Our cornbread dressing is made the classic Southern way and will be the hit of your Thanksgiving table! (Video tips included)
Cornbread Dressing made the way my mother-in-law makes it, and I learned just by watching her. When I decided I wanted to share it with y’all I had to make it and measure to have an actual recipe, rather than a passed down way of making dressing.
Here in the south, we don’t refer to our dressing as stuffing. That probably comes from the fact that we don’t typically “stuff” the turkey with our dressing. We bake it in a dish separately.
Gravy is made of the pan drippings from the turkey and most folks like to have gravy over their cornbread dressing, though not everyone eats it that way.
I like to make the cornbread for my dressing ahead of time. This may seem odd, but stale cornbread is better. If it’s fresh it would absorb too much of the liquid and get mushy.
To cut down on the last minute prep needed I usually make cornbread a week or two ahead and cut it into pieces and freeze it. Just empty it into a bowl early in the morning to thaw and don’t worry about covering it. Remember, stale is good!
Watch the video for tips on making the best cornbread dressing:
If you’re putting together your Thanksgiving menu you’ll want to include Sweet Potato Biscuits. Y’all, they are so good!
And, did you know that your slow cooker is the best way to get a tender turkey breast? Check out the recipe here, which includes the most delicious gravy you’ve ever tasted.
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Another trick for saving time the day you’re making dressing is to chop the celery and onions the day before. They’ll keep just fine in plastic bags in the fridge.
One last note: Do NOT overstir when you mix all the dressing ingredients together. Stir only enough to get it all mixed up. Overstirring will remove air and the cornbread dressing will end up being too dense. Be gentle with your dressing!
I make my cornbread as follows, but you can use your favorite recipe (just don’t use any version that is sweet).
Cornbread
- 3 cups of self-rising cornmeal mix
- 2 eggs
- 1-3/4 cup milk (buttermilk is best)
Stir it together and bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until brown.
Self-rising cornmeal mix is found in the baking products aisle at your grocery and already has the proper proportions of cornmeal, flour and leavening agents combined. We use it in our Toasted Cornbread and our Buttermilk Cornbread Muffins.
I usually make cornbread in a iron skillet, but I don’t have a skillet big enough for this much cornbread so I use a 9×13 pan. What? You don’t have an iron skillet? You don’t know what you’re missing. Order one here.
Cornbread Dressing (Southern Style)
Ingredients
- 1 large recipe cornbread (1.5 times a typical pan of cornbread)
- 3/4 cup butter
- 2 cups onion, diced
- 2 cups celery, diced
- 2 cups Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Classic Stuffing
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 Tablespoons rubbed sage
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 4 cups chicken broth or stock
Instructions
- Crumble cornbread with your hands. No need to completely pulverize it, but don't leave any large pieces (see video).
- Melt butter in skillet.
- Saute’ onions and celery in butter until tender and partly translucent.
- Stir all ingredients together, being careful not to overstir.
- Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes
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If you’re reading this post chances are you love southern food and know others that do too. We’ve put together this awesome guide, Great Gifts for the Southern Foodie. It has several cast iron cookware choices, books of southern recipes and food history and small items that would make a great gift basket. We did the homework for you, and have only included items with Amazon 4 stars and above.
A few more of our Southern favorites for fall:
Pimento Cheese Grits 
Southern Appetizer Board 
Baked Beans with Bacon 
Apple Pecan Cheesecake 
Sweet Potato Cornbread 
Classic Pecan Pie 
Bourbon Cocktail with Honey, Sage & Orange 
Buttermilk Pie 
Baked Brie with Apples & Bacon
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There is nothing more southern than cornbread dressing and I am loving this recipe!!!
Awww, Thanks Shirley!
Looks great I’m going to give it a try. Everything looks and sounds yummy !
Thanks, Margaret. If you like old fashioned dressing, it can’t be beat.
Is your cornbread recipe enough for this dressing recipe or should we double it?
Hi LeGina! My cornbread recipe is enough to make the dressing. That’s exactly what I made that you see in the pictures, and my dish is a 9×13. Of course, it will depend on the size of servings, but I would make a pan this size if I’m feeding 10-12 people.
Mama’s cornbread dressing was similar to this. Omit the stuffing and sage. Use Cajun spices and add browned ground beef and cut up boiled or baked chicken. I omit the celery and chicken soup. Add cream of celery soup. I use jiffy cornbread mix. makes it easier and gives it a sweet taste.
Wow! I’ve never heard of ground beef in dressing. An interesting addition, for sure.
Never heard of hamburger either. We brown a lb of sage sausage along with the onions and celery.
Always a favorite side at the holiday table! Thank you so much for sharing.
Thanks you, Julia!
Sounds like the cornbread dressing I make and my grandmother always made. I live in South Carolina and grew up eating great southern food and so much enjoy seeing some recipes I have not tried. Great website 👍🏻✅
Thank you for all of your kind words, Brenda. Comments like yours make our work on this blog worthwhile.
