Before diving into this delicious recipe, please read the following notes (and then entire recipe!) carefully. They offer many key tips and will help prevent making common mistakes while preparing the dressing. Some notes before beginning:
● This list is for 1 Pyrex dish approx 9x13 inches. However, when making it for family get-togethers such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, I usually triple this amount. The first time I made it, I made 3 times this amount.
● This recipe uses large eggs! Not small, medium, or jumbo ones. Please do not substitute! You will need 9 eggs per pan of dressing you wish to make, so just go ahead and buy a dozen large to start off with and make your life easy.
– 3 are for the cornbread, 3 are boiled, and 3 go in raw
● Make the dressing about 3 days before you are ready to cook it to serve. The secret to this recipe is letting it ferment in the fridge for 2-3 days before baking. It tastes even better!
● It is freezable! Yes, you can freeze it uncooked for 4 to 6 weeks! This does not hurt the quality or taste in any way. So if you make too much for Thanksgiving, freeze an extra pan for Christmas! No one will know it was frozen. Just place it in the fridge overnight to allow it to thaw before baking it.
DO NOT SUBSTITUTE any of the following:
- Medium or Jumbo for the Large Eggs
- Sweet, Red, or White Onions for Yellow Onions. Sweets do not provide enough flavor, Whites are too strong, and Reds are just completely inappropriate flavor for this type of dish. I know my onions. I love them, but each has its own place in cooking. Some substitutions just don’t work. Yellow only for dressing please!
- Sweet Milk for Buttermilk – it will alter the taste of the cornbread and therefore, the dressing. If possible, please use Bulgarian Buttermilk, unless you absolutely cannot find it.
- White Cornmeal for Yellow Cornmeal – again, this will change the taste dramatically! White is not bad, it’s just not as good. Plus, the yellow and the buttermilk complement each other in ways you cannot imagine!
● The reason this dressing is so rich and savory is because of the ingredients in it. When you change what goes into the cornbread, you change the foundation of your dressing. This step is critical. Please do not overlook it.
● My grandmother, Willodean McRee taught me to make dressing. She did not have exact amounts as I have outlined here; she just made it from years of experience. When I made it myself, I made a couple changes – used Yellow Cornmeal instead of white, and used Bulgarian Buttermilk instead of Sweet Milk. I pretty much winged it the first time around, but I was careful to measure and record everything I did. I got lucky and it was a big hit! Granny said she loved the alterations in the cornbread and thought I had improved her “already famous” recipe. She was very proud. And now, I am proud to share this recipe with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. And remember, have fun!
Makes a 9x13 Pyrex pan of dressing.
- Cornbread (recipe follows)
- 2 cups Hen Meat
- 1 quart homemade Chicken Stock + 1 can Swanson Chicken Broth
- 3 Boiled Large Eggs
- 3 Raw Large Eggs
- ¼ Large Yellow Onion
- 1⅓ stalks Celery
- ½ tbsp Poultry Seasoning
- ½ tsp Sage
Extra celery, onion, and some carrots for hen stock. Also, salt, pepper, and thyme.
STEP 1: The Hen, Stock, and Cornbread
Boil the hen in a large stock pot with approximate 4 ½ quarts water and some carrots, celery, onion, [use as much as you like. Remember this will be used as your stock for the dressing and also for the Giblet Gravy if you choose to make any] 1 tbsp salt, pinch of thyme and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Keep leftover broth. [I had about 4 quarts] Note: This was a fairly large hen. It provided enough meat and stock to make 3 pans of dressing and a quart of Giblet Gravy.
Strain the broth to remove all vegetables and throw them away. Boil 3 eggs ahead of time too. While the hen is cooking, make the following recipe for cornbread.
Cornbread (2 skillets)
- 3 c. Yellow Cornmeal
- 2½ c. Bulgarian style Buttermilk
- 3 large eggs
- ¼ c. oil
Mix together and bake at 450 for 25 minutes. Makes one 10¼ inch skillet and one 8½ inch skillet.
STEP 2: Prepare Your Stock
Chop up the onion and celery. Heat the chicken broth on the stove in a saucepan. Add the onion and celery to the broth and let it simmer on the stove until the onion and celery are cooked.
STEP 3: It All Comes Together
Crumble the cornbread in a large mixing bowl. Chop up your boiled eggs and add to the cornbread. Add 2 cups hen meat. Add 1 quart chicken broth and 1 can Swanson Chicken Broth and stir.
Add the poultry seasoning and sage. Stir well. Add 3 raw eggs.
STEP 4: FERMENTATION
This is the most important and most overlooked step in making phenomenal dressing. Allow the dressing to ferment in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days [preferably 3]. This will help bring out all of the flavors in the dressing. Also, this step prevents over-seasoning with poultry seasoning and sage, which is a very common mistake! If you tasted the raw mixture now (before adding your raw eggs, of course!) you would think it didn’t have enough seasoning. After fermenting for a few days, however, the flavors are just right. Waiting 3 days will seem difficult, but I promise it is worth it!
STEP 5: BAKING
Bake the dressing in large Pyrex dishes (or Corningware) at 350 degrees. It will take about 60 – 80 minutes depending on your oven. [Mine is electric] Just check it. If it still looks soupy, it’s not done yet. It should be firm, but not dry. You should be able to slice it and scoop out squares. It should not be so soft it falls down on your plate. [Soggy dressing is just plain gross!] Let it stand after coming out of the oven a few minutes before serving.
Giblet Gravy
- 1 quart homemade Chicken Stock
- Giblets from a turkey (which I assume you are preparing to bake to go along with the dressing. Am I right?)
- 1 or 2 large scoops of Dressing (already cooked), adjust amount as you like
- Salt, Black Pepper, and Thyme to season the giblets
Place the giblets in a pan of boiling water. Add some salt, pepper, and thyme. Boil the giblets until cooked.
Remove from water. Chop up the meat into small pieces. Discard the water.
In a large pot, add 1 quart homemade chicken stock, the chopped giblets, and the scoop(s) of dressing. Bring to a rolling boil for a minute and reduce heat to a simmer. Taste to see if the saltiness is right and add a little if necessary. Much of the seasoning is already in the broth and the dressing, so you shouldn’t need much if any additional seasoning. Allow to simmer for about 30 minutes. The gravy will not be thick when it is done. It will still be very broth-like.
- Remember: Less is more when it comes to salt! Too much salt will quickly ruin any dish!
