Italian Sausage Cornbread Stuffing Recipe - Savory Simple (2024)
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This Italian Sausage Cornbread Stuffing Recipe is flavorful, easy to prepare and perfect for Thanksgiving!
Can you believe it’s almost time for Thanksgiving? This year is flying by at warp speed. Every year goes by a little bit faster, and the big 4-0 is now just around the corner.
It’s been a tumultuous year in countless ways, but I have a lot to be thankful for right now. A happy, healthy husband and family (and cat… too many close calls!), a niece or nephew on the way, a cozy little home, and amazing friends. Enough schmaltz, let’s get to business. Stuffing business. Or is it… dressing business?
Stuffing vs. Dressing
Recently, I learned that I had possibly been using the term “stuffing” wrong my entire life, as I started seeing recipes for Thanksgiving dressing with corresponding photos of stuffing. It was a bit mortifying. When I hear dressing, I think of salads. I was very confused.
It was explained to me that stuffing is the mixture baked into the turkey, while dressing is basically the same recipe but baked in a casserole dish. Eh? So my entire immediate and extended family had it wrong?
You can take a shortcut with the cornbread, since it’s being dried out and mixed with other ingredients. You can certainly bake some from scratch, but feel free to use a mix, or buy some pre-baked. Regardless of whether it’s homemade or store-bought, I recommend using a cornbread that you’re familiar with and like, since it will still be a dominant flavor. A friend recently served me Trader Joe’s cornbread (from a mix) alongside chili, and I had no idea it wasn’t homemade until she told me.
If you want to lighten up the recipe a bit, swap out regular Italian sausage for pre-cooked chicken or turkey Italian Sausage.
More Thanksgiving Recipes
Pumpkin Slab Pie (perfect for feeding a large crowd!)
Baked Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese (the BEST Thanksgiving side dish)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake (need I say more?)
Pecan Pie French Toast Casserole (brunch for the out-of-town guests!)
This Italian Sausage Cornbread Stuffing Recipe is flavorful, easy to prepare and perfect for Thanksgiving!
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Keyword Sausage Cornbread Stuffing
Prep Time 1 hourhour
Cook Time 1 hourhour40 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours40 minutesminutes
Servings 6-8 servings
Calories 377
Author Jennifer Farley
Ingredients
US Customary - Metric
6cupscornbread(your favorite recipe, cut into 1-inch pieces)
1tablespoonextra virgin olive oil
12ouncespre-cooked mild Italian sausage,sliced
1largeyellow onion,diced (approximately 2 cups)
2ribscelery,diced
1/2tablespoonfresh thyme leaves
1tablespoonsage leaves,finely chopped
2clovesgarlic,minced
1/2teaspoonkosher salt
1/2teaspoonground black pepper
1 1/2cupschicken stock,homemade or low-sodium
1cuphalf-and-half(or 1/2 cup whole milk + 1/2 cup cream)
1largeegg
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Distribute the diced cornbread evenly on a baking sheet and dry out in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Place in a large bowl and set aside.
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the sausage. Cook for several minutes, allowing the pieces to caramelize. Once they are nicely browned, move them to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside. Drain some but not all of the fat from the pan and then add the diced onion and celery with a pinch of salt. The liquid from the vegetables should help loosen up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan; stir those in with the vegetables. Cook for 3-5 minutes until the onions are slightly caramelized. Add the garlic, thyme and sage and cook for another minute before removing from the heat. Stir in the salt and pepper.
Whisk together the chicken stock, half and half and egg. Pour the mixture over the cornbread. Add the sausage as well as the vegetable mixture and fold the ingredients together. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the ingredients to chill in the refrigerator for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 9x9 inch baking dish and distribute the stuffing ingredients evenly. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
Please read my full post for additional recipe notes, tips, and serving suggestions!
For immediate help troubleshooting a recipe, please email me using the form on my contact page. I’ll try to respond to urgent questions as quickly as possible! For all general questions, please leave a comment here :)
Butter: Cook the vegetables in a mix of butter and sausage drippings. Vegetables: You'll need finely diced celery and a chopped onion. Bread: The white bread cubes should ideally be slightly stale. If your bread seems too soft, lightly toast it in the oven.
Use enough liquid: The key to keeping stuffing moist is to use enough liquid. You can use chicken or vegetable broth, melted butter, or a combination of both. The amount of liquid you need will depend on the recipe, but a good rule of thumb is to use about 1/2 to 1 cup of liquid for every 4 cups of bread cubes.
Dressing is made from cornbread, and stuffing is traditionally made from other breads — sourdoughs, biscuits, etc. Some dressing recipes incorporate a little white bread, but that does not exclude them from the Southern persuasion if cornbread is the cornerstone.
Broth: Chicken broth keeps the stuffing moist without making it soggy. Eggs: Two lightly beaten eggs help hold the dressing together and add moisture. Water: You can add a few tablespoons of water, if you'd like, to achieve your desired consistency.
Coat the sausage stuffer tube with vegetable shortening. Then, gently place a casing onto the sausage stuffer tube, ensuring you leave approximately four inches to securely tie off one end. Using the food pusher, feed the meat down and into the casing until about 4-6 inches of the casing remains.
Although most people in America debate on whether the dish should be called stuffing or dressing the people of Pennsylvania call it filling. Essentially filling is the same as stuffing or dressing. The name suggests that it will fill something like stuffing does.
While the instant stuffing was actually a closer contender than most of our testers anticipated, the homemade won hearts (and palates) for its subtle flavor and pleasing texture.
If the stuffing came out too wet and soggy (aka bread soup!) try not to over mix it, otherwise it'll turn into mush. Curtis Stone says to pour it on a large sheet tray and spread it out. Bake it on high heat to crisp it up, but make sure it doesn't burn.
The short answer to whether you can making stuffing ahead of time is yes. "Making stuffing ahead saves time, allows stove and oven space for other things, and making it ahead gives time for the flavor to fully develop," Chef David Tiner, Director at Louisiana Culinary Institute in Baton Rouge, tells Southern Living.
Lastly, adding too much liquid (such as broth) can also result in a gummy texture. Adjust the amount of liquid called for in your recipe and consider altering the cooking time if necessary. How to know when cornbread dressing is done cooking?
YES!This stuffing is baked to golden perfection the day before the big meal. You store it in the fridge overnight and then simply warm it in the oven before dinner. Baking it twice allows the flavours to meld even more so this side dish is sure to be a star at the table.
But for the Thanksgiving side dish in the South, the term dressing was adopted in place of stuffing, which was viewed as a crude term, during the Victorian era. Although dressing and stuffing are interchangeable terms, the signature ingredient of this Thanksgiving side dish in the South is cornbread.
Both dressing and stuffing are side dishes served at most Thanksgiving tables. It depends on the part of the country you are from as to what you call it. Those in the south use the term dressing interchangeably; whereas those in the northern states generally refer to the dish as stuffing.
Sausage casing, also known as sausage skin or simply casing, is the material that encloses the filling of a sausage. Natural casings are made from animal intestines or skin; artificial casings, introduced in the early 20th century, are made of collagen and cellulose.
The basic composition of sausages consists of ground meat, fat, seasoning and sometimes fillers that are further packed into a casing to give them the desired shape and texture.
The white powder that sits on the casing of a dry sausage isn't flour, or bacteria, or saltpeter! It is a fungus, but not any fungus! We're talking about penicillium. Bacteria and fungi are often feared, but most of today's antibiotics come from bacteria and fungi like penicillium.
Introduction: My name is Arielle Torp, I am a comfortable, kind, zealous, lovely, jolly, colorful, adventurous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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