Happy Wednesday everybody!!..Today I am totally re-posting this recipe from last year, because, as I will mention here in a bit, this is one of my most favorite foods of all time, and holy cow next week is Thanksgiving. This will be perfect for your Thanksgiving table y’all, enjoy!!!….
Yes, I am going to say it…this is the best dressing you will ever, ever, eevveerr have in your life. You know how I know this? because as a whole, I don’t like dressing, it’s too dry, too weird, too something, and don’t even get me started on folks who put dadgum oysters or some other awful in it…for reals, this dressing is on my list of favorite foods of all time.
Did you hear that? I said one of my favorite foods of all time, and y’all, I know some food. Also, I have never seen dressing anywhere made like this, but that probably has something to do with the fact that my great great grandmother Josie (on my mom’s side) made up this recipe and lucky for us passed it down to the ladies in the family. So this is basically a secret family recipe, but to heck with the secret part, this is just too darn good not to share y’all. I have had people who despised dressing who I force fed coaxed into trying it and are now dressing converts and request it every year. Yes, there are some steps involved in this recipe but it’s worth every damn darn delicious bite.
Let’s make some cornbread shall we?..Let’s start with some good ole Crisco and an iron skillet..
Then your sauteed onions and celery…
Then throw in the rest of your ingredients, mix well and throw in your iron skillet…
Bake it up until it looks like so…
After sitting overnight (preferably) finely crumble your cornbread in a bowl…
Add your melted butter and eggs…
Then add the rest of your ingredients and the texture should look like this, real ‘liquidy’…
While baking, stir intermittently as the sides start to set…
- 1-12" Iron Skillet or Pan.
- 2 Cups Chopped Celery, sauteed.
- 1 Large Onion Chopped, sauteed.
- 6 1/2 Cups of Self-Rising Cornmeal.
- 3/4 Cup of Crisco, melted and divided evenly.
- 4 Large Eggs.
- 4 Cups of Milk.
- 1-9x13 Pan.
- The Cornbread, crumbled.
- 48 Ounces of Chicken Broth.
- 6 Eggs.
- 1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Soda.
- 2 Sticks of Unsalted Butter, Melted, Poured in Mixture.
- 1 Stick of Unsalted Butter, Melted, Poured on Top After in Pan.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl place your measured out cornmeal.
- Melt your Crisco and pour half in your iron skillet or pan, coating the pan well.
- In a pan, saute your celery and onions until soft.
- To your cornmeal add your eggs, then place both your celery and onions in your bowl.
- Now add your milk and the other half of your melted Crisco and mix until all well incorporated.
- Bake your cornbread for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- After your cornbread has cooled completely, wrap thoroughly and tightly with cellophane and let it sit overnight on your countertop (it isn't absolutely necessary to sit out, but it does give the best taste because it lets all the flavors really seep into the cornbread).
- In a large bowl, with your hands, finely crumble your cornbread (I had about 1/3 of the cornbread left because it makes such a large serving of cornbread).
- To your crumbled cornbread, add your 2 sticks of melted butter, eggs, chicken broth and baking soda, and mix until well incorporated (yes it is supposed to be very liquidy).
- Add salt and pepper to taste (I add quite a bit of both).
- Pour your mixture into a well buttered 9x13 pan.
- Evenly pour your 1 stick of melted butter on top.
- Bake your dressing for about 30 minutes, but start checking after 10, because when the pan starts to slightly set around the edges you need to stir the whole pan, put back in the oven, and keep repeating the stirring every time it starts to set until it's done. The key to this dressing is not to over cook this dressing, it will be super moist and awesome if you don't.
- I shouldn't say this, but if you're feeling hurried, lazy etc. instead of sauteing the onions and celery you can totally microwave the heck out of them, just as long as they're soft you're good.
April says
I’m super excited for this next Thursday
Holly says
Right?! Me too!