Home For Thanksgiving Fried Cornbread Dressing

Mom of Chef Mark's Note:

This recipe has grown a few strapping boys and delighted even the pickiest gal in the bunch. Our home is always full to overflowing on Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is the one recipe that is a "must" even if we don't do turkey. This has evolved over the years to try to hit everyone's preferences. It's my own invention! It tastes good as is or will serve well with southern cream

• Total Time: 1 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 30

• 1 lb mild ground sausage
• 2 diced onions
• 2 cups sliced celery
• 1 lb sliced fresh mushrooms
• 4 cans Swanson chicken broth
• 2 -3 teaspoons sage
• salt & pepper (optional)
• 5 packets cornbread mix (each packet enough for 6 servings of cornbread)
• 3/4-2 cup butter or 3/4-2 cup margarine

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 for cornbread.
2. Place stick of butter in bottom of roasting pan and place in oven to melt it (This will allow the cornbread to"fry" while it's baking).
3. Mix up corn bread mix according to package instructions (Usually, this will be the addition of 2/3 cups sweet milk and 1 egg per package of mix.) (Cornbread can be baked ahead, which I usually do the night before).
4. When done, use a knife and score through the cornbread to make very small cubes.
5. (You should have enough to be able to enjoy a few cubes of this buttered delight while it's still hot).
6. Brown sausage in dutch oven.
7. Add onions, celery and mushrooms and the other half stick of butter if you need more oil.
8. Saute til sausage is done and onion is translucent.
9. Add about 3 cups of cornbread and sage.
10. Let brown a bit.
11. Add rest of cornbread and stir well.
12. Turn dressing from dutch oven into the roaster pan.
13. Drizzle with chicken broth til nice and moist (This is a personal taste thing).
14. Bake at 350 for about an hour or until golden brown.
15. This makes enough for 24 to 30 servings depending on appetites.
16. Is wonderful left-over.
17. Your guests will even want to take some home with them.
18. Freezes well.
19. (I don't salt during cooking. Just place salt and pepper shakers on the table for those who want more than what's already there).

Reviews

[Mrs.Herron]

This was great! I made for Christmas and the family loved it. I took the advice of a previous person's review and cut it in half but kept the full amount of sausage and also added the bacon. I loved the bacon!

[WaCookinFool]

Thanks for posting Mom of Chef Mark. This was a real hit at Thanksgiving dinner. In fact most people preferred this over regular dressing. The only change I made was that I added bacon and doubled the sausage, 1 pound mild and 1 pound Italian. I also added all the bacon and sausage grease. What the heck, I never was pretending it was low fat. This is definitely a keeper.

[AllendaleEstates]

This dish was the hit of the Thanksgiving meal. Everyone loved it! We used 48oz of broth to have a heavier and less fluffy dressing. We used Martha White's Yellow Gladiola cornbread mix. Awesome!