Cornbread Dressing – Easier than I thought!
Dressing is one of my absolute favorite holiday foods! For years I marveled at all the talented cooks in my family combining so many flavorful ingredients into different versions of perfection. … It turns out dressing isn’t that hard to make after all.
Cornbread dressing is highly customizable to your taste preferences. (and to the ingredients you have available) The only thing that I would say is an absolute must is that you start with a base of unsweetened cornbread.
Ingredients:
- 2 Packs Cornbred Mix (unsweetened!)
- 4 eggs
- 1 can cream of chicken with herbs (or regular cream of chicken, celery, or mushroom)
- 1 carton chicken stock (or fresh chicken broth or vegetable broth)
- 2 stalks celery, small diced or finely chopped
- 1 squash, cut in half and sliced or cut into small pieces (or half a squash if it’s very large)
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp sage (optional – a lot of people don’t like this flavor)
- Butter
- 1 slice white bread
Directions:
Make cornbread according to directions, but use all of the eggs. (The mixes I have looked at call for 1 egg per pack. So I am adding 2 extra eggs for a total of 4.) After the cornbread has had time to cool, continue with the following directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Crumble cornbread into small pieces and white bread into very small pieces.
Mix celery, squash, black pepper, and sage into cornbread and white bread.
Stir together and warm cream of chicken, chicken stock, and butter.
Put dry ingredients into a 13×9 baking pan. Pour in liquid and mix lightly until all ingredients are moist. You should see a little liquid standing in the pan, but most of it will be absorbed into the bread.
Put in a 350-degree oven until browned on top.
Bonus Chicken Directions:
Some people like to put the meat directly in their dressing. My family serves chicken or turkey on the side. A turkey tells you how long to cook it in the oven, but our chicken didn’t.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook chicken uncovered for about 20 minutes per pound.
Tip: Check for doneness by inserting a meat thermometer in the inner thigh, near the chicken breast but not touching the bone. The temperature should be 165 degrees when the chicken is done. I like to cook it a little longer to make sure.