Here’s my Texas mother’s corn bread dressing that I have been making for 50 years, now. I don’t have it written down anywhere, so will have to try to write it down from memory. It’s much easier to make it than trying to write it down—LOL!
You can make your cornbread a day or two before the big day, crumble it up after it’s cool, and place it in zip lock bags in your refrigerator. At the same time, buy a loaf or two of plain ole white bread, and spread it out in the kitchen to get really hard and stale. Crumble it up too and mix it with the cornbread. You will have to figure out how many pones of cornbread you will need.
Using your favorite corn bread recipe, bake your cornbread in a well seasoned cast iron skillets. With kids and their spouses, and grandkids, we’ll have 18-20 here this year. I’ll bake about 8-9 10” pones of cornbread, and add about 1/3 as much stale white bread that I have crumbled and mixed with the cornbread.
Pour about 1/4 inch of oil in the bottom of your skillets. Heat them to pretty hot!—to whatever the temperature at which you bake your cornbread. (You want the oil to get pretty hot, if you like a some crusty bits in your dressing because this is how you get a crust on the bottom of the cornbread.)
Remove from oven, and carefully pour about half of the hot oil into your cornbread batter, and stir in very quickly.
To your taste, add salt, pepper, ground or rubbed sage, and poultry seasoning. (I taste the raw batter until I get it right.)
Add finely chopped onions and celery to the batter—again, to taste.
Add enough chicken broth (boxed is okay)_to the batter until the consistency looks about right—the batter should be moist, but not wet and runny.
Dump the mixture into a well greased roasting pan—I use my mom’s which is the old dark blue speckled metal kind.
Have a fresh turkey, if possible. Clean the innards out, and add them to your dressing, if you so desire after you cook them. . (I boil them up, and put a bit of the broth they make into the dressing, but throw the innards away )
Rub the turkey cavities with a bit of salt. Take some of the raw dressing, and fill the turkey’s cavities with it, packing fairly tightly. Close the loose skin over the dressing.
Put the rest of the dressing in the greased roasting pan.
Put the turkey, breast side up on top or the dressing in the roasting pan.
Baste the turkey with cooking oil to start, and when the turkey starts producing it’s own fat, you can use this for basting. It’s the basting that gives the turkey the nice brown color.
If your turkey has more fat than you think you want in your dressing, use your baster to suck it out to dispose of it—being very careful because it is very hot and could cause a serious burn to your skin.
You have to judge the cooking time based on the size of the turkey, but the juices should no longer have a pink ting to them.
Cook until the legs are loose and brown, and when you pierce the breast of the turkey with a sharp pick, , no pinky (bloody) liquid runs out. Don’t overcook, though or you will have a dry, tasteless bird.
Remove the turkey to a large platter.
Stir the dressing well, and taste so you can adjust the seasoning if necessary.
Hope this makes sense—written down like this!
Mari
Cornbread Dressing
3 cups cornbread, crumbled
2 -2 1/2 cups dry bread, crumbled
5 cups turkey broth or 5 cups chicken stock
2 -3 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 onion, chopped fine
1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 tablespoon dried sage or 1/2 tablespoon poultry seasoning
Directions:
1
Preheat oven to 425°F.
2
Mix breads, add eggs and other ingredients.
3
Mix well and continue to add broth until mixture is the consistency of cake batter or thick soup. (Really soupy - it will cook dry.).
4
Bake in greased baking dish for about 40 minutes.
GIBLET GRAVY:
Cut giblets and neck meat in small pieces and put back in the broth. Add juice from the turkey pan to the broth for gravy. Blend 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour with a little cold water in a bowl to make a thin, smooth paste. Add the blended flour mixture with the broth which has been heating. Stir constantly to prevent lumping. Thicken to desired thickness and if you need more gravy add canned chicken broth to the gravy.
Add:
2 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
Taste and adjust seasonings. Gravy is done when giblets are tender. Garnish with a pinch of chopped fresh Italian parsley added just before serving.
I don’t have my recipe written down and measure by what feels right.
The ingredients are cornbread (baked a day or two ahead of time), green onions, celery, boiled eggs, bacon, bacon grease, chicken broth, salt, sage, nutmeg and a bit on cinnamon.
To your crumpled up cornbread add the rest of the ingredients. The dressing should be moist, but not runny. Before putting it in the oven, take a taste to see if you need to add more of any of the ingredients. Don’t over do the bacon grease or cinnamon.
Cover your pan in foil and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, take the foil off and bake until the top is a nice crust brown (between 15 - 30 minutes).
My Mom’s Corn Bread Recipe
These things can be done day before
1.Make corn bread, grate or tear white bread.
2.boil 10 eggs
3.chop 2 bolts of celery and 2 large onions
Corn Bread
1 cup of corn meal
1 cup of flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil, shortening etc
This is the recipe for one batch. Stir until mixed does not have to be lump free. I make 2 batches at the same time.
Stock
large pot
pkg giblets
1/2 cup celery you can also use tops of celery
1/2 cup onions
chicken bouillon cubes
giblets from turkey
place in pot cover with water and cook
will need this and drippings from turkey for dressing and gravy.
3 boiled eggs
1 can evaporated milk
flour