This recipe is a Southern Favorite and a staple on our Thanksgiving table. It is a flavor-filled, moisture-retaining recipe that will have your family drooling, and it can be used as a stuffing for chicken, duck, or turkey. I’ve also replaced the chicken in the recipe with pork chops and had great results!

Bon Appetit!

Cornbread Chicken Dressing and Gravy

A Southern Favorite

By Kimberly Thompson

Preheat oven to 450° F.

INGREDIENTS

For Cornbread:

Note – if the cornmeal you use is not self-rising, add baking powder and salt as needed.

1 – 1 ½ Cups cornmeal or self-rising cornmeal mix

½ – 1 Cup self-rising flour

1 Cup milk plus water as needed

1 large egg, beaten

Mix all ingredients then add:

1 onion, diced

Dried celery powder OR fresh celery (diced) OR dehydrated celery

2 or 3 mushrooms, diced (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Heat pan you will bake cornbread in with a little oil or lard; pour at least one tablespoon of heated oil/lard into cornbread mix then stir in quickly. Pour cornbread mixture into pan and bake in a hot oven (450° F) for 20 – 25 minutes, until top begins to brown.

For Dressing:

INGREDIENTS

I large pone of cornbread, cooled to the touch

6 large eggs, boiled and diced

½ large broiler/fryer chicken, boiled until tender, and bones removed

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 small bunch green onions, diced

Chicken broth

Salt, pepper, garlic powder, rosemary, thyme, basil, marjoram (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Crumble cornbread in pan with a fork and your fingers to make sure there are no big “lumps”. Add dressing ingredients and mix well with hands, using enough chicken broth to moisten and assist in mixing. Add seasonings and herbs and mix again. Smooth out top of dressing and return to oven. Bake until top is browned – this time will vary from oven to oven and the size of your pan – but at least 30 minutes.

For Gravy:

INGREDIENTS

Note: You may add onions to this, but you must add them while the roux is cooking. You may also add chopped boiled eggs to this before serving.

4 Tablespoons butter

4 Tablespoons melted lard or oil

4 Tablespoons flour

Chicken broth

DIRECTIONS

Place butter and oil/lard in a skillet, then stir in flour. Stir together well and heat until little bubbles form. (Add onions here.) Keep stirring for at least a full minute and let it brown slightly. Quickly add chicken broth while stirring. Continue stirring until mixture boils, then turn heat down to a simmer until ready to serve. Add eggs, salt, pepper, and seasonings to taste. Ladle over dressing.

Kimberly Thompson spends her days climbing underneath bridges as a certified bridge inspector and her evenings as a wife, mother, homemaker and gardener. Her passions for gardening and cooking have led to many experimental dishes in the Thompson household with considerably more smiling faces than failures. Kimberly has been cooking full time since the age of ten, for a family of five, and is also a published author (Tate Publishing).

Tags: Chicken, cornbread dressing, dinner, recipes, stuffing, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving recipes