Holiday Favorite Recipe – Chicken and Dressing

My grandmother was a country cook, everything tasted sooooo good and most of the ingredients were cataloged in her mind. It took my mom years to recreate the ingredients of my grandmothers chicken and dressing. This recipe makes a TON of dressing, but it freezes very well (freeze it unbaked).

My mom sent the recipe to my sister who immediately realized there were only ingredients, no instructions. So thank you to my sister, Wendy, for taking the time to put the instructions into the recipe. I will be making a huge batch for the first time this week.

A few tips:

I plan on making my cornbread tomorrow or Wednesday, because I do remember that it tastes better when the cornbread sits out a day.

We prefer Martha White cornmeal--I am like a bloodhound, I could always tell when mom used a different cornmeal.

I'm not a big fan of sage, so I'm omitting it from my batch of dressing.

We always saute the veggies in butter prior to adding them to the cornbread mixture. I just prefer them not so crunchy. And if you want to skip the chopping, buy the veggies frozen and prechopped.

And use a deeper dish for more moist dressing.

Ingredients:

4    Cups Chopped Celery(tops too)
4    Cups Chopped Onions(Green and Regular together)
24  Cups Crumbled Cornbread
3 or 4 Slices Bread (oven dried or left out to stale)
10  Eggs slightly beaten. (Stir in last after complete mixture has cooled)
Generous amount of Nature Seasoning (Morton's)
Sage to Taste(1 T)(optional)
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Boil 5 leg quarters and 1 package chicken breast strips to get broth(approx 7 cups) and debone for use in dressing.

Mix all of your ingredients(except eggs) together in large mixing bowl.  Add chicken broth until you have the consistency of your cornbread mixture prior to baking.  If in doubt of consistency add slightly more broth. (A little bit thicker than cake batter is ideal.) Let mixture cool, then fold in your eggs.  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes.

Enjoy! And I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

If you have any questions email me or respond to this post. tracyturner@townsquaremedia.com