Moi's Turkey and Dressing

"My mom makes the very best cornbread dressing I've ever had. It makes a huge roaster pan and there is always plenty of leftover for us to take home. She loves to tell the same story every Christmas and Thanksgiving that she had the measurement for the Sage down perfect when spices still came in the little tins, like McCormicks. She used the whole small tin, and it was perfect. Now that most spices comes in bottles she had to experiment some to get it perfect. Just a note do not make the mistake of using Jiffy cornbread it is too sweet, regular yellow cornbread is best. I love old traditional recipes and had my Mom write this down for me to have for a family cookbook. And yes you can tell we are from the South since we make Dressing, not stuffing."
 
Download
photo by True Texas photo by True Texas
photo by True Texas
Ready In:
2hrs 30mins
Ingredients:
12
Serves:
16
Advertisement

ingredients

Advertisement

directions

  • You will need a large roaster pan for this dressing.
  • Cook cornbread according to pkg. directions. I use Martha White, not a sweet cornmix like Jiffy.
  • Chop onion and celery finely, saute in one stick butter.I like to saute' my onions, but I add a small amount of water, enough to cover the onions and celery to finish cooking them.
  • After cornbread has cooled crumble in pan. Add celery, onion and chopped eggs to the cornbread, along with any water that is left. Crumble a few slices of white bread, biscuits or I like to use about a half a loaf of day old French bread.
  • Add sage, salt and pepper to cornbread. We use a lot of sage, so use what you need. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
  • All of this can be done the day before and then keep in the refrigerator until the turkey is cooked.
  • We cook our turkey in a cooking bag. (This is where you can be as creative as you want with the turkey, JUST SAVE THE JUICES WHEN IT IS DONE.).
  • Add chicken broth also, at least 1 and half or 2 of the broth, I use low sodium and then add as much of the turkey drippings as you need to make the mixture loose. I add a couple of raw eggs now. My mom never did.
  • If the mixture is too dry and does not jiggle when you shake it add enough turkey juice from the pan or more broth.
  • That is very important step my mom always emphasied, the dressing needs to be "loose" when you shake it. (my mom's words).
  • At this time we taste it to see if we need more sage, pepper or salt, before we cook. .
  • Cover with foil and bake at 350°F for 1 to 1-1/2 hours until it is brown on top. The last half hour uncover it so it will brown. We always have someone sample it to see if done.

Questions & Replies

Got a question? Share it with the community!
Advertisement

Reviews

  1. I agree...it must be a Texas thing. This recipe is very, very similar to my Mam-Maw's Chicken & Dressing recipe. I supersized this recipe to feed 60. I made my cornbread from scratch (cheaper and easier) and toasted my bread before cubing. The only other change was that instead of straight sage, I used poultry seasoning. This helps to keep the dressing from turning greenish. (Again, what my Mam-Maw did). Thanks for putting this recipe on 'zaar - it is a hard one to explain. LOOSE is correct - You want the dressing to have a jiggle to it. Plus, be sure to only use a 9x13 pan, anything deeper takes too long to cook and the top begins to get too brown. Also, this recipes FREEZES wonderfully. My Mam-Maw did this all the time, and sure enough I tried it with Moi's recipe and it works, too. To use it after freezing, let it thaw in the fridge, and then bake as directed.
     
  2. Special note from the previous: I don't know if it was missed or just a family thing on our end. I had cooked my cornbread a few days ahead of schedule. While I was putting the rest together, my mom noticed this recipe did not call for any eggs.... Always have eggs to get it bulk she mentioned. So I added two slightly beatened eggs to 5 pkgs of cornbread with the other seasons and pan drippings. It came out just perfect :)
     
  3. Must be a Texas thing but I make my dressing almost the same way except,I add 3 chopped eggs,a bell pepper and green onions.It really is good.I have gotten a few people here in Illinois to change to this dressing from there bread stuffing.I will try your's as it is written and will let you know how it turns out.Thanks for the recipe.
     
Advertisement

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Find More Recipes