Recipe indicates 3 cups of self rising cornmeal mix. What is a cornmeal mix? Would this be something like Jiffy cornbread mix in a box? Or, is this just plain self-rising cornmeal?
Lynn, I’m so sorry for the delay in responding. I thought your question had already been answered. I don’t know where you are, but in our area cornmeal mix is available in the area of flour and cornmeal. It is basically a combination of the two in the correct proportions for making cornbread and then it has the leavening agents added to make it rise. It is nothing like Jiffy corn muffin mix which is sweet, so please don’t use that. If you are anywhere in the south I think you will find it easily in your grocery store. If you still need help come back and let us know.
Hi! This sounds amazing! Mine and my hubby’s family are both from the south and are moms always make dressing for the holidays. I want to surprise everyone this year and show them this city girl can cook too! Of course it’ll never be as good, but I’m going to try!
Do you add the Pepperidge farm stuffing to the cornbread mixture once the cornbread is done baking?
You can do it, Shanell! We’ll be your biggest cheerleaders!!!
Yes, the stuffing mix is just another ingredient that gets added to the crumbled cornbread, along with the cooked vegetables, etc. I’m about to make my cornbread today to go in the freezer for the Thanksgiving dressing. It really is best if you can make it ahead of time. Fresh cornbread tends to make the dressing a bit mushy!
Good luck, and come back and let us know how it turns out!
I love this recipe! I made it last year and it was a huge hit! I made it ahead of time and froze it but now can’t remember if I froze before baking it or after. Any thoughts?
Hi Glenna! Thank you for writing. We’re so happy you and yours enjoyed the Cornbread Dressing. I have never frozen it unbaked, but my cousin makes a very similar recipe and she does. She lets it thaw completely before baking. I have frozen mine after baking (I like to under-bake it just slightly). I also thaw it completely and then spoon a little chicken broth or stock over before warming it up. However you do it, we’d love for you to come back and let us know about it.
My Mom used to make her own cornbread dressing and I have tried to duplicate her “recipe” for the “muffin bread” she would make a few days before making dressing but try as I do I cannot get it just right. I know she used corn meal, flour, buttermilk and a bit of Crisco shortening (the hard white stuff). baking powder – or maybe it was baking soda – and I think eggs. Her final bread was lighter than cornbread and and got oh so crispy around the edges of the cast iron skillet. I seem to remember it was just a tad sweet – not so much it stood out but just a bit different than her regular cornbread…If you or if you know someone who can recall a recipe such as this I would dearly love it. I have searched and tried many different recipes from the ‘net but nothing compares to what my Mom used to make.
Annee, did your mom make the dressing from the “muffin” bread crumbled up? It does sound so good. I can only tell you that I’m sure she heated the skillet first before pouring in the batter, and that’s what made the edges so crispy. Maybe more readers here will have additional ideas.
This has been my family’s favorite dressing for the last couple of years. I always bring the recipe, as everybody wants it. Delicious!
Awww… thankks for letting us know.
This is such an amazing cornbread recipe! Everyone at my house loved it!
Cornbread dressing is such a family favorite, and your recipe is a HIT!
So happy to hear it!
What a great tip to make and freeze the cornbread ahead of time!! That makes this dressing even easier!! I love it!
Glad to help out. Thanks, Pam!
A great stuffing recipe! I love all of the make ahead steps. Quick and easy the day of.
Us too! Thanks, Angela.
A family favourite recipe and I can see why. It’s so delicious!
Thanks so much, Sisley!
Yum! This brings me back to my southern roots, loved it!
Awww… thanks for letting us know Noelle!
Stuffing is my FAVORITE part of Thanksgiving and this cornbread recipe looks like a winner! We’re not big celery fans here, so I’ll probably leave it out. Can’t wait to try it out!
Hmmmm…. it should still be good but the celery isn’t really discernable as an individual flavor, so maybe give it a try.
This looks so delicious and tasty! I can’t wait to make this for my family! They are going to love this!
Hope everyone enjoys. Thanks, Beth!
I’m always on the hunt for new cornbread recipes and this looks right up my street! Can’t wait to try it out 🙂
Thanks, Chris. Though our simple cornbread recipe is included, this is actually a recipe for dressing, or as some people call it, stuffing.
This has been the closest recipe I could find to my mother’s dressing that she didn’t write down. I used her cornbread recipe instead which uses two cups of self rising flour and one cup of self rising cornmeal instead and of all of the bag of stuffing mix. Way more sage and about 1/2 cup more of onion and celery. And kept adding stock after the 4 cups until I reached the right consistency for the uncooked stuffing. Baked it as recipe recommended and it turned out perfectly!!
Thanks so much!
So happy to hear it was good and brought back memories for you Donna. Happy Thanksgiving!