The Best Cornbread Dressing Recipe | Perfect Cornbread Stuffing For Thanksgiving

It is Thanksgiving season, so I’m posting a lot of recipes we all commonly love to cook and eat for Thanksgiving dinner. One of my favorite dishes and the one I look forward to the most is probably the dressing.

Some people refer to it as cornbread dressing, some call it dressing, and some call it cornbread stuffing. If you’re looking for a delicious cornbread dressing recipe, look no further. This recipe is delicious, will remind you of your grandma’s dressing, and can’t be any easier to follow.

Watch Me Make It

Facts About Cornbread dressing

Cornbread dressing, often referred to as dressing or cornbread stuffing, is a popular side dish commonly made for a Thanksgiving dinner.

• What is it? Dressing is cornbread, broken up into fine pieces, combined with savory seasonings, broth, and or cream of soup for moisture, sauteed vegetables, typically onions, peppers, and celery, and meat (ground meat like ground beef or turkey, pork sausage, chopped chicken or turkey, or organs like chicken gizzards and livers).
• How do you make it? You combine cornbread with sauteed vegetables and chopped meat of your choice, add in moisture with broth or soup, and bake it until it’s crispy on top.
• What’s its origin? It originated in the South, with its roots being traced back to West Africa from a dish called “kush” made and eaten by Africans and later by slaves during the American Revolution, which reminded them of their homeland tradition.
• Where is it most popular? It’s definitely most popular in the southern United States since that’s where 80% of African Americans live and where they migrated to when first brought to the states.
• What cuisine is it? Last but not least, it’s an American cuisine, popular during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season, and can also be considered a part of the Black Southern/Soul Food cuisine, as it’s very popular down south and within the black community.

How I fell in love with cornbread dressing

I have always heard of cornbread dressing, aka dressing, during the holidays as a kid growing up in Philly during the 90s… but had never actually tried any. When I finally did, I knew it would be my new favorite thing to make for Thanksgiving.

What I liked most about it is exactly what it is… cornbread with a punch of savoriness. Haha! It’s a fancy cornbread. That’s the best way to describe it. And the combination of its slightly sweet and savory flavors was so satisfying to my taste buds.

Here is what you will find really interesting about my upbringing, especially since you all know I have so many childhood food memories as a foodie that I often share with you all. Y’all tend to think that because I’m a chef, I’ve had and tried every food known to man.

Thanksgiving memories of cornbread dressing

Well, that’s not true… neither my parents nor my grandma made cornbread dressing. It’s odd because it’s such a popular dish; it’s hard to believe a cooking family like the two I’ve come from, both on my mother’s and father’s side, never made it.

Maybe I shouldn’t say they NEVER MADE IT… But we were more cornbread and stuffing people… we didn’t make cornbread dressing much. So, I didn’t even try it until my very late adolescent years. I actually might have been in my early 20s the first time I tried cornbread dressing.

It was at one of my former churches in West Philadelphia, which used to have a big Thanksgiving dinner every year for the neighborhood. I don’t remember them having any meat in there’s… I remember it being like cornbread, with some onions, celery, peppers, and seasonings that gave it a sweet-and-savory taste.

I remember some of the members in the church and people in the neighborhood having it served with gravy on top. Now, as I said, I heard of cornbread dressing, aka dressing, aka cornbread stuffing growing up. I never actually tried it.

So, because it looked very much like stuffing, I assumed that that’s what it was when I was served a plate. Until I tasted it and noticed it tasted kinda sweet and tasted more like cornbread than your classic stuffing made of bread and herbs.

I remember thinking, “Hmmm, what’s this?” I remember it tasting just like Thanksgiving should. Tastes like it would go well with turkey meat and gravy, and that’s what I end up eating it with. It was so good, and I remember it just being so flavorful.

So yeah, unlike my usual childhood food memories, where I talk about how Nana Alice, Grandma’s Viola and Gwen, Aunt Angie, or McCloud inspired the dish, this was one I came to know and love later in life, as a young adult.

My first attempt at making cornbread dressing

Believe it or not, my original cornbread dressing recipe that I made and even have a YouTube video I posted in 2014 for, was probably one of the first times I made it. Definitely somewhere around that time. Here is that video below.

As you can see from the newer video, I clearly made it a little differently now. I use pretty much the same ingredients, but my process is a bit different. Above is the most comprehensible and easy-to-follow updated version. Many of my followers still love this older video and version, though.

Back then I didnt use any measurements I just cooked from the heart and used my eyes like older southern folks do. They rarely used measurements and just cooked from the soul, free-style cooking if you will. 

But this was one of the first times I attempted to make it, and it came out better than the cornbread I first tried at the church. I didn’t look up how to make it; I just went with my gut and used seasonings that I thought would make it taste like the church’s cornbread dressing.

