Home For Thanksgiving Fried Cornbread Dressing

Prep Time: 30 mins

Total Time: 1 hrs 30 mins

Servings: 30

About This Recipe

“This recipe has grown a few strapping boys and delighted even the pickiest gal in the bunch. Our home is always full to overflowing on Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is the one recipe that is a “must” even if we don’t do turkey. This has evolved over the years to try to hit everyone’s preferences. It’s my own invention! It tastes good as is or will serve well with southern cream”

Ingredients

1lbmild ground sausage

2diced onions

2cupssliced celery

1lbsliced fresh mushrooms

4cansSwanson chicken broth

2 -3teaspoonssage

salt & pepper(optional)

5packetscornbread mix( each packet enough for 6 servings of cornbread)

3/4-2cup butter or 3/4-2cupmargarine

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 for cornbread.

Place stick of butter in bottom of roasting pan and place in oven to melt it (This will allow the cornbread to”fry” while it’s baking).

Mix up corn bread mix according to package instructions (Usually, this will be the addition of 2/3 cups sweet milk and 1 egg per package of mix.) (Cornbread can be baked ahead, which I usually do the night before).

When done, use a knife and score through the cornbread to make very small cubes.

(You should have enough to be able to enjoy a few cubes of this buttered delight while it’s still hot).

Brown sausage in dutch oven.

Add onions, celery and mushrooms and the other half stick of butter if you need more oil.

Saute til sausage is done and onion is translucent.

Add about 3 cups of cornbread and sage.

Let brown a bit.

Add rest of cornbread and stir well.

Turn dressing from dutch oven into the roaster pan.

Drizzle with chicken broth til nice and moist (This is a personal taste thing).

Bake at 350 for about an hour or until golden brown.

This makes enough for 24 to 30 servings depending on appetites.

Is wonderful left-over.

Your guests will even want to take some home with them.

Freezes well.

(I don’t salt during cooking. Just place salt and pepper shakers on the table for those who want more than what’s already there).

Reviews

“This was great!I made for Christmas and the family loved it.I took the advice of a previous person’s review and cut it in half but kept the full amount of sausage and also added the bacon.I loved the bacon!”

“Thanks for posting Mom of Chef Mark. This was a real hit at Thanksgiving dinner. In fact most people preferred this over regular dressing. The only change I made was that I added bacon and doubled the sausage, 1 pound mild and 1 pound Italian. I also added all the bacon and sausage grease. What the heck, I never was pretending it was low fat. This is definitely a keeper.”

“This dish was the hit of the Thanksgiving meal.Everyone loved it!We used 48oz of broth to have a heavier and less fluffy dressing.We used Martha White’s Yellow Gladiola cornbread mix.Awesome!”

“Since we didn’t make Thanksgiving at home we decieded to use the turkey we had on weekend and make our own thanksgiving meal.I chose this recipe for stuffing since none of us had ever had cornbread stuffing before, we’ve always had the bread stuffing.I couldn’t stop eating the cornbread bits while making.I really liked the idea of the sausage and mushrooms in this.We liked this stuffing and will make it for the “real” meal next year for our wholefamily.Thank you for posting and introducing us to another stuffing.”

“I just made this (2 days before Thanksgiving), and am freezing it ahead of time. Let me tell you something folks, if you are even just contemplating making this you need to stop and just DO IT! Its sooo good. I did it EXACTLY as written…and it made ONE 13 x 9 pan and 2- 13 X 5 (oblong pans I have)full of stuffing. Of course I tasted it and it is to die for! I can’t wait to serve it on Thursday!It wasn’t hard to put together at all, although I don’t have a Dutch Oven pan BIG enough for this recipe; so I browned everything in a very large deep dish frying pan from Calphalon, and added the three cups of cornbread to it, then I put 1/2 a stick of butter an a large pasta pot, added the rest of the cornbread , alternating w/ the frying pan mixture. (This is one reason I am making everything ahead of time, and freezing what I can so I don’t have a mess and 1/2 in the kitchen to clean all at once-uuuggg.)I recommend usung butter, and not using margarine( margarine is bad for you anyway!). This isn’t something to be counting calories with! Thanks ‘Mom of Chef Mark’ !!!Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!Memphis Mommy aka Wendy”

“Wow, is this one of winner or what?I have to admit I was a bit lazy and used store bought mini corn muffins instead of making my own cornbread.Was still wonderful.The idea behind the meal was to test run new recipes for Thanksgiving and let me tell you, Stove Top stuffing is history!”

