This easy recipe mixes homemade cornbread with savory country sausage, aromatics, and fresh herbs for the best Southern cornbread dressing recipe ever.
This Southern-Style Cornbread Dressing Is a Must for Thanksgiving
There are lots of dishes that make up a quintessential Thanksgiving meal.
The usual suspects are roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing. But if you’re from the South, what I call stuffing you may call dressing, and you probably make it with cornbread and sausage.
This cornbread dressing begins with a batch of my homemade cornbread that gets mixed with a flavorful mixture of country sage breakfast sausage, celery, onion, plenty of savory herbs, chicken stock, and eggs. If you’re looking to deviate from your usual stuffing recipe and try something new this year, you’ve gotta try this super delicious cornbread dressing!
Heidi’s Tips for Recipe Success
Homemade or store-bought cornbread — both work! You can use store-bought cornbread for this cornbread dressing, but I like to plan ahead and make my own. If going this route, I suggest making the cornbread a day or two before to save time and simplify.
If you prefer a softer cornbread dressing, cut smaller chunks. I like my cornbread dressing to have a bit more texture, which is why I slice my cornbread into 1-inch chunks. However, if you want a mealier, more compact dressing, simply cut your cornbread into smaller pieces, and/or use a spatula to break them up a bit when you’re mixing them with the chicken stock and egg mixture.
The Main Ingredients You’ll Need
This cornbread dressing recipe is divided into two parts: The cornbread, and the other savory ingredients.
The full recipe, with amounts, can be found in the recipe card below.
- Cornmeal — I recommend a medium grind yellow cornmeal so your cornbread has more texture
- Flour — Mixed with the cornmeal, it helps yield a soft and fluffy texture.
- Granulated sugar — For just the right amount of sweetness.
- Butter — Butter gives the cornbread moisture, fat, tenderness, and flavor.
- Buttermilk— For moisture and tenderness (I recommend using a good quality, full-fat buttermilk).
- Eggs — For the best moisture, binding, texture, and lift in this cornbread.
- Bulk ground pork sage/breakfast sausage — I like using country breakfast sausage here (feel free to add some red pepper flakes to spice it up if you want), but you could use turkey or chicken sausage if you wanted (just remove it from the casing first)
- Aromatics— Onion gets sautéd with celery and herbs in butter to give this cornbread dressing so much awesome savory flavor
- Celery leaves, roughly chopped — If your stalks don’t have enough leaves, just supplement with extra parsley, sage, thyme, and parsley.
- White wine — Nothing fancy, but it should be a wine you would drink (for this recipe, I suggest a dry white wine)
- Chicken stock — Hydrates the dressing and also lends salt and flavor.
How to Make Cornbread Dressing for Thanksgiving
Heidi’s Tip: Love this cornbread dressing? Make this classic sausage stuffing next! It’s full of the same savory flavors, but it uses bread instead of cornbread.
- Make your cornbread. Whether following my recipe or making it from a box mic, bake the cornbread until the top is golden and the edges brown and pull away from the pan.
- Dry out your cornbread. Cornbread is really moist and we want to dry it out first by toasting it in the oven so that it absorbs the liquid without disintegrating.
- Brown the sausage. Brown the sausage with a little butter, breaking it up into smaller chunks. Drain the sausage and set aside.
- Sauté your veggies and deglaze with white wine. You’re not looking for the veggies and aromatics to develop a ton of color, you just want them to soften and turn a light golden brown to remove their raw bite.
- Hydrate the cornbread. Toss the cornbread pieces very carefully in the eggs and chicken stock to prevent them from crumbling.
- Bake until golden brown. Transfer the cornbread dressing to a buttered baking dish, cover, and bake for 25 minutes. If you like it more crisp, remove the foil and bake for 15 minutes more, or until the top is golden brown and the internal temperature of a thermometer reads 160°F.
Make-Ahead Instructions
This cornbread dressing can easily be made ahead of time. I recommend assembling the cornbread one day, then assembling the dressing on the second day. From that point, you can cover and chill for up to 8 hours before baking.
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.
Cornbread Dressing with Sausage
Ingredients
For the cornbread:
- 1 cup medium grind yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter , divided
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk , at room temperature
- 2 eggs , at room temperature
For the dressing
- ½ cup + 3 tablespoons butter , at room temperature, (divided)
- ¾ pound bulk ground pork breakfast sausage
- 1 large sweet onion , finely chopped (about 2 cups)
- 2 cups medium-diced celery , from about 6 stalks
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- ¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup celery leaves , roughly chopped (if your stalks don’t have enough leaves, just supplement with extra parsley)
- ¼ cup fresh roughly chopped sage leaves
- ¼ cup fresh thyme leaves
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups chicken stock
- ½ cup parsley leaves , roughly chopped
- 1 batch of cornbread , cut into 1-inch chunks (or if using storebought, 1 pound and 11 ounces –about 8 cups)
Instructions
For the cornbread:
- To a large bowl, add the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda, and whisk to combine. To a medium-sized bowl, whisk the eggs then add the room temperature buttermilk, stirring well. Add the egg mixture to the large bowl and give it a few stirs. Add the cooled butter and mix just until everything is combined.
- Once your oven and skillet have preheated, use a hot pad to carefully remove the skillet. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter and swirl it around the skillet to coat. Working quickly, pour the batter into the skillet (it will sizzle), smooth the top, and place the skillet in the oven. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until the top is golden and the edges brown and pull away from the pan. Cool for 5-10 minutes, then slice and serve warm or at room temperature.
- First, preheat oven to 300°F. Spread cornbread cubes out in a single layer on a large sheet pan lined with parchment paper (you may need to use two sheet pans), and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until completely dried out, tossing intermittently so the pieces toast evenly. Transfer the sheet pan to a cooling rack and let the cornbread cool completely.
For the dressing:
- While the cornbread is toasting, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of the butter. Once the butter has melted, add the sausage and cook until browned, for about 7-10 minutes, breaking it up into smaller chunks using a wooden spoon or spatula. Transfer the sausage to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.
- Increase the oven temperature to 350°F and liberally butter a 9×13-inch baking dish with 2 tablespoons of butter.
- In the same skillet, add 1 stick of butter over medium-high heat. Once melted, add the onion and sauté for 5-7 minutes, until starting to become golden brown (I like to give it a headstart so it gets a bit more brown and has more flavor). Season with salt, pepper, celery leaves, sage, and thyme. Then add the celery and continue sautéing with the onion, stirring occasionally for about 5 more minutes. Add the white wine and then cook for about 5 minutes more to let the wine reduce. Be sure to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs well, then whisk in the chicken stock. Add the parsley and cornbread cubes and toss very gently, using a spatula, taking care not to let the cornbread crumble.
- Transfer the cornbread dressing to the prepared baking dish. Cover with foil (or a lid) and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes. Then remove the foil and continue baking for about 15 minutes more, or until the top is golden brown and the internal temperature of a thermometer reads 160°F.
Nutrition
FAQs
Though often used interchangeably (depending on what region you’re from), there is a small difference between dressing and stuffing.
Historically, the basic concept of the dish doesn’t change too much—a baked mixture of cubed bread mixed with sautéed veggies and herbs. “Dressing” is more of a Southern thing, while “stuffing” tends to be more Northern.
Often in the South, you’ll see dressing made with cornbread instead of bread. Variations abound including sourdough bread or cornbread dressing, ones made with dried fruits and nuts, sausage, rice, or even oysters.
But no matter the ingredients, the biggest difference is whether you stuff your mixture inside the turkey to bake (stuffing) or bake it in a baking dish (dressing).
I cover my dressing with foil for about 25 minutes and then continue baking without the foil for about 15 minutes more to get the top nicely golden brown.
Storage and Reheating Tips
Cornbread and sausage dressing will keep stored in a baking dish covered with foil, or in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months. Let it thaw in the refrigerator completely before reheating gently in the oven.
For reheating leftover dressing, I suggest drizzling a little bit of chicken stock over it before reheating it in the oven (covered), at 325°F, for about 15 minutes, or until completely warmed through. Then, remove the lid or the foil and heat for about 5 minutes more.
What to Serve with Cornbread Dressing
- How To Cook THE BEST Juicy Turkey
- Juicy Roast Turkey Breast
- Turkey Gravy Recipe
- How to Make the Best Potato Salad
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- Sweet Potato Casserole with Savory Crumble
- Green Bean Casserole with Onion Rings
- The Best Homemade Mac and Cheese
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