to all year. Apparently I hold it sacred enough because I won't allow myself to make it unless it is Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter. I'll give my dressing recipe here but I am very bad at recipes, and I don't measure anything..I'm sort of an eyeball kind of cook, so be warned!
Southern Cornbread Dressing
-crumbled southern cornbread-follow recipe on the back of cornmeal
-roll of Jimmy Dean sage sausage
-couple of stalks of celery chopped
-1 egg
-1 onion chopped
-1can cream of chicken soup
-cooked chicken picked off of bone (I use 3-4 chicken thighs) but 2-3 breasts would be fine
-1-2 cans of chicken broth
-poultry seasoning
-salt and pepper
Crumble sausage and cook in skillet, drain fat(you can leave a little). Add to crumbled cornbread mixture, add celery, onion, chicken and raw egg. Add cream of chicken soup, and half a can of chicken broth mix well. Mixture should be sort of soupy, but not so much that it won't form into dressing when you cook it. If you feel you need more add it. You probably won't need more than one can, but some people make dry cornbread. Add poultry seasoning to taste, I think about 2 teaspoons. Salt and pepper to taste, use the salt sparingly as the ingersients are already sort of salty. Cook at 350 for 30-45 mins.
This is my mother's recipe and she is the best cook I know. I hope you will try this recipe and enjoy it like I have over the years!
