People fight over the best part of Thanksgiving dinner, and I would venture to say that the best part might just be a traditional cornbread dressing recipe like this homemade cornbread dressing.
This is a perfect side dish recipe for your Thanksgiving table this year. It’s a family favorite recipe that makes an appearance at our holiday meal every year. The best part? You can make the cornbread ahead of time in a prepared baking dish to save more time on the big day.
Honestly, there’s no need to limit this family recipe to only Thanksgiving day, you can make this homemade cornbread recipe even just to serve as a flavorful side dish for any holiday dinner.
Recipe Ingredient Notes
To make our homemade cornbread stuffing, you need the following ingredients:
- Dressing mix: grab a box of Cornbread Mix (we like Famous Dave’s cornbread mix, but any will do)
- Butter: use unsalted butter
- Vegetables: you will need to have diced onion and sliced celery stalks
- Eggs: use large eggs that have been beaten
- Liquid: use your favorite chicken stock. You could also use chicken broth or homemade chicken stock
- Seasoning: make sure to have dried sage, salt and black pepper
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Homemade Cornbread Dressing
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Prepare cornbread mixture according to package directions. Let cool and crumble into bite-size pieces.
- Add the stick of butter to a large skillet over medium heat and saute the celery and onion for a few minutes until soft.
- In a large bowl, combine celery, onion, crumbled corn bread, eggs, chicken stock, sage, and salt and pepper.
- Spread mixture in a 9×13 inch baking pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until cooked through and center is set.
Frequently Asked Questions
The main difference is that stuffing is cooked inside the bird you are cooking aka it is stuffed inside the cavity of the bird, Dressing mixture is only cooked in a separate cooking dish and needs more liquid to become flavorful.
If you find that your dressing is more liquidy or gummy, try throwing the casserole dish back into the oven uncovered and let the oven dry out the bread cubes more.
You definitely can add cooked chicken or cooked turkey to the crumbled cornbread dressing mixture. It will add a good amount of flavor to this delicious recipe.
The biggest thing is that you might not have added enough liquid to the cornbread stuffing mixtures. So, bump up the turkey broth or chicken stock you use and then watch it carefully so you don’t overcook the classic dish.
Make Ahead and Storage Instructions
Fridge: This one is super simple to make ahead of time. To do so, make the recipe as instructed up until right before you cook it. Then, cover it with aluminum foil, and store it in the fridge until you are ready to throw it into the oven. It can be prepped and stored in the fridge for 1-2 days, then place it in the oven to cook when ready.
Reheat: The best way to reheat his classic side dish is to put it in the microwave for 30-60 seconds.
Enjoy More Delicious Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes
Need the perfect compliment to your main dish? You’ll want to try these delicious side dishes. Browse our comprehensive collection of simple side dish recipes.
- Apple, Onion, and Celery Stuffing
- Easy Sausage and Herb Stuffing
- Homemade Sausage Stuffing
- Instant Pot Dressing
- Slow Cooker Stuffing
Homemade Cornbread Dressing
Ingredients
- 16 ounces Corn Bread Mix, (I used Famous Dave's cornbread mix)
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 celery stalks, sliced
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 teaspoon dried sage
- to taste salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Prepare corn bread mix according to package directions. Let cool and crumble into bite size pieces.
- Add butter to a large skillet over medium heat and saute the celery and onion for a few minutes until soft.
- In a large bowl, combine celery, onion, crumbled corn bread, eggs, chicken stock, sage and salt and pepper.
- Spread mixture in a 9×13 inch baking pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until cooked through and center is set.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
How many eggs do I use and butter
Do I need to let the corn read dry out
You don’t need to let the cornbread dry out.
Just scroll down and the full recipe with ingredients and directions are there.
I’ve cooked mine for an hour and it’s still soggy. Not sure what went wrong, I followed the directions to a T?
Which products u use 2 make cornbread
Can I make this is a crock-pot?
How much celery? Not listed in recipe. TIA
This is my favorite cornmeal recipe. I do add more eggs than this
You need to scroll down to the recipe. All of the ingredients are there with the instructions. It calls for 3 stalks.
Can this be made the night before?
What’s the best way (time/temp) to reheat? I’d like to make it the day before Thanksgiving. Thanks!
Approximately how many cups of crumbled cornbread does this require? I am making my own cornbread not from a mix and want to get the amount right.
About 6-7 cups.
You can make it all the way through step #5. Then just stick in the oven and cook on Thanksgiving.
Yes, you can make this the night before.
Question – my package says to sauté onions and celery in butter, add 1 cup of broth and bring to boil. Then, add stuffing, set aside for 5 minutes. After doing all of that to complete step one in your instructions, I still add more celery, butter, onions, and broth? I’m afraid it will be so soggy and have to bake for hours to bake through. Am I misunderstanding your directions? Thanks for your help!
The dressing was not soggy at all. It turned out perfect! But, I am curious… when preparing the stuffing, the directions say to melt butter and sauté onion and celery. Then, add broth and then finally stuffing. That completes YOUR step one. Your next step says to sauté onion and celery in butter… do you really add more celery and onions than what you used to prepare the stuffing. I guess it wouldn’t be too overwhelming (I didn’t add additional celery and onion to the recipe when I made it), but I was curious if I was misunderstanding the recipe. Thanks so much for sharing. This is definitely tasty.
Hi Jeannie. You want to buy Corn Bread Mix, not Corn Bread Stuffing. Then you make the Corn Bread and that is what you crumble into pieces and make into a delicious cornbread dressing. I hope this clarifies.
This was very close to my Mom’s recipe that I’ve been using for years. Only my Mom’s used part white bread. So I used mostly my own pan of cornbread and finished up with white bread diced up. I like the proportions you used so will be using it again. I liked the amount of sage and I added 1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning too. Thanks!! p.s. got this from Facebook
How many servings is this recipe for?
If you scroll down to the recipe card, we get about 8 servings. If you are feeding children, you will get more than 8 servings.
Do you cook this covered? Or uncovered?
Cook this uncovered. If it starts to get too brown near the end you can cover with tin foil for the last few minutes