Cornbread Dressing

Super flavorful, unique, and easy to make, Cornbread Dressing is not your average Thanksgiving dressing. Your family will be begging for more!

 

We have so many things to be thankful for (including all of you Real Housemoms readers!). We’re thankful for our health, our family and friends, and for this incredible cornbread dressing recipe!

It’s full of veggies and savory seasonings, loaded with yummy pork sausage, and based around delicious cornbread. It’s seriously one of the most amazing recipes I’ve ever made. This year I’ll be pairing it with this Instant Pot Turkey Tenderloin to make a Thanksgiving dinner to remember!

CORNBREAD DRESSING
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For me, the best part of Thanksgiving (besides family time of course…) is always the dressing.

Side note – do you call it dressing or do you call it stuffing? What is the difference, really?

Mostly it just depends on what you grew up calling it.

However, there actually is a technical difference between the two: “stuffing” is literally stuffed into the turkey while “dressing” is cooked in a dish outside of the turkey.

Regardless of whether you’re making stuffing or dressing, who doesn’t love some delicious seasoned bread casserole. (That’s essentially what it is, right? A bread casserole? Sign me UP).

I’m ashamed but only slightly, to admit that when I was young, sometimes when I came home from school I would whip myself up a batch of that pre-packaged dressing as a snack. My love for the stuff runs DEEP.

When it comes to Thanksgiving dinner though, I always love to spend a little more time and effort when it comes to dressing. Rather than the packaged stuff, I save that for non-holidays.

This year I’m going extra fancy and ditching the boring regular old bread dressing for some delicious cornbread dressing! This southern cornbread dressing is super simple to make but also tastes incredible. So, whether you’re having a big Thanksgiving dinner, or a small gathering it’s sure to be one of the most loved dishes on the table!

Ingredients for Cornbread Dressing

For this cornbread dressing recipe, you’ll need cornbread that is already cooked. If you’re in a hurry, go ahead and use store-baked cornbread. If you’ve got a little more time on your hands, try using this homemade cornbread mix recipe – I always have a batch of this stuff ready to bake… you never know when a craving for cornbread will strike!

• Cooked cornbread
• Olive oil
• Pork sausage
• Onion
• Celery
• Garlic cloves
• Ground sage
• Dried thyme
• Poultry seasoning
• Pepper
• Salt
• Chicken stock
• Eggs
• Parsley

How to Make Cornbread Dressing

Thanksgiving can be a very high stakes, stressful holiday. My tried and true piece of advice is to do AS MUCH AS YOU CAN ahead of time. If you do that, you can focus on the important stuff (like not overdoing the turkey and spending time with family) on the day of instead of chopping, slicing, and peeling. That’s why whenever I plan on making this cornbread dressing recipe, I bake my cornbread and chop my veggies the night before!

1. Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Next, spray a 9×13 casserole dish with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Now, on a large baking sheet, add the cooked cornbread and toast in the heated oven for 10 minutes, making sure to toss it halfway through (this will help to keep your cornbread dressing from becoming mush!) Remove the toasted cornbread from the oven, set it aside, and lower the heat on the oven to 350 degrees.
3. Next, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat for about 2 minutes (or until the pan is well coated). Add the pork, onion, celery, and garlic cloves and cook until the pork is browned and cooked through and the onions are transparent and tender (about 5-8 minutes).
4. Now comes the time for your senses to fall in love (the smell is simply mouthwatering!!!) Add the sage, thyme, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, until all the veggies are coated with the spices allowing it to cook for two minutes more. Remove from heat.
5. In a large bowl, add your meat and onion mixture, cornbread, chicken broth, and beaten eggs. Mix them until they are well combined.
6. Now, transfer your cornbread dressing mixture to your prepared baking dish, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake for 10 more minutes (or until the top is brown and toasted).
7. Allow the dish to cool for 10 minutes – nobody wants to burn the roof of their mouth on the best part of Thanksgiving dinner…
8. Finally, garnish with fresh chopped parsley, serve, and ENJOY!

Can you Freeze Cornbread Dressing?

While I rarely have any leftovers of this delicious cornbread dressing (I swear my boys would lick the pan clean if I let them…), there have been times when I was a little over-ambitious and cooked a double or triple recipe and had some leftovers to deal with.

You can keep your cornbread dressing in the fridge for a few days post-Thanksgiving, but if you want to think more long-term than that, go ahead and freeze it! Here are a few things to remember when freezing this cornbread dressing recipe:

• Freeze in portions – the cornbread will become mush if you freeze, thaw, and then re-freeze. I recommend only taking out what you’ll eat!
• Freeze in an air-tight container – either a zip-top bag or sealed plastic food storage tub would work fine, just make sure air can’t get in!!
• Reheat – pop your frozen cornbread dressing portions right into the oven, no need to thaw! I typically do about 15 minutes (in a covered dish) in a 325 degree F oven.

Looking for some more Thanksgiving table worthy recipes? Check out these other Real Housemoms favorites!

• Roasted Garlic & Cauliflower Soup
• Mom’s Mashed Potatoes
• Apple Sausage Stuffing
• Hasselback Sweet Potatoes
• Mini Sweet Potato Casserole
• more SIDE DISH recipes…

Tools used to make this Cornbread Dressing recipe

Baking Dish: I love this dish! Especially because it comes with a cover to make leftover storage super easy!

Non-Stick Skillet: this is my go-to skillet for almost every recipe I make!