Thanksgiving Side Dish: Cornbread Dressing

I didn’t grow up eating stuffing at Thanksgiving, so when I asked my friends for recipes, they referred me to Stove Top since it’s what they grew up eating. I searched around for some good stuffings/dressings and finally decided to go back to my post from last year: cornbread dressing (dressing = not stuffed in bird, stuffing = stuffed in bird). It looked similar to Williams-Sonoma’s recipe for cornbread dressing and I wanted something very simple (no mixing savories with sweets) and settled on a combination of the two recipes. I made the cornbread on Wednesday night, cut it into cubes, and let it sit out on my kitchen counter (to dry it out so it would be able to absorb more flavor).

Basic Cornbread Recipe
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
2 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup milk (I used whole milk)
1 cup sour cream (I used plain yogurt)
1/3 cup corn oil (I used EVOO)
1 egg, lightly beaten

Dry ingredients:

Wet ingredients:

In a bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt):

In another bowl, measure out yogurt (or sour cream):

Then add milk:

Then the egg:

Then corn oil (I didn’t have any on hand so I used olive oil instead):

Stir:

Add the wet ingredients to the sifted dry ingredients:

And stir again:

Bake in a 375 degree oven on a 9*13 buttered baking sheet for 35 minutes:

Cut the cornbread into 1 inch cubes:

And place in a bowl to let the cornbread dry out for a couple of days:

I ate a couple bites of cornbread after it came out of the oven and oversalted the cornbread…by a lot. I accidentally added 1 tablespoon of salt instead of 1 teaspoon. Instead of freaking out, I decided that I would just not season the vegetables with salt and only use half of the original amount of chicken broth (the rest of the broth I substituted with water).

On Friday night, I decided to the vegetable portion of the cornbread dressing.

Cornbread Dressing
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

Ingredients:

8 cups corn bread (see related recipe above), cut into 1?2-inch pieces
1.5 cups turkey or chicken stock
1.5 cups water
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
3 Tbs. chopped fresh sage
3 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 egg

After finely chopping the celery, carrots, and onions, I added some butter and olive oil to a pot:

Once the pot heated up, I added in the carrots:

Then the celery:

And finally the onions:

I seasoned with a little cracked pepper, cooled the veggies, and placed them in the fridge for Saturday. On Saturday afternoon, I added the veggies to the dried out cornbread:

Then added the chopped parsley:

And added the fresh sage:

I mixed the egg with 1.5 cups of chicken stock and 1.5 cups of water:

And poured the egg mixture into my cornbread. I let the mixture sit for a little so the salty cornbread could absorb the other flavors, put it into a baking pan, and dotted with butter:

I baked it for about 40 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven, took it out, and then reheated the dish after the turkey was done. The basic dressing wasn’t too dry, the cornbread mistake was fixed with the half water/half chicken stock solution, and the dressing tasted great with the moist spatchcocked turkey.

Cost Breakdown:

1.5 cups turkey or chicken stock – $1.25
1.5 cups water – free
1 Tbs. olive oil – $0.05
1 yellow onion, finely chopped – $0.85
1 celery stalk, finely chopped – $0.25
1 carrot, finely chopped – $0.20
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste – free
3 Tbs. chopped fresh sage – $0.45
3 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley – $0.45
1 egg – $0.10 (Costo has super cheap eggs)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour – $1.00
1 1/2 cups cornmeal – $0.75
2 Tbs. sugar – $0.10
1 Tbs. baking powder – $0.05
1 tsp. salt – free
1 cup milk (I used whole milk) – $0.50
1 cup sour cream (I used plain yogurt) – $0.50
1/3 cup corn oil (I used EVOO) – $0.25
1 egg, lightly beaten – $0.10

Total: $6.85 (feeds at least 14)