Cornbread is mixed with sautéed vegetables and stock to make this Southern side dish staple. Plus, a group of black food bloggers share recipes in honor of Black History Month.
I don’t think I experienced what most people call “stuffing” until maybe high school (at the earliest). In my family it was always “dressing” that accompanied our holiday turkey throughout the years. It’s one of my favorite dishes, in fact, so much so that I have found myself on multiple occasions eating cold leftovers straight from the fridge. But since I associate it so closely with family and the holidays, this is only the second time I’ve made it for myself. It’s time to change that.
In terms of what it is exactly, my guess is that it’s technically considered a casserole (maybe?). Cornbread dressing—or just simply “dressing”—is a side dish made from leftover cornbread, vegetables, liquid, and spices. It’s a staple on many Southern and African-American kitchen tables during the holiday season, and everyone’s dressing recipe is unique and adapted to their personal tastes. The one my mother and I tend to make for our family usually includes a can of cream of chicken soup for added moisture, but I’ve omitted it from this recipe in favor of less processed ingredients.
The recipe I’ve shared here features celery, onions, green bell pepper, garlic, and fresh sage cooked down in butter and olive oil, and then mixed with crumbled cornbread and chicken stock. (I include a pretty good amount of garlic and sage in this recipe, so feel free to reduce the amounts if you aren’t a big fan.)
It’s a fairly straightforward process, but there are a few key things to remember. First, it’s important that you don’t use freshly-made cornbread. You actually want it to dry out a little bit (similar to how you use stale bread for stuffing) so that it can absorb more of the flavors you’re infusing it with. The other item to take note of is that you want it to be a little bit soupier than you might think it should be when you’re adding the stock. Some of that moisture will evaporate as it bakes, so you want to make sure to add enough so that the dressing is still moist once it’s finished.
Ready to give it a try?
Southern Cornbread Dressing Recipe
Cornbread is mixed with sautéed vegetables and stock to make this Southern side dish staple.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 stalks celery, diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 small yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 small green bell pepper, diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 tablespoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more to taste
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
- 1 recipe day-old cornbread, crumbled
- 2 cups unsalted chicken stock, plus more as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400˚F.
- Put the butter and oil to a sauté pan over medium heat; add the celery, onion, bell pepper, salt, and pepper to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sage and continue to cook until the vegetables have softened and start to become translucent, 5 to 7 minutes more.
- Add the vegetable mixture, cornbread, and chicken stock to a bowl and mix it together. Add more stock, if necessary, so that it's not quite all absorbed by the bread. (I used 2 1/2 cups total.) Taste and adjust seasoning as you see fit.
- Transfer the dressing mixture to a casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes until nice and golden on top. Serve.
Now that you’ve learned how to make cornbread dressing, here are a bunch of great recipes from black food bloggers to celebrate Black History Month! For the past two years I’ve partnered with with Meiko and The Dish to bring together a bunch of black food bloggers to celebrate the diversity of black food, and here we are for our third edition of the Black History Month Virtual Potluck. (Click here for more details about why I started this project.) Be sure to check out all 27 of the other wonderful bloggers below and give your favorites a follow.
Black History Month Virtual Potluck Recipes 2019
Beautiful Eats & Things | Okra, Corn, Tomato & Chicken Stew
Beyond The Bayou Blog | Mackerel Balls With Biscuits & Cane Syrup
B Sugar Mama | Red Beans and Rice
Butter Be Ready | Caribbean Curry Goat with Rice and Peas
Cooks with Soul | Boudin Balls
D.M.R. Fine Foods | Spice-Roasted Chicken
Dash of Jazz | Soul Food Power Bowl
Dish it with Tisha | Jamaican Curry Chicken
Domestic Dee | Chicken Sliders
Eat.Drink.Frolic. | Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie
First and Full | Homemade Peach Pie
Food Fidelity | Nashville Hot Shrimp Sandwich
Food is Love Made Edible | Smothered Okra with Chicken and Smoked Sausage
Foodie In New York | Chess Pie
Immaculate Bites | Pimento Cheese
Kaluhi’s Kitchen | Pilipili- and Rosemary-Marinated Mbuzi Choma with Kachumbari
Kenneth Temple | Chicken & Sausage Gumbo
Marisa Moore Nutrition | Sweet and Spicy Roasted Cabbage
Meiko And The Dish | Hot Buttered Rum Biscuits
My Life Runs On Food | Southern-Style Caesar Salad
Rosalynn Daniels | Osso Bucco
Savory Thoughts | Haitian Patty
Simply LaKita | Fried Okra
Sweet Tea & Thyme | Spiced Peach Shortcakes
That Girl Cooks Healthy | Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce
The Seasoning Bottle | Guava Short Ribs
Whisk It Real Gud | Banana Bread
Want to get in on the action? Share your own creations on social media with the hashtag #BHMpotluck and check out what everyone else is making. Also, be sure to follow the We Love Black Food Bloggers Facebook group for more recipes from these and other black food bloggers from around the world.
This looks insanely good!
Thanks!
Made alongside the herb-butter turkey. I used cream of chicken soup as mentioned in the post accompanying the recipe… I just guessed that I could replace the chicken stock. Turned out quite tasty!