Cornbread Dressing – delicious southern holiday staple. Can make ahead and refrigerate or freezer for later. Makes enough to feed a crowd! Perfect for the holiday meal and leftovers. Homemade buttermilk cornbread, butter, onion, celery, sage, parsley, seasoned pepper, eggs, and chicken broth. A must for your holiday meal! #sidedish #holiday #thanksgiving #christmas #dressing #stuffing
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Pin This RecipeThe BEST Cornbread Dressing Recipe
Thanksgiving dinner isn’t complete without a big ol’ pan of cornbread dressing!! The cornbread dressing is actually my favorite part of the whole holiday meal. I could totally skip the turkey and only have cornbread dressing and gravy. Anyone else?!?!?
This Cornbread Dressing is delicious! It also makes a TON! You can bake it in one giant pan or split it between a couple of pans. You can bake one and freeze the other one for Christmas.
How to Make Cornbread Dressing from Scratch
This dressing is very easy to make. Start with making a large pan of cornbread. Whisk together cornmeal, flour, 3 eggs and buttermilk. Melt ½ cup butter and pour into batter. Pour the batter into a baking dish and bake.
Once the cornbread has cooled, assemble the casserole. Crumble the cornbread into a large bowl, add fresh bread crumbs, onion, celery, sage, parsley, seasoned pepper, chicken broth, and eggs. Place the dressing in a baking dish and bake.
- I’ve included the recipe for homemade cornbread in the dressing recipe. Store-bought cornbread isn’t going to cut it in this recipe. It is the holidays. You have to have homemade cornbread. It tastes SO much better.
- I prefer to use White Lily or Martha White self-rising cornmeal mix in the cornbread.
- You can make the cornbread a day or two in advance.
- This recipe calls for fresh bread crumbs, not the stuff in the can. To make fresh bread crumbs, place some day-old bread in a food processor and pulse.
- This casserole can be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen for later. Heck, go ahead and make it this week and put it up for Thanksgiving. I’m all about making as much of the holiday meal ahead of time as possible.
- If you are going to freeze the dressing, freeze it unbaked. When you are ready to bake it, thaw it overnight in the fridge and bake as directed below.
Thanksgiving Side Dish for a Crowd
This Cornbread Dressing goes perfectly with our Instant Pot Turkey Breast or Slow Cooker Turkey Breast. I can’t wait to pull our pan out of the freeze in a couple of weeks for our Thanksgiving dinner! YUM! While I could just eat dressing for my meal, most people want a full spread at the holidays. Here are a few of our favorite recipes from the blog that go great with this casserole:
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Cornbread Dressing
Ingredients:
Cornbread
- 1 cup butter, divided
- 3 cups self-rising cornmeal mix, White Lily or Martha White
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 large eggs
- 3 cups buttermilk
Dressing
- 3 cups soft fresh breadcrumbs, pulse day old bread in food processor
- 1 large sweet onion, diced
- 4 celery ribs, diced
- 3 to 4 tsp dried sage to taste
- 4 tsp dried parsley
- 1 Tbsp seasoned pepper
- 7 cups chicken broth
- 4 eggs
Instructions:
Cornbread
- Preheat oven to 425ºF. Spray a 9×13-inch pan with cooking spray.
- Whisk together cornmeal, flour, 3 eggs and buttermilk. Melt ½ cup butter and pour into batter. Mix well.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
Dressing
- Reduce oven temperature to 400ºF.
- Crumble cooled cornbread into a large bowl. Stir in fresh breadcrumbs and set aside.
- Melt remaining ½ cup butter in skillet. Add onions and celery and cook 5 minutes. Stir in sage, parsley and seasoned pepper. Cook an additional minute. Remove from heat and add to cornbread mixture.
- Whisk together chicken broth and remaining four eggs. Stir into cornbread mixture.
- Pour dressing mixture into 1 lightly greased 9×13-inch pan and 1 lightly greased 8-inch pan OR 1 lightly greased 15×12-inch pan.
- Bake uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes.
- NOTES:
- If freezing casserole, freeze unbaked and thaw overnight in refrigerator before baking as directed.
Notes:
- I’ve included the recipe for homemade cornbread in the dressing recipe. Store-bought cornbread isn’t going to cut it in this recipe. It is the holidays. You have to have homemade cornbread. It tastes SO much better.
- I prefer to use White Lily or Martha White self-rising cornmeal mix in the cornbread.
- You can make the cornbread a day or two in advance.
- This recipe calls for fresh bread crumbs, not the stuff in the can. To make fresh bread crumbs, place some day-old bread in a food processor and pulse.
- I used Lawry’s Seasoned Pepper.
- This casserole can be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen for later. Heck, go ahead and make it this week and put it up for Thanksgiving. I’m all about making as much of the holiday meal ahead of time as possible.
- If you are going to freeze the dressing, freeze it unbaked. When you are ready to bake it, thaw it overnight in the fridge and bake as directed below.
Steph
Remember this recipe.
Pin this recipe to your favorite board now to remember it later!
Pin This Recipe
Exactly how I make mine which took years to perfect. Young women today don’t know how lucky they are to have sites like Pinterest and Allrecipes to provide these tried and true recipes. Sure wish I had them when I was setting up house. Look around all you want but make this one. It is Southern cornbread dressing through and through.
This is so good!! If I want to put it in the refrigerator in advance, how many days in advance can it go in there and should it already be baked or just assembled?
Thank you!
Do you set out the bread and let it dry out overnight before you make the bread crumbs?
You can, but it isn’t required. I just use bread that is a day or two old. You can also pop it in the oven for a few minutes to dry it out.
I am soooo ready to make this!
War Eagle BTW! I also use Seasoned Pepper as my mom did also. And nothing makes better cornbread than Martha White hot rise yellow cornmeal and White Lilly flour. love your recipes and your kitty cats!
what is seasoned pepper
I linked to the seasoned pepper in the ingredients. Click on it & it will show you exactly what to look for.