Grandma's Cornbread Dressing

This was wonderful...but I had to make some changes. The original recipe calls for making ALOT of cornbread and then only asks you to use 3 cups of it, which would have only made 1/2 a pan of dressing anyway. I doubled the amount of cornbread (since there was more than enough there) and doubled everything else too. I also added one can of cream of celery soup. It was YUMMY!! :)

This turned out a lot better than I expected. My Mamaw is the only one in the family who makes dressing, but this year I'm not going to be home for it. I decided to strike out on my own and give it a try. I have a couple of tips to add. I increased the chicken stock by about a 1/4 cup and be sure you use a glass or light colored baking dish. The dark baking pan will dry this out. Also, I broke the rules and used Jiffy (with sugar) for my cornbread. I have to say, I like the added sweetness. It isn't as sweet as most other brands so it still came out pretty good. It's not the same as Mamaw's, but I don't have left overs either.

This is really similar to the recipe that my grandmother passed down to me. You can also substitute the chicken stock for the pan drippings if you are also cooking a turkey. When prepared with the drippings it is delicious and full of flavor.

This has been the best version I have found, made it for my office party and they went gaga, the key is to chop onions and celery in proceesor so find that the dressing is smooth. Highly recommended!

This recipe is wonderful! To change it up a little though, I only added 1 beaten egg. And then I added 1 can of cream of mushroom soup. The soup held the dressing together, made it perfectly moist, and added a really nice flavor to it!

Don't make the mistake I did, using the same amount of ground sage as this recipes calls for in dried sage. I may try it again, but not soon.

If you add the sage to the chicken stock and warm the liquid up, it helps tremendously with the sage distribution. Therefore you won't feel you have to add more or maybe use less ( depending on your taste). I also add green pepper to the sauté.... It's what we call the holy trinity of cooking. I also add cream of muchroom and chicken soup to the mixture as well as prepackged breadcrubs... For added texture I boil the innards of the turkey ( or chicken) with the stock and use the extra meat inside the dressing. Oh yeah, when my mom taught me to make this she told me to make sure the cornbread baked long enough for the bottom to turn at least medium brown.

I love this recipe! I was looking for one that was similar to my mother's. She never had a written recipe, and this was almost identical! It'a simple and easy enough to add extra ingredients for variations. Will definitely make this a Thanksgiving staple.

You can't call it grandmas if your making cornbread from a box. Get you a med size iron skillet, heat it in the oven with 3 tsp butter on 425. Take 2 cups of cornmeal 2 cups butter milk and about 1/4 cup of flour. Take the skillet out of the oven with melted butter, pour the butter into your cornmeal mixture and stir. Then pour it all back into the skillet and put it in the oven for 25-30 mins at 425. This will make a huge difference in the way it taste. I also use a roll of saltine crackers crushed and boiled eggs oh and thyme.

This is so close to my grandma's recipe. Her recipe calls for 8 cups of corn bread, and 4 cups of cubed white bread. My grandmother always added a tablespoon of parsley and used 4 well beaten eggs. I CRAVE this every year. Also, if you stir this periodically while its cooking it will be more fluffy than dense--maybe not as pretty, but it will have a better texture!

Amy, your grandmother most definitely knows how to cook. God bless her. I have tried 5 other cornbread dressing recipes during the past 6 months in hopes of finding "the one". Was disappointed for one reason or another each time - until I tried this one by your dear grandmother. A super hit! As I reluctantly added the entire 2 T. sage, I was afraid it wouldn't be good. Boy was I in for a thrilling surprise! It was superb! So easy and so simple to just follow this excellent recipe as written; however, I did take another reviewer's advice and mix the sage in with warmed chicken stock. And, as per Jessica's 2007 review, I did stir the stuffing 3 times in the oven (once every ten minutes) and oh my, the texture was just perfect and heavenly. I used my own homemade cornbread recipe as we don't have Jiffy easily available here. Thank you so much for posting this, Amy. Now I can finally relax at Christmas and Thanksgiving and not stress about "what if the dressing isn't any good". Salt, pepper and sage. Those are the only seasonings necessary. Can't rave about this enough. THANK YOU and God bless your dear grandmother ! ! !

