Sausage Cornbread Stuffing
Crumbly homemade cornbread and white bread baked with sage sausage, onion, celery and broth into a crisp-topped, moist holiday stuffing.
- Full Meals
- Oven
- Cast iron / Dutch oven
- Pork
- Side
- 120 min total
- Serves 12
Ingredients
Ingredients for servings
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Original recipe serves 12. Ingredient amounts adjust automatically. Cooking times and pan size may need adjusting separately.
Cornbread (make 1 to 2 days ahead)
- 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 4 tbsp butter, melted
Stuffing
- 1 lb sage breakfast sausage, bulk
- 6 tbsp butter
- 1 yellow onion, large, diced
- 4 stalks celery, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups white sandwich bread, cubed and dried overnight
- 1 tbsp fresh sage, chopped, or 1 tsp dried
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 3 cups chicken broth, plus more as needed
Gear
- 10-inch cast iron skillet
- 9x13 baking dish
- Large skillet
- Very large mixing bowl
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Steps
Step 1: CORNBREAD: Heat the oven to 425°F with a 10-inch cast iron skillet inside. Whisk the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl whisk the buttermilk, eggs and melted butter. Stir together until just combined.
Step 2: Carefully pour the batter into the hot greased skillet. Bake 20 to 22 minutes until golden. Cool, crumble into large pieces, and leave out uncovered overnight to dry.
Step 3: STUFFING: Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9x13 baking dish.
Step 4: Brown the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking it up, about 8 minutes. Scoop it into a huge bowl, leaving the fat in the pan.
Step 5: Add the butter to the skillet. Cook the onion and celery 8 to 10 minutes until soft. Add the garlic, sage, thyme and pepper for 1 minute.
Step 6: Add the vegetables, crumbled cornbread and bread cubes to the sausage. Whisk the eggs with the broth and pour over the top. Fold gently until everything is evenly moist. It should be wet but not swimming. Add a splash more broth if dry.
Step 7: Spread in the dish. Cover with foil and bake 25 minutes. Uncover and bake 20 to 25 minutes more until the top is golden and crisp and the center reaches 165°F.
Game plan
- 2 days before: Bake the cornbread. Cube the white bread.
- Day before: Leave cornbread crumbles and bread cubes out uncovered to dry. Cook the sausage and vegetables and refrigerate.
- Morning of: Mix everything, put it in the dish, cover and refrigerate (up to 8 hours).
- 75 minutes before dinner: Take it out of the fridge. Bake while the turkey rests, adding 10 minutes to the covered time since it’s cold.
Swaps
- Cornbread: Two 8.5-oz boxes of Jiffy, baked a day ahead, instead of homemade.
- Sausage: Hot sausage, or skip it and use 8 tablespoons butter total for a meatless version with vegetable broth.
- Add-ins: Toasted pecans, a diced apple, or dried cranberries.
Tips
- Dry bread soaks up broth like a sponge. Fresh bread turns to paste.
- Covered first keeps it moist; uncovered at the end gives you the crunchy top people fight over.
The story
HAM Cooking. Let’s fire it up.
Up north they call it stuffing. Down south it’s dressing. In my house, it’s whatever’s left in the pan that I eat cold at 11 PM. All three are correct.
Cornbread stuffing is a Southern thing, and the secret is stale bread. Day-old bread has lost a lot of its moisture, so when the broth and eggs go in, it soaks them up and stays in chunks instead of collapsing. Mixing cornbread with a little white bread gives you the best of both: the sweet crumbly cornbread and the soft white bread that holds it together. The eggs set it while it bakes, so you can scoop it without it turning into a pile of crumbs.
Bake it in a dish, not the bird. You get crispy edges, and the turkey cooks faster. Everybody wins.
HAM out.
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