MawMaw’s Southern Dressing

Until I was about 15 years old, four generations of my Mama’s side of the family gathered each year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We eventually outgrew my Great Grandma Platt’s house and had to move the gathering to the church fellowship hall.

One family unit would make the turkey and dressing and everyone else would bring a covered dish. Covered dish is what southern people call a potluck.

My Great Aunt Hazel is a phenomenal home cook and no matter which part of the family made the turkey & dressing, they always used Aunt Hazel's recipe.

MawMaw has tweaked the recipe over the years and our extended family is too large to even gather in the church fellowship hall anymore, but year after year we all continue to enjoy this dressing recipe, on Thanksgiving and beyond.

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Photo by Add a Pinch

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30  minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 

Ingredients:

For the cornbread:
2 8 oz. packages of Jiffy Cornbread Mix
2 eggs
2/3 cup of milk

For the dressing:
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 sticks butter
1 tsp sage
2 tsp poultry seasoning
6 eggs
1 10.5 oz. can  of cream of chicken soup
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 cup turkey or chicken pan drippings
2 cups turkey or chicken broth
1 cup chopped turkey or chicken

Instructions:

1. Prepare Jiffy Cornbread according to package instructions:

   1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.

   2. Grease pan.

   3. Pour cornbread mix, eggs, and milk into a bowl and mix into a batter. (Batter should be slightly lumpy). 

   4. Pour batter into pan and cook for 15-20 minutes.

   5. Cornbread is done when you stick a toothpick or fork in and it comes out clean.

2. Set cornbread aside and begin dressing mixture.

   1. First, lower oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

   2. Next, crack all 6 eggs into a large mixing bowl. Whisk until blended and set aside.  

   3. Saute onions, celery, butter and seasoning in a medium saute pan until translucent.

   4. After this mixture has cooled, transfer to the mixing bowl along with the eggs.

   5. Next, crumble the prepared cornbread into the mixing bowl and add cream of chicken soup, pan drippings and chopped chicken or turkey. 

   6. Slowly add broth until mixture is fully blended and smooth. (It should have the consistency of a thick cake batter.) 

   7. Grease a casserole dish with cooking spray or butter. 

   8. Transfer dressing mixture into casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes.

   9. Enjoy!

   *A note about pan drippings:  This recipe calls for pan drippings and some of you may ask, where do I get pan drippings?  Pan drippings are the fat and juices remaining in the bottom of the pan after cooking meat.  This recipe calls specifically for turkey or chicken drippings.