I knew the basics like adding broth, cream of chicken, sauteed vegetables, and meat, although they didn’t put all of that in theirs. But when it came to the seasonings, that was all guesswork from me. Anyway, for a visual on how to make this delicious cornbread dressing recipe, check out the video right at the top of this article.

Ingredients You’ll Need:

Dry Ingredients

• Cornmeal: Cornmeal is the main ingredient for cornbread dressing. Can’t make cornbread without it.

• All-purpose flour: Flour is very important as it softens the gritty texture of cornbread and adds a cake-like texture and crumb, which provides balance so the cornbread isn’t JUST COARSE.
• White Sugar: The sugar adds sweetness to the cornbread and helps it brown and crisp on top
• Baking powder: Baking powder is a very important ingredient. It’s a leavening agent that makes the cornbread rise. Without it, the cornbread won’t rise!
• Salt: Salt balances the flavors, preventing it from tasting bland and flat.

Wet Ingredients

• Buttermilk: It gives the cornbread a nice texture and a mild tang that balances the sweetness of the cornbread. It keeps the cornbread moist while baking, and it adds an acid component that activates the baking powder/soda, which releases gas, causing the cornbread to expand, aka rise.
• Vegetable oil:  The oil is most responsible for the cornbread’s moisture. I like to use oil because, unlike butter, it doesn’t solidify, meaning it will keep the cornbread moist even after it chills.
• Honey: I add a little honey to give the cornbread a unique flavor while adding sweetness, but it’s optional.
• Eggs: First, we’ll be using large eggs. Eggs add flavor as well, assist the baking powder in making the cornbread rise, and help to keep everything together by providing structure.
• Butter: The butter helps add moisture to the cornbread, but I mainly use it for flavor. It’s sacrilegious not to add butter to cornbread! Adding butter is a MUST; it just makes everything taste better.

Baking Pan Ingredients

• Butter: Butter is used to add flavor, color to the edges and bottom of the cornbread while also helping to prevent it from sticking.
• Pam Non-Stick Baking Spray: This is very effective at keeping the cornbread from sticking.

Dressing Ingredients

• Sweet or Mild Italian sausage: I only use a 1/2 lb of Italian sausage, which is equivalent to 2 small sausages. But feel free to use more meat if you want.
• Vegetables: We’ll be using chopped onions, multicolored peppers (preferably green, orange, and red), and celery.
• Chicken Broth: Try to find a low-sodium chicken broth; we use it to add moisture to the dressing.
• Cream of Chicken: Use Campbell’s brand if possible. You can also use cream of celery if you can’t find chicken. You won’t need to use as much celery if you go this route. This gives the dressing moisture, flavor, and its classic texture.
• Seasonings: The seasonings we’ll be adding to our cornbread to make it a dressing are seasoning salt, ground sage, garlic powder, parsley flakes, onion powder, black pepper, and a chicken bouillon cube.

How To Make Cornbread Dressing

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Get a large mixing bowl, place a sifter over it, and pour the dry ingredients through the sifter, then discard anything left in the sifter.
3. Melt a 1/2 cup of butter and set it aside to chill.
4. Get a medium size mixing bowl and add in all the liquid ingredients (except the butter) then stir well.
5.  Stir in the butter once it chills.
6.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until everything is well combined; don’t over-stir. 
7. Wipe all sides of a baking dish with the 2 tsps of soft or melted butter, and lightly spray all sides with Pam non-stick baking spray.
8.  Add the cornbread mix to the baking dish and place it in the oven on the bottom rack.
9.  Bake for 40 minutes, remove, then set aside to chill.
10.  Meanwhile, get a skillet and place it over medium-high heat.
11. Add the sausage meat and break it up as fine as possible.
12. After 2 minutes, once the sausage produces fat, add the bouillon cube and chopped vegetables.
13. Continue breaking the meat up and stirring until the sausage browns a little and the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes.
14. Add the cornbread to a large mixing bowl and crumble it.
15. Add the seasonings, broth, cream of chicken, and the sausage and vegetables, then stir well.
16. Add the mixture to a baking dish and spread it out, then smooth it out on top.
17. Place it in the oven and bake it for 1 hour.

Tips for success:

• Break up all the cornbread: Make sure you break the cornbread up into really fine pieces before adding in all the ingredients for the dressing.
• Finely chop the meat: Make sure the meat is finely chopped. To do this, you might want to use two spatulas or continue chopping it up with a sharp knife once it’s done. You want the meat to be spread all throughout the dressing, not chunky.
• Don’t use too much liquid: Make sure not to use too much liquid (broth) because it will take forever to dry out and crisp up.
• Avoid overcooking: Very dry, burnt dressing is the worst, so even if it doesn’t seem crisp enough on top, remove it exactly at the recommended time.