This is the way I do my stuffing and have for years. The only difference is when I bake the cornbread I put the seasonings in it. I usually add more later but by letting the seasonings bake in the cornbread it really melds all the flavors together from the get go.

the recipe is just wonderful as is. I dont understand the users below who "made a few modifications". Then, its a whole new recipe, not this one so your review really wasnt necessary. I love Grandma's Dressing, thanks Gama!!

I've been looking for a good dressing recipe that would be similar to the kind of dressing my mother always made at Thanksgiving (we lost her to cancer 2 years ago), and this is it! The blending of flavors and moistness of this recipe is fantastic. I changed the chicken stock to vegetable stock, increased the celery to 1 cup, and the crumbled cornbread to 4 cups, and it fit nicely in an 8 x 8 inch dish (not sure why the recipe calls for a 9 x 13 inch dish). Also, the potency of sage is directly affected by the type of sage (rubbed, ground or dried), and how old it is, so add in 1 teaspoon increments, and taste. I grow and dry my own herbs, and 1 tablespoon was plenty, to me. Thank you Amy for a true 5 star recipe that not only tastes heavenly, but brings back memories of my mother. Highly recommended!!!

I have made this recipe EVERY Thanksgiving for 3 years. It's always perfect and always a hit. I NEVER change anything and I NEVER have leftovers!

I have used this recipe quite often and it is great everytime...I do recommend only using 1 egg, or at least I prefer it that way...less cakey.

i love this dressing. reminds me of the dressing we had for the holidays back home. i added a little extra onion and celery because we love it. adding some chopped boiled egg is good also. great recipe.update: made this for family christmas gathering saturday.it turned out great. it was good way back when i made it the first time, but i tweaked it a bit and it was even better! i added about 1/2 to 3/4 tea spoon of sage. we like it "sage" but i think start with about 1/4 teaspoon and adjust to taste. 2 tb was a bit too much. also i added extra celery and onion. i added about 1/2 can more broth and per other cooks suggestions, i added a can of cream of chicken soup. ( i think cream of celery would be great too). as others have said if you don't want it to dry out make it pretty soupy and as it baked it will firm up just right. i also added about a 1/4 teaspoon of marjoram and ground savory. and 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning. i think it all made a good difference. also taste as you go and adjust to your liking. this time i didnt add chopped boiled eggs, but it is good either way. everyone loved it and i am definately cooking this for our Christmas dinner at home. NOTE: also it saves time to make the bread (i used martha white buttermilk cornbread mix) a day ahead and crumble it up and put in a big ziploc or container. and i chopped my onion and celery the night before and stored them in the fridge. makes things easier when you start cooking.

This recipe is a lot like the one my family uses (my grandmas). Only the chicken stock they're asking for is from the chicken we boil, and shred up to put in the dressing. And we bake our corn bread in a cast iron skillet. Green onion is good in it also.

used martha whites corn bread and muffin mix (used 2 pkgs of 6 oz each) and only one egg--the results were great. My husband said this was the best dressing he had ever had.

This was the first time I made dressing and I am so glad to have chosen this recipe. It was great! I did double the recipe, which filled a 13x9 pan.

In my version I used gluten-free cornbread (I have Celiac Disease) and I added 2.5 cups chicken broth. This is by far the best cornbread stuffing I've tried. It is going to be a new tradition at my holiday table!

The key to really great cornbread dressing is before you place in the oven to bake; make sure the dressing is soupy. This will insure the dressing not to dry out. I also use day old bread cut up in chunks and of course sage.

The cornbread was DELICIOUS, after making few modifications, however. The amount of crumbled cornbread given in the directions is about half of what is prepared. Not using the full amount results in soupy dressing prior to baking when all of the ingredients are incorporated. Baking it at the time suggested left it soupy, and after an 1 1/2 hours of baking, it was creamy, which is what I'm not used to. I found that using all of the crumbled cornbread gave the dressing more texture after it was baked. Also, the amount of dried sage listed on the ingredients is way too much and would overpower the dish. I suggest using 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon.

2 tablespoons of sage is way too much for this recipe. I used all of the cooked cornbread, which is more than the required 2 cups, and the sage was totally overpowering. I re-made it and only used 1 teaspoon, and that was perfect.

