Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing

This homemade cornbread and sausage stuffing recipe is full of flavor and is perfect for any holiday meal. This southern sausage stuffing is so simple and easy to make yet is loaded with plenty of flavor and sure to be a hit for meals.

Prep Time15

Cook Time1

Chill Time3

Total Time4 15

Servings: people

Calories: 533kcal

Author: Karin and Ken

Ingredients

Stuffing Ingredients

12 cups cornbread broken into 1-inch pieces include crumbs, use the recipe included or another cornbread option.
3 cups chicken stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups half-and-half
2 large eggs beaten lightly
8 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 stick, plus extra for baking dish
1 ½ pounds bulk pork sausage broken into 1-inch pieces
4 medium onions chopped fine (about 4 cups)
5 ribs celery chopped fine (about 2 cups)
3 tablespoons minced fresh thyme leaves
3 tablespoons minced fresh sage leaves
6 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper

Dry Cornbread Recipe

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
4 large eggs
1 ⅓ cups buttermilk
1 ⅓ cups milk
2 cups yellow cornmeal preferably stone-ground
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt

Instructions

Prepare the Stuffing

Place dry cornbread in your largest bowl. Whisk together broth or stock, half and half and eggs in medium bowl. Pour over top of cornbread and toss carefully until coated and cornbread doesn't crumble into smaller pieces. Set aside.
Heat a heavy-bottomed, 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the skillet and make sure pan is coated. