Grandmother’s Chicken Cornbread Dressing

My great grandmother’s chicken cornbread dressing is the perfect side dish to your holiday feast, and even a complete meal on its own!

Whatever you want to call it and however it comes – dressing, stuffing, dry, bready, soft, fluffy, gooey, I’ll eat it all. I love the flavors that this holiday side dish brings together. My great-grandma (we called her Grandmother), made this chicken cornbread dressing, and now it has been successfully passed down to me! My dad adores the recipe too, so I hope he will appreciate the one shortcut I made! Here’s another one of her recipes that I’ve adapted, in case you need something sweet!

Like I said, I did take one shortcut…She used to make chicken thighs and create broth from it, but it’s really time consuming! I had some homemade chicken broth in my freezer, and so I just bought a rotisserie chicken from the store, shredded it, and used the broth I already had on hand to save some time. Of course, I did end up making more broth with the bones afterwards!

This dressing is the gooey type. You bake the cornbread and toast the white bread and crumble them together and then bake them again into the final product! It becomes a dense, flavorful bake that is also packed with chicken. It may not seem natural to have meat in a side dish, but I promise, it’s a great addition! You can also make it without the chicken, which my grandma usually does. It’s best served with turkey and gravy, of course – but it can always be eaten by itself too – it makes a great tupperware container to take for lunch!

The best part about this chicken cornbread dressing is that it freezes beautifully. Even my great-grandma would often make two or three weeks in advance of Thanksgiving or Christmas, freeze, and then defrost and reheat in the oven for serving. Since it’s made to be a little gooey, there’s a lot of moisture in the bake that keeps it tasting fresh!

Local Spotlight: Our onion and eggs were from the farmers market!

Are you a gooey or dry dressing person?

xxHillary

5 from 2 votes

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Grandmother’s Chicken Cornbread Dressing

My great grandmother’s chicken cornbread dressing is the perfect side dish to your holiday feast, and even a complete meal on its own!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 2 hours

Servings 12

Ingredients

• Rotisserie chicken
• 1 small white onion
• 2 stalks of celery
• 3 T. salted butter
• 2 6 oz. packages yellow cornbread mix not sweet
• cornbread package ingredients whatever the box says
• 2 steak rolls or soft hoagie rolls or hot dog buns
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 C. milk
• 1/2 t. ground pepper
• 1 t. all-purpose seasoning
• 3 C. chicken broth

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (for the cornbread).
2. Remove meat from a plain rotisserie chicken, and shred.

3. Prepare 2 packages of cornbread according to the instructions in a 9x13 pan. (according to my package, I needed 2 eggs and 1 1/3 C. milk and bake at 400 for 25 minutes.)

4. Let cool, crumble and set aside.
5. Slice rolls and also cut into smaller chunks. Toast.
6. Let cool, crumble and set aside.
7. Finely dice onion and celery.
8. Saute in butter on medium-low until they are soft, about 5-7 minutes.
9. In a large bowl, combine cornbread, bread, onion & celery saute, milk, eggs, pepper, and seasoning. (You can add more seasonings to taste before adding the eggs. Depending on your chicken broth, it may need salt.)

10. Incorporate chicken broth one cup at a time. It should form small pools of liquid when left to sit for a minute or so.

11. Layer dressing mixture and chicken in a greased 9x13 pan.

12. Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes (Less, if you make it without chicken), until lightly browned all over.
    

13. #enJOY immediately or freeze and reheat!