Authentic Southern Cornbread Dressing From Dixie Recipes

Steps:

• Place the chicken breast halves in a large saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Cook 1 hour, or until the meat is tender and easily shredded. Shred chicken and set aside. Reserve 4 to 6 cups of the remaining broth.
• Prepare an 8x8 inch pan of cornbread according to package directions. Crumble the corn bread into a large bowl. Mix in the white bread.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the margarine and stir in the onions and celery. Slowly cook, stirring occasionally, until tender.
• Stir the onions and celery into the bread mixture. Mix in the chicken, 4 cups reserved broth, cream of chicken soup, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, pepper and eggs. Blend with a potato masher until the mixture is the consistency of gelatin. Use more of the reserved broth as necessary to attain desired consistency. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish.
• Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, combine first 10 ingredients. In another bowl, whisk eggs and broth. Add to bread mixture; stir until moistened., Transfer to a greased 13x9-in. baking dish. Bake, uncovered, 40-45 minutes or until lightly browned and a thermometer inserted in the center reads 160°.

Steps:

• Crumble cornbread into large bowl. Do not use cornbread mix (such as Jiffy) because it has sugar. Some mixes do not have sugar and those are fine.
• Put onions and celery into microwave-safe dish with 1/2 cup Chicken broth. Cook vegetables until softened - approx.6-8 minutes.
• Pour vegetables into cornbread bowl. Add sausage, sage and chicken,if using. Sometimes it's easiest to use your hands and mix, making sure all the ingredients mix together.
• Stir in cream of chicken soup. Slowly adding broth as you stir.
• The cornbread will beging to soak up the broth, so let it rest a bit in between adding all the broth. The final consisitency should be very soupy.
• Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
• Refrigerate overnight if you have time - the flavors will meld and create a tastier dressing. Add more broth as needed if it has thickened. It still needs to be soupy or it will be too dry once it is cooked.
• Pour into lightly greased 9 x 12 baking dish. I usually have enough to fill another 9 x 9 baking dish, as well. Bake at 375*, covered, removing foil last 10 minutes so it is golden brown on top - usually 45 minute - 1 hour. You want it to be very moist even after it is baked so do not overcook.
• .

Steps:

• Make the cornbread: Heat oven to 450 degrees. Put butter in an 11-inch skillet. Cast-iron is best here, but any ovenproof skillet will do. Heat butter in oven for about 5 to 7 minutes, or until butter has melted and is just starting to brown.
• While butter melts, whisk together cornmeal, salt and baking powder. In another small bowl, lightly beat eggs, then add buttermilk and stir until mixture is combined. Pour egg mixture into dry ingredients and stir well.
• Remove hot pan from oven, pour butter into batter and stir until batter looks uniform. Pour batter back into the pan and bake for 20 minutes or until the top has begun to just brown.
• Remove cornbread and let it cool on a rack. Tear or cut it into large pieces and place in a large bowl. Let it sit out overnight to dry out slightly.
• Prepare the dressing: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cornbread and white bread in a large bowl, tossing to mix, and breaking cornbread into smaller pieces.
• Melt butter in a large skillet, and add onions, celery and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sauté until vegetables have softened, about 6 minutes.
• Add vegetables to bread mixture and combine. Lightly beat eggs and add to bowl. Sprinkle in herbs, remaining 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper and toss together.
• Add 4 cups broth and stir well. Using your hands, work the mixture to get a very lumpy, thick, batterlike consistency. Add another cup of stock if needed. The mixture should be very wet and pourable but without standing liquid.
• Butter an 8-by-11-inch baking dish. (Any other ovenproof dish that can hold about 2 quarts will work. A deeper vessel could take longer to bake; a more shallow dish less time.) Pour the mixture into the baking dish and bake until dressing puffs slightly and has browned well around the edges, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. If you have drippings from a roasted turkey, spoon some over the top about 30 minutes into the baking time.