Follow easy, step-by-step, photo illustrated instructions for making our Homemade Cornbread Dressing, from scratch. This quick and easy side dish is best when made a day or two ahead of time and then baked when needed. So, you can get some of that big meal made and ready for the oven, without having to rush yourself on the big day. Perfect for Thanksgiving Dinner, great anytime of the year. Printable recipe included.
Southern Style Cornbread Dressing Recipe, made from scratch.
What’s a big old plate of Turkey without some Dressing to go with it? As we get ready for Thanksgiving, this is another one of our Thanksgiving Dinner side dishes that I hope you’ll try. You can even make it a day or two in advance, refrigerate it, and all you’ll need to do on Thanksgiving Day is pop it in the oven and bake it.
I just wonder though, WHY do we only make it for Thanksgiving or Christmas? It’s not hard to make and it adds so much to a meal. But, it seems like about the only time we even think about making Cornbread Dressing is around Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Growing up Gordon, it was Daddy who made the dressing for Thanksgiving in our house. He loved to make Oyster Dressing and I must admit, it was some mighty good eating back then. He’d buy a carton of already shucked oysters at the neighborhood grocery store because they always brought them in around Thanksgiving. Daddy also liked to add a good bit of Sage to his dressing as I recall. The taste brings back a flood of memories for me but Sage is just something I can’t tolerate very well. I can taste it for days afterwards and that takes the enjoyment out of it.
I add a bit of Sage to this recipe, but you can certainly leave it out if you’re sensitive to it like me.
Anytime you have some leftover cornbread and biscuits, just pop a few of them into the freezer. That way, you’ll have the bread part ready made for when you’re going to make our Cornbread Dressing. What? You don’t have any leftover cornbread? No problem, you’ll find recipes for making some pretty good cornbread and some mighty fine biscuits, right here on Taste of Southern.
We had plenty of dressing made from those packaged herb mixes at our house as well. I just thought this would be a good time to drag out the old Homemade Cornbread Dressing recipe for you. Maybe next year, I’ll do the one with Oysters. How’s that?
I hope you’ll enjoy making your own dressing from scratch. I’ll be looking forward to hearing your thoughts and Comments on our recipe in the section at the bottom. So, if you’re ready to move forward, Let’s Get Cooking!
Cornbread Dressing: You’ll need these ingredients.
Let’s take care of the veggies first. Begin, by dicing the carrots into small pieces.
Dice up the celery, keeping it about the same size as the carrots you just diced.
Dice up the onions. Pictures like this always make my eyes water. Why is that?
Place all the diced vegetables in your cast iron skillet. Add about One Tablespoon of your butter and cook them over Medium heat, until tender.
Chop the Parsley.
Strip the Thyme leaves from their stems. Chop finely, if desired.
Grab a large mixing bowl and crumble up the Cornbread. Break it up into small pieces.
You’ll find one of our recipes for making Cornbread by clicking: HERE
Next, crumble up the biscuits. I used three leftover biscuits to make this dressing. You could use 3-4 slices of day old sandwich loaf bread if you didn’t have any biscuits.
You can find our recipe for making Mama’s Buttermilk Biscuits by clicking: HERE
Mix the dry ingredients up well. Just stick your hand in it and crumble and stir as you go. Have some FUN with it.
Add the Sugar.
Add the Black Pepper.
Add the chopped Parsley and Thyme.
Add the Sage. Of course, if you don’t like the taste of Sage, you could cut back on the amount or just leave it out all together. It was just standard in the dressings made at our house. I like a hint of it but can’t take a large amount. It hangs around in my throat for the rest of the day and I just don’t like that. Did I actually drop it all in the bowl? OK, I did, I just decided to go ahead and go for it.
Add the Salt.
Stir everything together well.
When the vegetables are tender, remove them from the heat. You didn’t forget about them on the stove did you?
Add the cooked vegetables to the dry ingredients.
Add the melted Butter.
Add the Chicken Broth. Yes, I know I’m using canned broth in this made-from-scratch recipe for Cornbread Dressing. I’ve got to give you a little break somewhere right? You could certainly use your own homemade chicken stock, I just wasn’t THAT ready this year. I’m sorry.
Then again, I didn’t make the butter, salt, black pepper, sugar and… maybe this isn’t as made-from-scratch as I thought it would be. Just saying.
Stir everything together really good. Then, grab a spoon and taste it to see if you think it needs a little “something else.” That’s the beauty of cooking, you get to make it to your own tastes and those of your family. Need a little more salt, add it in. Just don’t get carried away with it and ruin the dressing.
Break the eggs into a small bowl and whisk them a bit with a fork.
Add the Eggs into the mixture. Aren’t you glad we tasted it BEFORE we added the eggs? See, I have a PLAN.
Stir everything together until it’s all mixed up really good. You could add a bit more Chicken Broth if needed. The mixture needs to be moist but not soupy.
I greased up a 13×9 sheet cake pan then spread the mixture into the pan. A large casserole dish would have looked a lot prettier than this old pan. A smaller sized pan will give you thicker dressing, but either way, it’ll taste the same when all is said and done. Use what you have.
Again, your dressing should be moist but not overly soupy at this point.
Wrap the top of your pan with aluminum foil and refrigerate the dressing overnight if possible.
That’s the nice thing about making this dressing, you can make it a day or two ahead of time and then bake it just before you’re ready to serve it. It helps cut down on a lot of work on Thanksgiving Day when preparing a big meal. But, if you need to, go ahead and bake it as follows.
NOTE: If you refrigerate the dressing, be sure to let it sit out for about one hour to come back up near room temperature BEFORE you bake it.
Again, just in case you missed it. If you refrigerate the dressing overnight, be sure to let it sit out on your counter top for about one hour before you actually bake it. It helps to let it come back up to near room temperature before baking.
Bake the Cornbread Dressing at 350ºF for about 45-60 minutes, or until it is done.
Test the Cornbread Dressing just like you would a cake layer. Insert a wooden toothpick into the center of the pan. If it pulls out free of crumbs and fairly dry, it’s done. If it still seems to be pretty moist, or if you pull out some crumbs attached to your toothpick, slide it back in the oven for a few more minutes.
Cooking time will vary depending on the size of pan you used. If your pan is smaller and the dressing is thicker, it might take it longer to cook. Watch it closely.
Serve while warm and Enjoy!
