A family-favorite holiday side with gravy for the dressing! My dad's mother made an old-fashioned cornbread dressing with gravy from scratch, without canned or boxed ingredients. She taught my mom, who passed this version on to me. I believe people came to my mom's house for Thanksgiving and Christmas for this one dish! This big-batch version does use cornbread mix, condensed soups, and bagged stuffing for convenience, but everyone asks for the recipe when I bring it along to a holiday potluck because they tell me how much it reminds them of the old-fashioned dressing their grandmothers used to make. Add more traditional stuffing spices as desired.
Ingredients
- white cornbread mix: 3 packages (6.5 ounce packages)
- water: 2 cups
- herb-seasoned stuffing mix: 1 box (6 ounce box)
- onion: 1 piece (chopped)
- stalks celery: 2 piece (chopped)
- cooked chicken: 4 cups (chopped)
- condensed cream of chicken soup: 1 can (23 ounce can)
- condensed cream of celery soup: 1 can (10.5 ounce can)
- chicken broth: 1 container (32 ounce container, or as needed)
- eggs: 6 piece (beaten)
- butter: 1 cup (melted)
- salt and ground black pepper: (to taste)
- cooked chicken: 2 cups (chopped)
- onion: 1 cup (diced)
- celery: 1 cup (diced)
- chicken broth: 1 container (32 ounce container, or more if needed)
- hard-cooked eggs: 4 piece (chopped)
- ½ tablespoons cornstarch: 2 piece (or as needed)
- water: 2 Tbsp
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
-
Gather ingredients. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray a large roasting pan with nonstick spray and place in the preheating oven until hot, 7 to 8 minutes.
-
Meanwhile, prepare dressing: Combine cornbread mix and water in a mixing bowl; stir until smooth.
-
Remove the hot pan from the oven and pour in the cornbread batter. Return to the oven and bake until golden brown, 17 to 21 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit until cool enough to handle, 10 to 15 minutes; keep the oven on.
-
Crumble cooled cornbread into a large bowl. Stir in stuffing mix, onion, and celery. Add chicken and both condensed soups, then stir in as much chicken broth as needed to moisten the dry ingredients. Stir in eggs and melted butter; season with salt and pepper.
-
Grease the roasting pan used for the cornbread with more nonstick spray, if needed. Lightly pack dressing mixture into the pan.
-
Bake until the top is golden brown, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
-
While the dressing is baking, make gravy: Combine chicken, onion, celery, and hard-cooked eggs in a large saucepan. Add container of chicken broth and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender and broth has reduced slightly, about 45 minutes.
-
Mix cornstarch with water in a small bowl; stir into the gravy and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes.
-
Remove dressing from the oven and serve with hot gravy.
