Homemade Southern Cornbread Dressing Recipe ~Soul Food Style~ (2024)

FAQs

How do you make Paula Deen's cornbread dressing? ›

In a large bowl, whisk together broth, soup, eggs, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper; stir in vegetable mixture. Crumble cornbread into broth mixture and stir until well combined. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake until center is set, 45 to 55 minutes.

If your dressing doesn't turn out right, don't fret. You can usually fix it. If you find your stuffing is too dry, add additional warmed broth to it, stir well, and return to the oven, checking periodically. If the stuffing is overly wet and too gummy, cook it uncovered for a bit longer, checking periodically.

So stuffing is cooked inside the bird. Dressing is cooked outside the bird, usually in a casserole dish.

Avoid bland dressing by making sure to include plenty of onions, celery, and herbs in your recipe. Now is not the time to go easy with the sage, thyme, and pepper. The dressing should taste different from your cornbread.

Make the stuffing, melt butter in a large frying pan and gently sauté onion and garlic for five minutes until soft. Stir in the herbs for one minute then add breadcrumbs to absorb butter. Mix in zest, pine nuts and seasoning and cook over medium heat for about seven minutes until crumbs start to brown and crisp.

You can use either stock or broth for keeping dressing moist or as a basis for gravy, but a strong flavor will give you better results.

Why is my cornbread dressing mushy? If your cornbread dressing is mushy, be sure you baked it in a wide enough pan.

The stuffing should be moist but not wet.

The thing that distinguishes Southern cornbread from, say Yankee cornbread, or any other cornbread one is likely to eat outside of the southern states, is that it is savory, not sweet, and it is made mostly with cornmeal.

Northern Cornbread: History and Recipe

She notes that Northern cornbread is sweeter, lighter, and more cake-like than Southern cornbread. Not surprisingly, it includes sugar (or molasses, in the earlier centuries), unlike traditional Southern cornbread.

What do Southerners call stuffing? ›

But for the Thanksgiving side dish in the South, the term dressing was adopted in place of stuffing, which was viewed as a crude term, during the Victorian era. Although dressing and stuffing are interchangeable terms, the signature ingredient of this Thanksgiving side dish in the South is cornbread.

It's all about personal preference. If you want a sturdier dressing, eggs can help do that. I don't use eggs in this recipe, though, because I like a lighter, more crumbly texture in my dressing.

Be sure to leave enough time — the cornbread needs to sit out overnight to harden slightly before you make the dressing.

Cook until the center of the dressing reaches 165 degrees. When checked with a food thermometer. Never place frozen dressing or other frozen food in a slow cooker, it will not reach proper safe temperature fast enough.

In the bottom of a large glass bowl, place cornbread cubes. Layer beans, corn, onion, bell pepper, tomatoes and 2 cups cheese on top of cornbread. Spread ranch dressing evenly over cheese. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Add sautéed onion and celery to the crumbled cornbread. Stir in chicken stock, eggs, sage, salt, and pepper until well combined. Pour dressing into the prepared baking dish.