I love cooking and baking, and I love eating good food, so it makes sense that I love Thanksgiving! Like most families, we usually get together with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins for a huge feast, and both sides of the family have traditional Thanksgiving dishes that we make year after year. The only downside I can think of to Thanksgiving is that it usually means spending a long, stressful day in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove, followed by 10 minutes of eating, then hours and hours back in the kitchen cleaning up! The recipes I’ll be sharing for the next two weeks as part of the Thanksgiving, Fast & Fresh series are super quick and easy to make, don’t get a million dishes dirty, and keep the flavors fresh and satisfying!
First up is my mother-in-law’s cornbread dressing, which she makes all year, and which I love! It is great on Turkey Day, but goes equally well with a weeknight roasted chicken or stewed pork chops. The cornbread makes it slightly sweet, the apples give it a little tanginess, the pecans are for crunch, and the onions and seasoning make it deliciously savory, like good dressing should be. In fact, I just pulled a pan out of the oven and am going to grab a fork and dig in!
- 1 stick butter
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 3 stalks celery, sliced
- 2 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 teaspoon salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 3 teaspoons poultry seasoning
- 6 cups stale bread cubes
- 6 cups stale cornbread cubes
- 3 cups chicken broth
- In a large pot or dutch oven, melt butter. Add onion and celery, and saute until just beginning to get tender, about 5 minutes. Add chopped apples and continue sauteing for 5 more minutes. Combine onions, celery, and apples with all remaining ingredients, and toss gently until well-mixed. Pour mixture into a greased 9x13" baking pan. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake 20 more minutes.
Yumm!! This looks so good! I’ve never made dressing from scratch before, but I think I might try this out this year!
P.S. So nice meeting you on Saturday!! š
So nice to meet you too, Carlee!
I grew up eating Stove-Top, and I love it, but my mother-in-law’s recipe is pretty darn good, and not very hard.
Dressing is my absolute favorite part of Thanksgiving, and I can’t wait to try your recipe! Do you have a recommendation for making cornbread cubes? I’ve never done it before (my grandma’s recipe uses torn bread alone).
Hi Joy! You could buy corn muffins from a bakery or make them yourself. I couldn’t find any to buy (I didn’t look very hard!), so I made some to go with dinner the night before and saved a few to use in the dressing. I’ll update the post and include a link to my go-to cornbread recipe.
This would make a great side dish for any fall or winter meal, Toss in a handful of dried cherries too!
Use it to stuff pork chops, pork tenderloin, chicken boobs or as a side with fried chicken. Afterall, good stuffing is a food group!!!!
Agreed, Nancy! I could eat a whole plate of just stuffing!