Some people call this Cornbread Dressing, but my family calls it Chicken and Dressing. You can substitute duck, hen, or turkey for chicken if preferred.
This recipe was handed down to my mom, Patricia Mason, from her mother and her mother’s mother. This was not just a holiday meal; it was a year-round side dish served most Sundays and sometimes throughout the week. It is filled with love, warmth, and family history. It’s my mom’s favorite dish. It’s also one of my favorite dishes…when my mom makes it. My mom made this dish without a recipe. However, I told her I needed measurements when she tried to show me how to make the dish. You can season to your taste. I hope you find it as enjoyable as my family has throughout the years.
— Tricia Mason
Notes
*All ingredients need to be at room temperature.
*Cook your cornbread the day before and allow it to sit on the counter with a towel over it. You want it to be a drier cornbread…not cakelike or very moist.
*After you boil your poultry you will need to set aside about 1 cup of the boiled water for any gravy you might make.
Ingredients
Breading
- 1 large cast iron skillet of cornbread made from scratch – use white cornmeal – do not add sugar to the cornbread.
- 3-4 slices of dried white bread – pulled apart into small pieces – take the bread out of the bread packaging and set on a plate one day ahead of making the corn bread. You don’t want the bread to be moist.
Meat
- 1 boiled and fully cooked hen/duck/chicken/turkey breast – pulled off the bone – boil the poultry in 32 ounces of chicken broth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. **Alternatively, you can make this dish without meat. Just be sure to use 32 ounces of chicken broth to add moisture to the dressing.
Vegetables
- 4 stalks of celery (diced)
- 2 large onions (diced)
Seasoning
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 – 2.5 tablespoons of sage
- 1 teaspoon of poultry seasoning - don’t overdo it
Eggs
- 6 uncooked eggs (scrambled in a bowl – do not cook eggs)
Broth
- 24–32 ounces of chicken broth made from the chicken you boiled.
Preparation
- Break the bread apart inside of a roasting pan.
- Add meat, vegetables, and seasonings.
- Stir bread, meat, vegetables, and seasonings together gently.
- Add room temperature chicken broth and stir everything together.
- Add uncooked scrambled egg to mixture and stir.
Bake
Cook, in the oven, for one hour at 400F degrees. Turn the temperature down to 350F degrees for the last 15 minutes of cooking. You may need to cook it longer if it is not finished cooking. You will know that it is finished cooking when the middle of the dressing is firm and does not shake.