“Makes my mouth water the way it smells so good while baking and this chef is right on a must even without the turkey !!!!!!!!”

“Made this for Thanksgiving. Made one Aunt Jemina recipe corn bread in 8 x 8 pan? Used one qt of chicken broth, and halved everything else.Delicious and plenty to go around for 6 with much leftover.”

“I divided everything in half except the cornbread.I used two boxes of Jiffy Mix corn muffin mix.My husband and I were the only ones eating Thanksgiving dinner at home this year but I wish we had made the entire recipe!It is the best dressing I have ever eaten.I supervised the cooking and my husband did the work.(A leg in a cast is not easy to stand and cook with, especially when no weight is allowed on it.)I must say he did an Excellent job!!”

“This is very good.I used less butter than called for but replaced alot of it with spray butter.Turned out very good and I will be making this again.Thanks for sharing.”

“This was my first time ever to make dressing and it came out pretty dang good.Still not as good as my-ex MIL made but I was still proud of it.It was a little on the sweet side for me but I’m not much of a cook so maybe I did something wrong.Thanks for the recipe, it was easy enough for me to pull off and still taste good.”

“I was too stuffed after cooking that I didn’t get to eat much of this.But, my son had 3 servings and THAT is worth a 5 star rating!!!”

“If you are going to make anything that is posted on Recipezaar, you MUST MAKE THIS! I will upfront say that I used homemade chicken broth for this dish, and am scared to think what it would taste like with canned broth (only my opinion). I just fear it may come out too salty. I could be wrong. Anyway, you MUST MUST MUST try this recipe out. The texture is unbelievable, and the aromas will drive you crazy until you are finally able to eat it. I will NEVER again purchase stuffing in any form (Stove Top, store made, stealing from the neighbors)… no. The neighbors will be stealing my stuffing from now on! Thank you so much. The hit of the party this Thanksgiving. Cheers.”

“This was delicious. I ate a good 3 or 4 helpings before I realized what I had done! I might double, or even triple, the saugage in it next time. I hate cornbread dressing (really, really hate it) but this sounded so darn good (and had fabulous ratings!) that I just had to try it. It won’t replace the regular bread dressing for us, but it WILL be an addition to every holiday table from now on. Thanks so much!”

“I have this baking in the oven right now for Thanksgiving, but I did try it before sticking it in there and WOW!!! This is probably the best stuffing I have had in a while. All of the flavors are there and it tastes like it cooked all day. I made the cornbread the night before, so it was quick to put together today. Thanks for the great recipe!!”

“Very good. I’ll post a picture later. I didn’t like the mushrooms in it, but that is no one’s fault but mine. I knew I wouldn’t like the mushrooms in it, but made it that way anyway based on all the rave reviews. To me, they weren’t tender enough. Just my humble opinion but I think it would be perfect without the mushrooms…still good with them though. I’m going to freeze this and then reheat on Thanksgiving day. How long should I reheat it and should I add more broth when I reheat it? Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe. This is my first time to make homemade dressing for Thanksgiving. I’m excited to serve it. And yes, I did take a taste already. 🙂 I can’t wait to see what everyone says about it.”

“I made this recipe this weekend and will cook it Thanksgiving day.I did ,however, fill a small casserole dish and bake it today.We wanted to try it and make sure it turned out well.It was terrific!My son, who is normally not a big dressing fan loved it.II will definitely make this again.”

“I made this last Thanksgiving for the 1st time and can’t believe that I didn’t review it. This is the best Cornbread Dressing Recipe that I have ever tried! Rich and flavorful, my whole family loved it. I am definitely adding this to my menu again as well as sharing it with a friend who is hosting her 1st Thanksgiving Dinner ever. It does freeze well, so it can be prepared a week or 2 before the big day, placed in Ziploc bags, & stored in the freezer. Many thanks for sharing such an awesome recipe!”

“This is a fantastic cornbread stuffing! Mom of Chef Mark was right….after I “fried” my cornbread in the oven and took it out I had to force myself to stop sampling those buttery little morsels. I did halve the recipe with the exception of the sausage. I added a full pound because I didn’t want to waste any. Everything else was in proportion. I grew up in the region where cornbread stuffing is served mostly, but my husband who did not, prefers bread stuffing. I served both for Thanksgiving and he actually preferred the cornbread stuffing! I will definitely serve this up next Thanksgiving. Thanks Mom for sharing this recipe!”

“This was my first attempt at making stuffing.I grew up on southern cornbread stuffing but, my mom always made it.I got a lot of compliments.My husband loved it and he has never liked stuffing.This will be a family tradition now.”