This recipe is ok but it there are more ingredients that my granny used, like a little poultry seasoning, chopped livers, gizzards and the meat from the turkey neck. And because we didn't like dry food, sometime she would add a can of cream of chicken soup along with the stock from the boiled meat (liver, gizzards and the turkey meat), celery and onions.

I made this for Thanksgiving and it turned out very tasty. After I mixed all the ingredients and gave it just a little taste, it seem to be missing something else so I also added approximately 2 tablespoons of poultry seasoning and it turned out the way I like my dressing to taste.

Every year at Thanksgiving I called my mother for her cornbread dressing recipe. This is the first year I won't be able to call her. She told me the same thing year after year (I enjoyed the call, looked forward to it.) I did a search and here it is!!! This is identical to my mother's! Thank you for posting! It was always my favorite!

The best thanksgiving stuffing ever. I prepared the night before and baked it the day of Thanksgiving. My family loved it.

Call me the odd one out, but I did the recipe as is and I loved it. I've never made cornbread dressing and never grew up on it so I have nothing to compare it to, really. Not to dry...not to wet. I did add more sage because I love alot of sage in my stuffing. I made this with baked chicken breasts, gravy, and vegetables. A keeper!

This is a great receipe! I love dressing a times of the year! The only thing I did differently was I only used a 1/4 teaspoon of sage.

UPDATE 2: Made this for a Christmas lunch for a crew of 15 hungry men. This is a keeper. I forgot to add eggs. But followed the recipe other. I did add a tad more celery, onions and added bell pepper. Yummmy! UPDATE: I made this for Thanksgiving. This was my first time hosting Thanksgiving for the family. We had 40 guests. Anyway, thanks to Grandma's Corn Bread Dressing recipe, mine dressing was the first big pan to run out. There was a smaller pan and it was only half-touched. Yum! I am thankful for the this dressing recipe this Thanksgiving! Will be making this for years to come. Good basic recipe overall, and I will be making more of this, and making some modifications to it. I would add a little more celery and onions in the future. I added 3 eggs instead of 2. Be sure to chop the eggs small enough because if you don't, the rubbery texture is more pronounced than when the eggs are chopped into smaller chunks. :) And finally sprinkle more sage on the top before baking it because my bf loves sage. Have fun modifying it to suit your taste!!!

I have never made dressing before until I saw this recipe on the website on Easter. Its a week after Easter and I have made it twice and it is gone the same day with only 5 people eating it and 3 of them are kids. I made by corn bread, cooked only celery, left out the eggs, added 1 tall can of cream of chicken and 1 small can of chicken broth and both times it was perfect. I dont know if people still read this website but this is an excellent recipe and I will continue to use it. Thanks a million.

This came out great. I agree with Jeanne. Be careful of the liquid and use plenty Onions and Celery make the dressing. I also added chicken gizzards in mine. I still remember growing up with the heavenly smell of celery and onions sauteing. I knew it was a special day with those smells in my mother and both grandmother's home

This was very easy to make, although it came out a little dryer than I would have liked. Could have been my oven since I have a gas oven and it tends to cook a little faster than most... so I think I will try it again, but cook less time. Other than that, I thought it had a nice flavor and do intend on making it again. Thank you for the recipe.

This was a great recipe. It came out great with Jiffy mix for me. I will make agian and agian!

This is an excellent recipe. We made cornbread using cornmeal so we could determine how sweet or not sweet to make the cornbread. I also changed the amount of sage used (I cut it to 1/2 of what the recipe calls for). We also added stock slowly until the dressing reached the correct consistency that we wanted. We did not use all the stock. Thank you for the great recipes, it's a keeper!!

Nobody I know uses a boxed mix because they contain sugar and that's a "sin" to a Southerner. I made my cornbread from scratch. It was pretty good, but too crumbly to me. Will use more broth and egg next time. Also add more celery.

This tasted awesome. I used 2 boxes of the Jiffy cornbread mix and double the directions for the box and used a 8x8 pan to cook both boxes together. In the end I only used half of the cooked cornbread to equal 3 cups so not sure if you can just use an 8oz mix instead. Then I did use a 9x13 pan to cook the entire thing and thought it was thin in the end. So again for me if you want a thicker dressing maybe use a smaller pan and cook a bit longer. Other than these things and not sure if I did something wrong, this is a keeper. The flavor is fantastic, it's easy to make.

