This Southern dressing with biscuits and cornbread is a perfect traditional Southern side for your Thanksgiving turkey dinner!
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Stuffing or Dressing
Do you say stuffing or dressing? Here in the South, it’s dressing, no ifs, ands, or buts. I have to admit, though, until recently I called it stuffing, and let me tell you why.
For some reason, when I was growing up, I didn’t eat dressing. I really don’t know why. I honestly think it was among those many things that grossed me out for one reason or another even though I’d ever actually eaten it. I am pretty sure that the closest I ever came to eating dressing when I was growing up was scraping it off of my turkey when they served turkey & dressing at school two times a year (near Thanksgiving and Christmas, when they would invite our parents to come eat lunch with us).
Stove Top???
Now it’s admission time. My enlightenment came from…Stove Top Stuffing. I am so embarrassed. I don’t even know where that came from. For some reason I guess I decided to pick up a box at the grocery store when I was in college and attempting to cook for myself rather than eat in the dining hall. And guess what? I liked it.
With time, I started eating my mom’s dressing. That’s right, I didn’t even eat the cornbread dressing that my mom made from scratch. For some reason, I convinced myself that I didn’t like sage, but my mom would use poultry seasoning in her dressing and, even though poultry seasoning contains sage, I liked it. My mom made her dressing in the slow cooker, and you guys, that stuff is good.
What’s the Difference?
Oh yeah, back to semantics. I’ve never actually had stuffing, i.e. bready stuff cooked inside of a bird. Nay nay, if it’s cooked in a pan it’s dressing. And here in the South, it’s almost always cooked in a pan. Besides, it can be really tricky to cook dressing stuffed into a bird thoroughly enough to kill any icky bacteria without drying out the bird. But this stuff is so good that it doesn’t matter.
Another thing….Southern dressing is more or less always cornbread based. Made with biscuits and cornbread and all the traditional flavors of Southern dressing (onions, celery, and sage, which I have realized as my tastebuds matured that I do like, this biscuit and cornbread dressing is flavorful and moist and the perfect side for your Thanksgiving turkey (or ham, if that’s how you roll)!
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Yield: 12-15 servings
20 minPrep Time:
1 hr, 45 Cook Time:
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Ingredients
- 8 cups crumbled cornbread (one full-sized batch)
- 6 cups crumbled biscuits (about 10 biscuits)
- 1 medium yellow onion - finely chopped
- 2 stalks celery - finally chopped
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup fresh sage - julienned
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 egg
- 1 32-ounce container low-sodium chicken broth
Instructions
- Dehydrate the bread: preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Spread the crumbled biscuits and cornbread onto a large baking sheet. Bake until dried, about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove the bread crumbs from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
- Place the bread crumbs into a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well combined. Taste the mixture for seasoning and add more salt if needed.
- Spread the dressing into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake for one hour. Serve immediately.
Notes
Cook time includes time to dehydrate bread. This makes a lot of dressing, but it freezes beautifully if your family does not eat all of it in a few days!
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