Southern Cornbread Dressing
Southern cornbread dressing baked with crumbled cornbread, sautéed onion and celery, sage, and chicken broth. The Thanksgiving side made from scratch.
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Cornbread dressing is the dish my family argues about the loudest, and this is the plain Southern version: day-old cornbread and torn white bread, onion and celery softened in butter, sage, and enough chicken broth to make it all loose before it goes in the oven. It bakes up golden on top and custardy in the middle.
The mix should look wetter than you think it should. Cornbread drinks broth like a sponge, and a bowl that seems correctly moist on the counter comes out of the oven dry and crumbly an hour later. Southern cooks describe the raw mixture as soupy, and that’s the right target. It sets as it bakes.
Sweet cornbread is the other place this goes wrong. Dressing is a savory dish, and cornbread made with a half cup of sugar turns the whole pan into something closer to a bread pudding. Bake a plain, unsweetened pan the day before, or buy one that isn’t sweet.
Why You’ll Love This Cornbread Dressing Recipe
- No canned soup in it. Real broth, butter, and eggs do the binding, so the dressing tastes like cornbread and sage instead of tasting like a can.
- It feeds 10 from one pan. A single 9×13 covers a holiday table, and the ingredients cost a few dollars.
- Assemble it the day before. The whole pan can sit in the fridge overnight and go in the oven while the turkey rests.
- Golden edges, soft middle. Baking it uncovered gives you crisp browned corners and a center that stays moist.
Cornbread Dressing Ingredients
Day-old cornbread matters. Fresh cornbread is still holding its own moisture, so it takes less broth and turns pasty. Bake it the day before and leave it out uncovered, or crumble it onto a sheet pan and dry it in a 250°F oven for 20 minutes.
- 7 cups crumbled day-old cornbread (from one 9-inch skillet or 8×8 pan)
- 2 cups torn day-old white bread or crumbled biscuits
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
- 1 tsp rubbed sage
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 4 cups chicken broth, divided
- 3 large eggs, beaten
Recipe Variations
- Stir in 2 cups of shredded cooked chicken to turn it into chicken and dressing, which is how a lot of Southern families serve it as a main. Cooked chicken should have reached 165°F, and the finished pan still needs to come out of the oven at 165°F in the center.
- Add 4 chopped hard-boiled eggs along with the beaten eggs. It’s traditional in a lot of old recipes and gives the dressing a richer, heartier texture.
- Brown 1 pound of bulk pork sausage and fold it in with the vegetables. Cook the sausage to 160°F first and cut the butter back to 1/4 cup, since the sausage renders plenty of fat.
How to Make Cornbread Dressing
- Crumble the breads: Break the day-old cornbread into a very large bowl with your hands, then tear in the white bread or biscuits. You want coarse crumbs and a few pea-sized pieces, not a fine powder.
- Soften the vegetables: Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring now and then, until they’re soft and translucent with no crunch left. Pour the whole thing, butter included, over the crumbs.
- Season and wet it down: Sprinkle in the poultry seasoning, sage, salt, and pepper and toss. Pour in 3 1/2 cups of the chicken broth and stir gently until every crumb is soaked. It should look loose and soupy, like thick oatmeal. Add the last 1/2 cup of broth if any dry spots remain.
- Stir in the eggs: Add the beaten eggs and fold them through until you can’t see any streaks. The eggs are what set the middle so it slices instead of scoops.
- Bake uncovered: Heat the oven to 350°F. Spread the mixture into a greased 9×13 baking dish and bake uncovered for 45-50 minutes, until the top is golden brown, the edges pull slightly from the sides, and a thermometer in the center reads 165°F.
- Rest before serving: Let the pan sit for 10 minutes. The center firms up in that time and the servings hold their shape on the plate.
Recipe FAQs
What’s the Difference Between Cornbread Dressing and Stuffing?
Mostly the pan. Dressing is baked in its own dish, stuffing is cooked inside the bird. In the South, cornbread dressing is also cornbread-based rather than made from cubed white sandwich bread.
Can I Make Cornbread Dressing Ahead of Time?
