What is the difference between dressing and stuffing?

Technically speaking, stuffing means stuffed in the bird and dressing is in a separate dish. However, I think of traditional stuffing as chopped up large chunks of bread, while dressing is more of a crumbled up texture like the crumbled cornbread that we use in this recipe.

Can I make this ahead?

Personally, I would wait until the morning of Thanksgiving. It will get dried out if you bake it twice, but it will be mushy if you let it sit too long in the fridge before baking.

Old Fashioned Cornbread Dressing {with Sausage}

Name: Old Fashioned Cornbread Dressing
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: Thanksgiving
Ingredients: 6 cups of crumbled stale cornbread (recipe linked below); 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 tablespoon salted butter; 1 small yellow onion, diced; 3 ribs of celery, diced; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 16 ounce sweet Italian sausage with no casings or 16 ounce mild country sausage, like Jimmy Dean; 4 sage leaves, minced; 1 cup dried cranberries; 1 and 3/4 cups chicken stock

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Old Fashioned Cornbread Dressing

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

Author: Tara Smithson
Total Time: 60 minutes
Yield: 8 cups 1x

Description

This Old Fashioned Cornbread Dressing with Sausage is a traditional, Southern recipe and it's delicious. This homemade dressing is filled with flavor and will completely WOW your Thanksgiving guests!

Ingredients

Scale

6 cups of crumbled stale cornbread (recipe linked below)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon salted butter
1 small yellow onion, diced
3 ribs of celery, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 ounce sweet Italian sausage with no casings or 16 ounce mild country sausage, like Jimmy Dean
4 sage leaves, minced
1 cup dried cranberries
1 and 3/4 cups chicken stock

Instructions

Prepare the Cornbread: Two days ahead of time, bake the cornbread. Use my homemade cornbread muffin recipe or a boxed mix, like jiffy, is fine too. You need 6 cups of cooked cornbread. Once baked and cooled, crumble up and allow to dry out in the air for 2 days.
For the Dressing: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Dice up the yellow onion, and celery. Mince the sage.
Into a large dutch oven over medium low heat, add in the olive oil and butter. We are using butter to get a buttery flavor, and adding the olive oil to help increase the burning point.
Once pot is hot, add in the onion, celery and salt. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Bump up the heat to just under medium. Add in the sausage. Stir and cook for another 7 to 8 minutes, until no longer pink.
Toss the sage into the pot. Stir and cook for 1 minute.
Turn off heat and add in the stale cornbread and cranberries and mix together.
Slowly add in the chicken stock to the mixture, stirring to incorporate.
Transfer the dressing into a casserole dish and bake uncovered for 30 minutes. After baking, turn to broil. Broil for about 3 minutes for a nice brown crust on top.
Allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving & then enjoy!