Whether you’re dishing it up for Thanksgiving or for a get-together with loved ones, cornbread dressing will bring warmth and comfort to your table with golden and coppery hues, plush and crispy textures, and satisfying savor. I think it’s particularly appealing when each bite is filled with tender sausage, bits of celery and onion, and fragrant holiday herbs such as sage and thyme.
Don’t be tempted to use store-bought cornbread or a boxed mix here, as both shortcuts will let you down with a dressing that’s sweet, mushy, or both. You need a bread that’s designed to be crumbled, soaked with chicken broth and eggs, and seasoned with savory tidbits. That means it must be sturdier and drier than the standard issue.
I planned to rely on my trusty cast-iron skillet to get me there. In Georgia, where I’m from, the heavyweight pans are beloved for cornbread because of their ability to hold heat, which helps create rich browning. I would use the dark, handsome skillet to bake both the cornbread and the dressing, and then I’d carry it straight to the table, where its casual, cozy aesthetic would be sure to charm my guests.
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The Benefits of Nutty, 100 Percent Cornmeal Cornbread
After baking many batches of cornbread, it was clear that a zero-flour formula was superior for turning into dressing. Pure-cornmeal cornbread bakes up sturdy and dense and maintains some structure when eggs and broth are added, producing a soft, cohesive dish. Eliminating flour also allows the wholesome, undiluted flavor of toasty cornmeal to shine. (It makes the cornbread gluten-free too.)
A bespoke cornbread made with all cornmeal and no flour is ideal for creating a deeply corny, moist, and cohesive dressing.
Square Roots
The buttermilk cornbread I grew up eating by the square with chili or soup calls for a 50/50 blend of flour and cornmeal. This ratio creates a bread that’s soft and light, just right for nibbling. But when I used my family recipe in a batch of dressing, it became oversaturated and disintegrated into mush. Eliminating flour turned things around with a drier, more compact cornbread that produced a moist and cohesive—not soggy—dressing. Not only that, but without flour to dilute the flavors, the bread had more concentrated, pure corn taste.
Cornbread Croutons
After baking the cornbread, cut off its crisp, browned circumference and toss the trimmings in rich, nutty browned butter. Sprinkled atop the dressing, the buttery nuggets form a craggy, crunchy contrast to the plush interior.
There were even more betterments to deploy: First, I toasted the cornmeal to coax out its subtleties. As soon as the sweet, toasty aroma of roasted corn filled the air, I transferred the grains to a bowl and added touches of sugar, salt, and baking soda and powder.
Next, I melted butter in the pan and drizzled all but a tablespoon into the dry ingredients before pouring in buttermilk, cracking in eggs, and whisking it all together. The thick yellow batter sputtered in the hot skillet, and I could already imagine the substantial crust that would form as it baked.
Comfort Zone
Once the bread was cool, I put together a crispy topping to complement the soft interior of the dressing: I cut off the outer 1/2 inch of the cornbread disk, which, thanks to the cast iron, was bronzed and crunchy. After breaking the trimmings into pieces, I set them aside, along with remainder of the cornbread, which I tore into rough chunks.
Twice-Baked Dressing
In our cornbread dressing recipe, all the action happens in a cast-iron skillet, which offers excellent heat retention—not to mention rustic good looks. First, we make a specialized cornbread that begins with toasting cornmeal in the skillet to maximize its sweet, corny taste. Then, we bake the bread in the same skillet to develop a tawny crust. While the bread cools, breakfast sausage, aromatics, and herbs take their turn in the pan. The meat mixture is combined with the crumbled cornbread along with broth and eggs, and then the dressing is loaded into the skillet for baking and serving.
1. Bake the cornbread in the skillet.
2. Bake the dressing in the skillet.
Next, I returned the skillet to the stove and cooked a pound of breakfast sausage in butter. As soon as the meat was sizzling, I softened onion and celery in the pan before finishing with black pepper and fresh sage and thyme. This flavorsome mix went into the cornbread chunks along with broth and eggs; as I stirred, it softened to a moist, spoonable consistency. I loaded the dressing into the skillet and scattered the reserved trimmings—which I tossed in browned butter for rich, nutty intensity—on top of the dressing ahead of its final bake.
Scoop up a big forkful and you’ll experience its delicate softness, replete with sausage, aromatics, and herbs, and a crisp topping that adds nutty, buttery contrast to every bite.
Cast Iron Cornbread Dressing with Sausage
This homey Southern side, chock-full of toasty corn goodness and meaty morsels of sausage, starts with a custom-made skillet cornbread.
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