The world's best corn bread dressing

[lspencer534]

This is what I always cook at Thanksgiving. The corn bread recipe is simple, and the buttermilk is the magic ingredient. Leave the cornbread and 10 slices of bread out overnight uncovered.

Grandma's Cornbread Dressing and Giblet Gravy

This old-fashioned cornbread dressing is flavorful, tender and moist. Not fancy, its ingredients are simple. Grandma didn't hold with the notion that the more stuff you put in cornbread dressing, the better it is. The heart of the dressing is the cornbread, and the following recipe produces a coarse-crumbed, flavorful base for the dressing.

Cornbread:
•3 tablespoons bacon drippings
•2 large eggs
•1-1/2 cups corn meal
•1 teaspoon salt
•1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•1 teaspoon baking powder
•1-1/4 cups buttermilk
Preheat oven to 450°F.

Put the bacon drippings in a 9x13-inch baking dish and put it in the oven while it is preheating. The drippings will melt while you're mixing up the batter.

Beat the eggs in a medium bowl until frothy. Add the corn meal, salt, baking soda and baking powder, and stir to combine. Add the buttermilk and stir well. Remove the hot dish from the oven. Swirl the dish to coat it with melted bacon drippings, pour the bacon drippings into the batter and stir to combine.

Pour the batter into the pan, and bake 20 to 25 minutes. The cornbread will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Make the cornbread a day before you intend to make your dressing. Leave it out, uncovered, overnight.


The Dressing:
•1 9x13-inch pan of cornbread, crumbled
•10 white or whole wheat bread heels (left out overnight)
•poultry seasoning (see below)
•rubbed sage (see below)
•1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
•3 large stalks celery, chopped
•1 large onion, chopped (2-1/2 to 3 cups)
•1 large green pepper, chopped
•3/4 cup butter (1-1/2 sticks)
•4 cups chicken stock
•1 cup turkey pan drippings (from cooked turkey -- you are cooking a turkey, aren't you?)
•3 large eggs, slightly beaten
Preheat oven to 375°F.

Crumble the cornbread and white bread into a very large baking dish or pan (This is the pan you will cook your dressing in, and you need room to stir it while it's cooking).

In a large skillet, sauté the celery, onion and green pepper in butter over medium heat until onion is transparent. Combine the sautéed vegetables with the bread crumbs and mix well. Note: The dressing up to this point can be prepared an hour or so in advance.

When you are ready to bake the dressing, add the beaten eggs, chicken stock and turkey pan drippings, and stir. (You may need a little more chicken stock -- better if it's too moist than too dry; the uncooked dressing should be a little on the slushy side.) Add 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage, black pepper, and mix thoroughly.

After baking for 15 minutes or so, stir dressing down from the sides of the pan so that it cooks uniformly (my mother's term was "rake through it"). Check the seasonings; that is, taste it. If you don't taste enough sage for your liking, add 1/4 teaspoon or so with a little chicken stock, stir it in, and taste again. Careful, a little sage goes a long way.

Total cooking time should be about 30 minutes.

[LisaJohn]

Almost the same as the way I make dressing except I cook my cornbread in a black iron skillet and I don't use green peppers.

[lspencer534]

Originally Posted by LisaJohn

Almost the same as the way I make dressing except I cook my cornbread in a black iron skillet and I don't use green peppers.

I also use a black cast-iron skillet, and I use a red bell pepper instead of green. My wife doesn't like the green ones, and red ones are so mild that they mainly just add color.

[NB2K]

Originally Posted by LisaJohn

Almost the same as the way I make dressing except I cook my cornbread in a black iron skillet and I don't use green peppers.

Originally Posted by lspencer534

I also use a black cast-iron skillet, and I use a red bell pepper instead of green. My wife doesn't like the green ones, and red ones are so mild that they mainly just add color.

You two know how to cook.

[Bucwheat]

Makes me hungry