Made this for my family. It was my first Thanksgiving in my new home and my family and in laws loved it! I made it exactly as the recipe calls for and it was a hit. Its so easy to make you cant go wrong. This will now be the recipe I use all the time thnx!

I have lived my whole life in the South and this recipe is similar to the way my family has made cornbread dressing for generations. We don't saute the onions and celery because they cook in the dressing. We always use stock from the turkey, so be sure to put a little water in the pan where you roast the turkey or else make some homemade stock. The canned stuff doesn't cut it. Pour the stock, the amount depends on the amount of cornbread and biscuit you have. I always add a few biscuits. Crumble the cornbread fine. When the stock has soaked into the cornbread add the eggs, onions, and celery and then add buttermilk until the dressing makes a batter. Put in some sage and wait a while and then taste. Sage gets stronger when it sets. Add some dryed basil,garlic, salt and black pepper,and refrigerate overnight. Bake at 400 and baste with butter several times as the dressing cooks. When you take it out of the refrigerator you might have to add some more liquid because it tends to soak in.

Yay!!! My first attempt at making dressing for Thanksgiving and it was a HUGE success! My husband said that it was even better than his mom's...which is really hard to beat! I was so nervous to make my very first Thanksgiving dinner, and thanks to this recipe, I'll never be afraid again! It was phenomenal!

Delicious and easy! Does well with modifications, too. This time I added about 3/4 cup of corn and a tablespoon of fresh thyme. It was a hit - even my toddler loved it! Next time I'm thinking about cooking sausage with the onion and celery before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.

Made this tonite..first time I've ever made dressing..I thought it was great. Followed the directions exactly as written. Dressing was a little more moist than I've eaten before, but I thought that was a plus. This is on my side dish list definately. Thanks for the recipe.

Good, but toooo sweet!

This is almost my family recipe. I mix my own cornbread with a package of dressing mix - not the cubed option. For years I watched my mother put together her toasted bread and cornbread, but the prepared package of dressing mix allows skipping the labor part of the bread prep. Also, the package has the flavorings almost perfect to begin with. Gently allowing the celery and onion to soften in the butter is key here. My mom finished off this recipe with milk to make it less dense. The aroma from the baked dressing brings them in from the football game, believe me!

Perfect. Just like my mother used to make, but she never wrote down the recipe. Perfect.

I love love love this recipe! The only cautionary tale I have is that if you make it with brand new sage (not fresh, but a newly opened container of dried) it will come out quite green!!

Made this for Thanksgiving and it was a hit. Coming from a household that never made cornbread dressing even my kids loved it and I got rave reviews from everyone. This one is a keeper.

For the first time in my life I made cornbread dressing and I used this recipe. It was great. Everyone loved it. I adjusted the seasonings for my taste and it turned out great. I added the meat from boiled turkey necks and that sent it over the top!! thanks for a great recipe.

I made this recipe for the first time 3yrs ago and it's been a staple on our table every year. It is the best dressing I've ever eaten. THANK YOU!!!

Made this Very good but I bumped Cal up to 50 the amount of people I was cooking for and it was still very very good little bit messy to make but well worth it. Along with 8 smoked turkeys making again this Satuarday same amount can't waite...

This is the recipe I use to make dressing. When I'm out of sage I use poultry seasoning. It works just as good. NEVER use Jiffy or any other cornbread mix that has sugar.

This was delicious! No changes necessary, excellent as is. I agree with other reviewers about making sure there's no sugar in your cornbread. It's not bad if it's got a little sweetness to it, but would be better without.

Great recipie, I added some dried cranberries and slivered almonds as well.

Everyone who tasted this corn bread loved it. I have doubled and it still came out perfect.

I have a recipe I have used for 35 years that is similar and uses poultry seasoning in place of the sage uses pepper but no salt. The broth usually has enough salt in it without extra. I am the only one in the family that does the dressing.

Great Recipe, Easy; however, I cut the Sage down to 2 Teaspoons rather than 2 Tablespoons. Turned out great tho!!!

This was very good and had wonderful flavor. I used onion powder though about 1/2 tsp and some dried celery about 2 T. I used packaged corn bread crumbs Pepperidge Farm brand. I left out the eggs. Great recipe, just like grandma always made. Thanks.

