Need a good, old fashion cornbread dressing recipe

Good luck. Wish I could help. My grandma makes damn good cornbread dressing. I look forward to it every year.

Here you go...

This sounds like the one we make for Thanksgiving according to all the ingredients.

I typically add a little sage or poultry seasoning to the above recipe.

Cornbread Dressing

The dish starts a day early with making cornbread. This recipe makes a 10 inch skillet pone, about 2 1/2 inches thick.

Depression Era Cornbread

This is the old family recipe straight from the Great Depression by way of Granny Cooksey of Isola, Mississippi. It has no eggs and no sugar, since those pantry items were better used for other things during hard times.

This is all that has been made in my family for as long as my memories go back. It is all that my mother and her seven sisters made, and each of their children who can cook, and all that is made in my house too.

Cornbread Ingredients:

With Selfrising flour:

2 cups Martha White Self Rising Corn Meal Mix
1 1/2 cup Martha White Self Rising flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup Buttermilk
Sufficient additional water to make mix slightly thicker than pancake batter
You also need a good seasoned cast iron skillet

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Stick the skillet in the oven as it preheats. You don't need the skillet until the oven gets to temperature anyway. And the skillet must be hot when the batter goes in. The preheating oven is a good place to get it hot, but not too hot.

Mix the ingredients, Self Rising Flour, salt, and Cornmeal with butter milk to make a thick batter and add it to the hot skillet with a tablespoon of vegetable or bacon oil added before the batter. It should sizzle when the batter is placed in the skillet.

Place the skillet in the center of the oven and bake for 30-45 minutes. Cooking times will vary, and you will learn what your oven does. The top should be somewhat browned when the pone is ready to come out of the oven. The skillet side will be crunchy magic if a couple of teaspoons of oil are used! And if your skillet is properly seasoned, the pone falls right out.

It is best to allow the cornbread to rest overnight – to help it dry out some. If making the cornbread the day you make the dressing, allow it to cool for at least 2 hours.

For Dressing:

12 inch pone of Cornbread, cooled and broken into 1/8 – 3/4 inch pieces
1 cup celery, medium 1/8 inch dice
1 cup onion, Medium 1/8 inch dice
2 -3 cups Chicken broth or Turkey broth
1 Tablespoon Lawry’s Garlic Salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon Ground sage

Optional:

1 cup cooked chicken, or turkey, Pulled into shreds (I like boiled chicken thighs for this).

1/4 – 1/2 cup melted butter. I hardly ever do this, but you might like it.

Directions:

Sauté the celery and onions in 1 – 2 Tablespoons butter, over medium heat until they are tender.

Mix all ingredients and spices (but not broth) in a large mixing bowl. Try to mix then well, without breaking up the cornbread too much.

Taste for seasoning and adjust as desired. Some like a little more Sage, but be careful. You can make your dressing really sage tasting if not careful.

Add broth until you get a damp/slightly wet mixture.

Spray pan, 9X11 cake pan or the skillet you used to cook the cornbread with Pam, or coat inside with oil or butter.

I like to preheat te pan before adding the dressing mix.
Spoon the dressing mixture into the pan and cook at 400 degrees F until it dries out somewhat. Everything yo have added is already cooked. Your intent here is to dry it out. When you like the dryness, it is done,

Giblet Gravy

1/2 cup, celery, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
Giblets, (Liver, Gizzard and neck) from your turkey, Or use chicken giblets. I don’t use the heart, but you can if you like.
1 teaspoon garlic, chopped
1 Tablespoon butter
2 cans chicken or turkey broth
1 Tablespoon corn starch
2 hard boiled eggs – sliced or chopped into 1/4 inch slices or cubes

Optional:

1/4 cup Cooked chicken, shredded

Directions:

Sauté celery, onions, and garlic in 1 Tablespoon butter, in the pan you will use to make the giblet gravy.
Prep and cook meat giblets in chicken broth, using the pan you used to sauté the vegetables.

If using the neck, pick all of the meat off the bones when the meat is tender and return it to the pan, Remoove giblets and return them to the pan,
Simmer for 30 minutes, the just before serving, add sliced boiled eggs.

Make a slurry of 1 Tablespoon Corn Starch in a little water. Add this to gravy and continue cooking for 5 minutes to thicken the gravy

I make this every Thanksgiving. It was the closest recipe I could find to what my mother used to make. Everyone seems to enjoy it. I omit the sandwich bread & have never used cajun seasoning and it turns out fine. And use the exact amount of sage...don’t overdo it.

LINK

Thanks all. Maybe I can use one of these to make a decent CB dressing.

Thanks