Easy Cornbread Stuffing – Best Ever Dressing Recipe For Thanksgiving or Christmas! (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between cornbread stuffing and cornbread dressing? ›

The primary difference between stuffing and dressing is that stuffing is cooked inside a bird and dressing is made on the side.

It's a matter of preference, but adding a beaten egg to your stuffing mixture acts as a binder and keeps the bread moist.

The short answer to whether you can making stuffing ahead of time is yes. "Making stuffing ahead saves time, allows stove and oven space for other things, and making it ahead gives time for the flavor to fully develop," Chef David Tiner, Director at Louisiana Culinary Institute in Baton Rouge, tells Southern Living.

So stuffing is cooked inside the bird. Dressing is cooked outside the bird, usually in a casserole dish. Additionally, dressing, especially in the American South, is often made with cornbread instead of pieces of a baguette or plain ol' white bread.

For this reason, many experts recommend baking the stuffing outside the bird, where it can easily be cooked to 165°F and is less likely to harbor bacteria.

Broth: Chicken broth keeps the stuffing moist without making it soggy. Eggs: Two lightly beaten eggs help hold the dressing together and add moisture. Water: You can add a few tablespoons of water, if you'd like, to achieve your desired consistency.

Typically high in fat, carbs and salt, stuffing can be made fresh or purchased chilled, frozen or dehydrated. Traditionally, a stuffing would use the giblets of the bird with the addition of sausage meat, a source of starch, such as bread, with some aromatics such as onion, herbs and spices.

Make the stuffing, melt butter in a large frying pan and gently sauté onion and garlic for five minutes until soft. Stir in the herbs for one minute then add breadcrumbs to absorb butter. Mix in zest, pine nuts and seasoning and cook over medium heat for about seven minutes until crumbs start to brown and crisp.

The stuffing should be moist but not wet. If there is a puddle of broth at the bottom of the bowl, you've added too much. Add more bread to soak up the excess moisture.

USDA recommends that you never refrigerate uncooked stuffing. Why? Remember, stuffing can harbor bacteria, and though bacteria grow slower in the refrigerator they can cause problems because stuffing is a good medium for bacteria growth, therefore a higher risk food in terms of cooking safely.

Should I leave bread out overnight for stuffing? ›

If you use soft, fresh bread, you'll ultimately wind up with a soggy, mushy stuffing. So, how do you dry bread for stuffing? There are two ways to go about it. If you've planned your Thanksgiving dinner ahead of time, you can cut your bread into cubes and leave them out to become stale overnight.

In the 1800s, the word dressing gained popularity in some areas of the US as a word for the dish cooked inside a bird. The rise of this preference is theorized to be based in part on Victorian-era prudishness and a resulting movement away from more “graphic” terms for food preparation.

But for the Thanksgiving side dish in the South, the term dressing was adopted in place of stuffing, which was viewed as a crude term, during the Victorian era.

Combine the cooked onions and celery with the cornbread, egg, chicken broth, milk and 3/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper in a large bowl; mix well. Place in a buttered 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes; remove the foil and bake until golden brown, about 20 more minutes.

Both stuffing and filling have the same results, as the bird cooks, juices impart a deep, rich flavor to the bread mixture inside. On the other hand, dressing is the same bread mixture, but it's cooked in a separate vessel outside of the bird.