Cornbread dressing Variations:

• Made with chicken: I recommend dark meat as it’s juicier with more flavor. You can boil a quarter with broth. Cover it with a lid, leaving a crack on the side, and cook over medium heat until tender. Then chop it up and add it to the cornbread. When I’ve done it this way, I added the chopped vegetables and bouillon cube to the broth as well. You will need to use more broth
• Made with gizzards: You can boil the gizzards the same way. Over medium heat with the chopped vegetables, broth, and bouillon cube. Cover it with a lid, leaving a crack on the side, and boil until tender. Make sure you use a lot more broth, or you can add water.
• Made with sage sausage: Instead of using sweet or mild Italian sausage, you can replace it with ground sage. I’ve tried it before and it was delicious. If you go this route, use less ground sage as you’ll get some sage flavor from the sage sausage itself, and you don’t want to overwhelm the dish with sage flavor.
• Made with turkey: You can boil turkey meat of your choice, smoked turkey, turkey wings, or turkey necks the same way you boil the chicken, with broth, vegetables, and the bouillon cube over medium heat covered with a lid with a little crack on the side until tender. Chop it up and add it to cornbread.

Thanksgiving Serving Suggestions:

• Main Dishes: Simple Juicy Oven Roasted Whole Chicken Recipe, The Best Pineapple Honey Glazed Ham For Christmas, Tender Juicy Boneless Ribeye Roast With Gravy Recipe, The Best Tender Juicy Crispy Fried Turkey Wings
• Vegetable Side Dishes: World’s Best Southern Collard Greens Recipe , The Best Soul Food Candied Yams For Thanksgiving, The BEST Southern-Style Green Beans Recipe, The Best Southern Stove Top Cabbage (With Tender Smoked Turkey)!!!
• Topping: Turkey gravy is the most common topping, some even like cranberry sauce.

How to store cornbread dressing

• How to store cornbread dressing? Simply cover it with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. You can also place it in a glass Tupperware dish and make sure it’s tightly sealed. Then store in the refrigerator.
• Can you freeze cornbread dressing? Absolutely. Place the dressing in a Ziploc bag and seal it tightly to prevent freezer burn.

How to reheat cornbread dressing

• How to reheat cornbread dressing in a microwave: Place it in a microwave-safe dish and heat it on high for 1-2 minutes.
• How to reheat cornbread dressing in the oven: Place it in the oven at 350, and bake it until warm all the way through, about 20 minutes. I recommended covering it with aluminum foil so it doesn’t become too crispy.
• How to reheat cornbread dressing in a skillet: This isn’t a common way to reheat dressing, but if you choose to do so, add it to the skillet and place it over medium-low heat for 15 minutes, stirring periodically. Add a little water if needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How long does it last? Dressing is good for up to 4-5 days. After that, with anything, it doesn’t taste as good because it’s not as fresh.
• How to double the recipe? If you want to double or triple the recipe, use the same ingredients, just double or triple them. You will also need a larger baking dish to bake the cornbread and dressing. Cooking time should be pretty much the same.
• Do you have to add meat? Nope! I know many people, including myself, who actually prefer it without meat. So feel free to omit the sausage meat.
• Do you have to add the vegetables? The vegetables significantly contribute to its flavor, along with the seasonings, but there are people who make a very simple cornbread dressing using just the broth and cream of chicken or celery to moisten it, and the seasonings, without adding vegetables or meat.

Equipment:

• Round Deep Dish Pan: This is what we bake the cornbread in. A baking dish around this size, 53oz, 9 inches, 2.5 inches deep.
• Baking Dish: This is what we bake the cornbread dressing in. The size I used was around 3 quarts and 9×13
• 2 Large Mixing Bowls: We’ll use 2 separate mixing bowls to combine the dry and wet ingredients.
• Strainer: You’ll need a strainer to sift the cornmeal and flour. I also use it to sift the sugar sometimes, just to make sure I remove any hard or foreign pieces.
• Whisk: After combining the dry ingredients, I like to use a whisk to stir them in and incorporate them.
• Big Spoon: When combining the dry and wet ingredients, use a big spoon to stir everything in. No hand mixer is needed.
• Cake Cutter: A cake cutter is good for cutting and serving the cornbread.
• Measuring Cups: You’ll use measuring cups to accurately measure many of the dry and wet ingredients.
• Measuring Spoons: Use measuring spoons to accurately measure the salt.

That’s it for now, folks! If you like this recipe, please do me a favor and leave a review by commenting below and rating. Also, subscribe to receive notifications via email every time I upload a new delicious recipe.

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Later, enjoy!

Pbj~

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