Easy Cornbread Stuffing – Best Ever Dressing Recipe For Thanksgiving or Christmas!
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This will be the best cornbread stuffing you’ll ever have! Once you try this easy cornbread stuffing, you’ll never make it any other way! Your holiday guests will devour every last crumb!
You just won’t be able to stop eating this mouthwatering cornbread dressing. Spoon after spoon after spoon of it goes in the mouth, until there is no more stuffing left. It’s always like that. Yes it is!
Fresh cornbread crumbs are combined with butter-cooked onions, celery, garlic and carrots, seasoned with Italian herbs, mixed with the chicken broth in a baking dish and baked to perfection. This cornbread stuffing smells amazing, tastes mouthwatering and there is just something so addictive about it, I just can’t put my finger on it! This is my go-to stuffing for every Thanksgiving, to go along my famous Thanksgiving turkey in a brown paper bag :)
For this cornbread dressing, you can use either homemade or store-bought cornbread. If you want to make cornbread from scratch, I have amazing easy cornbread recipe you can follow!
I always make this cornbread stuffing in a baking dish, baked outside of the bird. If you want to bake it inside the bird, it will certainly work too!
There are 3 reasons why I prefer to bake the stuffing outside of the bird. One is food safety – when a large bird is baked with the stuffing inside it, often the bird is cooked through, while the stuffing inside is not fully brought to safe temp, and there is really no easy way to tell when that stuffing is safe to eat. The second reason is that baking the stuffing outside of the bird allows you to make a larger portion of stuffing :) More stuffing will fit into a baking dish than inside of the bird, so everyone will be able to get more stuffing! And the last reason is that dressing in a baking dish can be made ahead, making your holidays so much easier. Just make the stuffing the day before Thanksgiving, refrigerate it and then warm in an oven or microwave right before serving!
This cornbread stuffing is extremely easy to make, even the most inexperienced cooks can follow this simple recipe! The easy instructions below break down the stuffing-making process into very easy-to-follow steps.
How To Make Cornbread Stuffing Step By Step
Step 1: Crumble The Cornbread
Crumble the cornbread with your hands. Don’t worry about lack of uniform crumb size :) The cornbread crumble should look something like this:
Step 2: Cook Vegetables In Butter
Melt the butter in a frying pan or pot, add chopped onions, celery, carrots and garlic and cook, covered, for 15 minutes, until they are soft.
Step 3: Mix Ingredients For The Stuffing
In a large baking dish, combine the cornbread crumbs, cooked vegetables, chicken broth and Italian herb seasoning. Add salt and pepper to taste.
When ready to bake, smooth the top with the back of the spoon:
Step 4: Bake The Cornbread Stuffing
Put the cornbread stuffing in a pre-heated 375F oven and bake for 35 minutes.
Remove from the oven, fluff with a fork and serve!
Easy Cornbread Stuffing Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 cups cornbread crumbled
- 4 tbsp butter
- 2 onions chopped
- 4 celery stalks chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 carrots shredded
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 tbsp dried Italian herbs seasoning
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Melt the butter on a non-stick frying pan over medium heat.
- Add the onion, celery, garlic and carrot and mix. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.
- Put the crumbled cornbread and cooked onion mixture in a non-stick 9x13 baking dish, and stir to combine.
- Add the chicken broth to the cornbread mixture and stir to combine.
- Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir to combine.
- Smooth the top of the cornbread mixture with the back of a spoon.
- Put the cornbread stuffing mixture in the oven and bake for 35 minutes.
- Remove the cornbread stuffing from the oven, fluff with the fork and serve.
I have a 6 old neice who loves cooking. She knows how to make deviled eggs, and is next going to try Melanie’s Easy Potato Salad w Egg.
I made your cornbread recipe. I doubled the recipe because I only had a 12″ cast iron skillet and the recipe called for an 8″. It came out perfect. It made me think of how my mother made cornbread. I’m using it for your recipe for easy-cornbread-stuffing. My mom added boiled eggs. Last yr I added the eggs at the beginning and the whites seemed tough. yucky. So I’ll try adding them a little before cooking time is up or when cooking is done when I fluff the stuffing. I’ve been looking a long time for recipes that are like Mom’s. Thank you Melanie. Happy Thanksgiving 2017
Hey Melanie, there’s no butter mentioned in the list of ingredients. How much butter is needed?
Oops sorry, now I fixed it :) It’s 4 tbsp of butter!
If I make it ahead of time, how long do you suggest I reheat for and at what temp? Thanks in advance! Can’t wait to make this for the family this year!!
You can reheat in a microwave for several minutes until hot, or if you want to use the oven, do 10 minutes at 350F.
Sound very good and simple. I dont cook too much using italian seasonings so my question is…..does the italian seasoning come already mixed? And who makes it? Please give example…thank you kindly!!
Italian seasoning is a blend of dried herbs and comes in a jar already mixed, they sell it in the spice section of most supermarkets. Or you can substitute it with a mixture of basil and oregano.
I made this recipe for 5 people, same steps but I changed the portions to accommodate. 6×20 pan
* 3 cups of cornbread
* 2 tablespoons of butter
* 1 1/2 – 2 cups of vegetable broth
* 3 carrots
* 2.5 garlic gloves
* 1/4 Cup of onion
* 1.5 tbsp Italian seasoning
* 3 celery stalks
Salt and pepper to your liking
This was my absolute first time to make dressing. I even made my chicken stock. It was fabulous Melanie — Thanks so much for sharing !!
No eggs in the recipe?
nope :)
Can I pre make the night before. Refrigerate overnight uncooked and cook the next morning? Or do I need to cook it immediately after making?
yes you can pre make it the night before
Love that you can prepare it ahead of time. So convenient!
I made this ahead and reheated it perfectly, great tip.