Yes, and it’s the reason this dish is worth planning. Assemble the whole pan, cover it, and refrigerate up to 24 hours. Bake it straight from the fridge and add about 10 minutes, checking that the center hits 165°F.
What Kind of Cornbread Should I Use?
A plain, unsweetened Southern-style cornbread baked the day before, homemade or from a mix. Skip the sweet Northern kind and skip cornbread with corn kernels or jalapeños in it, since those change the whole flavor of the pan.
Can I Bake It Inside the Turkey?
I’d bake it separately. Stuffing packed into a bird has to reach 165°F in the center, and by the time it gets there the breast meat is usually overcooked. A separate pan gives you better dressing and better turkey.
How Much Broth Is Too Much?
It’s hard to overdo it. The mixture should pour rather than mound, closer to a thick batter than a bread salad. If it looks dry in the bowl it will be crumbly on the plate, so add broth a half cup at a time until it loosens.
Cooking Tips
- Taste the seasoned crumbs before the eggs go in. Cornbread and broth are both bland on their own, and this is your only chance to fix flat seasoning before it’s raw-egg territory.
- Cut the onion and celery small, about a quarter inch. Big chunks stay assertive in a soft dish and people push them to the side of the plate.
- Use a thermometer instead of guessing. The top browns well before the middle sets, and 165°F in the center is the difference between sliceable dressing and a soupy spot in the middle of the pan.
Storage and Freezing
To store: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
To freeze: It freezes well, baked or unbaked, for up to 3 months. Wrap the dish in plastic and then foil, and thaw overnight in the fridge before baking or reheating.
To reheat: Cover with foil and warm at 350°F for 20-25 minutes, until the center reaches 165°F. Drizzle a few tablespoons of broth over the top first, since leftover dressing dries out faster than most casseroles.
How to Serve Cornbread Dressing
Cornbread dressing is built for a plate with turkey and gravy on it, and it wants cranberry sauce somewhere nearby to cut the richness. Green beans, glazed carrots, or a simple green salad round the plate out. Outside of the holidays it goes just as well with roast chicken or a weeknight rotisserie bird.
Loved This Recipe?
Cornbread dressing is the pan that gets fought over at the end of the meal, and it’s worth baking the cornbread a day early to get it right.
Leave a star rating in the comments below, it helps other people find this recipe. Made it? Tag @allwellfed on Instagram, I love seeing this one in other people’s kitchens.
Southern Cornbread Dressing
Equipment
- Instant-Read Thermometer Take it to 165°F in the middle. The edges get there long before the center does.
Ingredients
- 7 cups crumbled day-old cornbread from one 9-inch skillet or 8×8 pan
- 2 cups torn day-old white bread or crumbled biscuits
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 3 stalks celery diced
- 1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
- 1 tsp rubbed sage
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 4 cups chicken broth divided
- 3 large eggs beaten
Instructions
- Crumble the breads: Break the day-old cornbread into a very large bowl with your hands, then tear in the white bread or biscuits. You want coarse crumbs and a few pea-sized pieces, not a fine powder.
- Soften the vegetables: Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring now and then, until they’re soft and translucent with no crunch left. Pour the whole thing, butter included, over the crumbs.
- Season and wet it down: Sprinkle in the poultry seasoning, sage, salt, and pepper and toss. Pour in 3 1/2 cups of the chicken broth and stir gently until every crumb is soaked. It should look loose and soupy, like thick oatmeal. Add the last 1/2 cup of broth if any dry spots remain.
- Stir in the eggs: Add the beaten eggs and fold them through until you can’t see any streaks. The eggs are what set the middle so it slices instead of scoops.
- Bake uncovered: Heat the oven to 350°F. Spread the mixture into a greased 9×13 baking dish and bake uncovered for 45-50 minutes, until the top is golden brown, the edges pull slightly from the sides, and a thermometer in the center reads 165°F.
- Rest before serving: Let the pan sit for 10 minutes. The center firms up in that time and the servings hold their shape on the plate.
Notes
If you made this, leave a star rating down in the comments. It takes about ten seconds, and it’s how other cooks decide whether a recipe is worth trying.