Yum! This was great. It had the sweetness I was looking for with the cornbread, and just the right amount of spice to counteract it. One thing I changed; for the first time, I used only one tablespoon of sage, since I didn't know how I would like it. It was perfect. Just use a little less like I did if you don't want it to overpower the other flavors like the onion and celery.

Awesome dressing....delicious with simplicity. I'm used of doing a dressing adding seafood and meat; but sometimes you just want something different. I fixed it for Christmas 2010 with ham and smothered green beans and my family and I loved it. I fix it sometimes when it's not a holiday.I sometimes cook this dish and add real lump crab meat, and chicken meat. For chicken, I would boil chicken thighs with seasoning and break up;and add in dressing mixture.Then bake!!!!

I didn't like the way this looked or tasted.

I used the Grandma's Cornbread recipe as my base, then followed the recipe with a few amendments. I used Fit & Active chicken broth from Aldi, added 3 T of sage and made sure not to over mix. Once I combined everything, I added one can of cream of chicken soup and one can of cream of mushroom soup. The result was the best dressing I ever made. Normally my dressing gets stiff and you have to add milk to loosen it up for leftovers. Not now. The consistency was perfect. Again, don't over mix it. I lightly greased my dutch oven and baked it it the oven covered for 20 min, then uncovered for another 15. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.

I have never made dressing from scratch but after reading these amazing reviews I decided to give this one a try. It was absolutely the very best cornbread dressing that I have ever had!!!! Now I made some changes. I used 2 boxes of Jiffy and accidentally messed up the recipe, I added way to much milk and ended up adding more corn meal to it (I was following the pancake recipe on the box, oops*) it ended up cutting the sugar, to my delight. I used fresh Sage, added turkey meat, and I used a cup of turkey drippings

I was very curious about this recipe and amazed when I read it. This recipe has been in the Texas side of my family for over 75 years. Some may think the amount of sage is a little too much but for us the sage makes the difference. The only slight difference was my Grandmother would also add a few crumbled slices of stale white bread. Everything else is identical. This dressing is on my menu every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Amy, Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is a great recipe. Quick to prepare and delicious. This is the one item both of my kids requested specifically for Thanksgiving. Thanks for sharing it with us. :o)

I have only made dressing one other time in my life and didn't even know where that recipe was. I found this one and liked the reviews. It was a hit!

I have never made this before but I love the way it tastes! This was a fabulous recipe to use being a beginner! I added 1 1/2 cup more of celery, onion, red pepper. I also added more chicken broth to make it moist. I added some smoked turkey meat as well to add a little meat flavor! The baking time was to short due to the added broth but it came out great! I recommend this to anyone!

Easy and delicious!! Will now be a holiday must have.

I love it. My grnadma had a recipie just like this..the only thing different was she made her ownn cornbread. But since i had no actual recipe i looked and came across this one. Its very easy and completed my holiday meal.

i have been making this every thanksgiving, its great!

I have been looking for a recipe that resembles my Grandmother's cornbread dressing for years. My Grandmother never wrote recipes down and no one thought to get her dressing recipe from her. This one was it! I sat down on Thanksgiving and took one bite and actually said 'oh my god that's awesome!'. Thank you so much for posting. My whole family loved it and we are going to make this our standard dressing recipe from now on.

I did use Jiffy and it turned out great. I did not use the sage at all. It was also helpful to let sit about 15 to set after taking out of oven. It was even better the next day, so making a day ahead and rewarming it in the oven was perfect!

I love this recipe! I make it all the time for my 18 month old son and he loves it (so does the rest of the family). I usually add more veggies (carrots, zucchini, broccoli, whatever I have on hand), that way he's getting extra nutrients, then I cut it into squares and he can feed it to himself. Thanks for a great recipe and for the inspiration to turn it into a KID FRIENDLY food.

yummy!

AMY, GMA pulled through!!! Thank you for sharing.

Pretty good. I felt like it had a bit too much sage in it, but everyone else thought it was good. Will probably make again next year.

I am a veteran cook and somehow I have never been the one to make stuffing. I tried this for my very first attempt at making stuffing. WOW! Very simple and the receipe is great as is. Also, it is very easy to dress it up. I discovered my husband like cranberries, apples and raisen's added.

