Cornbread sausage dressing recipe inside... -- (edited)
Posted by
Diva (aka Diva)
Nov 20 '17, 13:15
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I learned how to make this from watching my parents and modifying things over the years based on how I like things to taste and ingredients I fancy. In some cases there are not exact measurements, just eyeballing the amounts. I use exact measurements in the cornbread baking however because as you know baking = science and you really shouldn't mess with that. I use unsweetened cornbread for the dressing.
Yield 10 -12 servings
For Cornbread:
cooking spray to grease pan
1/4 cup butter (or margarine)
1 cup of milk
1 1/4 cups cornmeal (yellow or white)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray 8 or 9 inch baking pan with cooking spray. Heat butter over low heat in saucepan until melted.
In a large bowl, beat the butter, milk and egg w/a wire whisk or fork until well mixed. Add the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt all at once. Stir just until flour is moistened. Lumps are okay. Pour batter into greased pan. Bake 20 minutes. It's okay if it's not exactly golden brown as the cornbread will be baked further. Set bread aside.
For the dressing yumminess:
1 lb. sage breakfast sausage. Jimmy Dean or Bob Evans work well
chopped celery (sorry Jax) - probably 2 stalks
1 chopped sweet onion (not too mondo. If it's huge, use about 3/4 of it)
32 oz. chicken broth
Bell's poultry seasoning
any fresh poultry herbs you might have lying around - sage, rosemary, parley
reserve turkey neck and giblet (not the liver) if you can get them. If you can't that's okay.
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Take your broth and put it in a medium sized saucepan, place the turkey neck, giblets, herbs and Bells seasoning in the broth, give it a quick stir, cover and cook on medium until just starting to boil and then immediately turn down to simmer. Broth can simmer for 15 minutes or so. In a frying pan, cook sausage over medium heat and crumble it as it while it cooks into tiny pieces with a spatula. Your kitchen will smell so good everyone will want to come in there and hang out with you. Drain any excess grease from frying pan and toss. Strain the broth into another receptacle. If you have the inclination you can tear the meat off the turkey neck and chop the giblet into tiny pieces. Adding it back into the broth will only give it more flavor.
Now you're ready to put everything together.
Take the cornbread out of the pan. Break it up into small pieces into a large bowl. add your veggies, sausage and broth. Blend it evenly. Take your 2 eggs and whisk them together in a small bowl. Add the eggs to the cornbread mixture and blend well. Make sure your batter is moist. If it seems too dry, feel free to add a little extra chicken broth you may have on hand and blend. (You should always have an abundance of chicken broth around when making a Thanksgiving Dinner - just in case)
The dressing is ready for baking. Coat a 13 x 9 inch baking pan with cooking spray (or slightly butter it if feeling extra decadent). Pour the mixture into the pan and spread it out evenly. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Check and see if liquid has evaporated. Remove foil and bake for 10-15 minutes longer in order to get a nice crusting on top. Let it cool a bit. Serve along side cranberry sauce, turkey and gravy and give thanks that someone thought of this.
Bon Appetit!
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