Very good, I will make it again

I used Jiffy and mixed this too much and it got too soggy. My mother always said the stuffing was the toughest, which is why it's the best! I will have to try another recipe next Christmas :(

I love cornbread dressing... I have made this for years except I bake my own cornbread a day or two before and I don't add the egg. I can eat it before it's even baked and you can never get too much sage...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I've only made dressing once before and didn't like the results, but this recipe worked out very well for me. I started by making a 9X13 pan of the Buttery Corn Bread from this site with all sugar except one tablespoon omitted (very important as it's normally very sweet) and let it sit covered on the counter for two days. It yielded at least double the amount of cornbread I needed, so I doubled the liquid and increased the vegetables and seasoning to taste. I also added a pound of crumbled sausage. It made a very full 9X13 pan of dressing with the extra cornbread and sausage. I assembled it the day before Thanksgiving and refrigerated it overnight, then baked it in the morning. Due to the extra liquid I used, I bumped the temperature up to 400 and baked a few extra minutes to make everything meld and absorb. Good texture and taste-- everyone liked it at Thanksgiving dinner, and I'd definitely make it again. Thanks for the recipe!

This year was the first year that I didn't use Stovetop Stuffing. I made this cornbread stuffing and it was great, and really easy to make. Everyone loved it.

We loved this! I forgot to add the sage but it was still excellent. We used leeks instead of onions due to allergies and I added 2 tbls of minced garlic. Made it fabulous.

I am sure that this was good for what it was supposed to be...just make sure you know what you want with this recipe. I was looking for a great cornbread stuffing recipe. I should have made the cornbread from scratch, but this had good reviews so I thought I would give it a try. Mine looked exactly like the picture. The consistency was too soupy and mushy even after I cooked it extra. Also it was too sweet for our tastes even though I used a very low sugar cornbread mix.

Made this for our Thanksgiving dinner. I have never made cornbread dressing before and this was a great recipe. I will use it from now on.

You have to make the cornbread bread using cornmeal and not jiffy mix. it makes a difference. otherwise this stuffing was good and went well with cornish hens.

Use FRESH sage! I use a little less than 1/4 cup (coarsely chopped). When you saute the onions and celery, add the sage at the end and saute for another minute. Fresh sage makes all the difference! People who say they hate sage will love it.

very good base recipe, I only modified it a little. made my own cornbread, as a prev reviewer sugg, added 3/4C bell pepper, upped the celery to 3/4-1C. used 3C chicken broth and 1 can of Cream of chicken soup. used poultry seasoning 1 1/2tsp instead of sage. added eggs last in order to test my seasoning. Turned out super yummy and very quick to prepare.

Very yummy! I made my own cornbread, and used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth (for the vegetarians in my family). Will definitely make again.

very good recipe I looked at this cause I wanted to try somerthing different but this is the same one I have used for years everyone I have served this to loved it

I made thislat year and omg my wife and family loved it plus i am a simple guy dont like all the extra stuff like hard boiled eggs and things. I followed all direction to the T, but this year i will add organic chicken stock and a little bit more butter and stay with the jiffy mix because i love the sweet taste

Excellent. This is the first time I have ever made homemade stuffing and this was exactly the way I imagined it tasting. Moist and full of flavor.

Not very good....Dry and not flavorful... :(

This is the closest recipe I have found to the one my grandma made, but I made a few alterations to make it more like hers. I used pan drippings and added some toasted white bread and chopped boiled eggs. It was delicious! :)

good basic receipe. I used poultry seasoning and added crispy bacon before baking. just like grandma use to make.

I really thank you for this recipe. It was really good, I also added my touch on it by adding a little turkey stock along w/the chicken stock, bell peppers, and a few more seasonings. Was wonderful will be in my recipe box for years to come.

Wonderful. Everyone loved it. I cut down on the sage just a tad, as I'm a little less sage-friendly personally. Stuffed the turkey, baked the rest separate, and came out great. Moist, flavorful, and filling.

Very good dressing recipe! Loved it.

This is the first time I have attempted dressing (usually my mother in law provides it), but I used this recipe and blew hers out of the water! Everyone adored it and I have been asked to provide the dressing this year. Thanks!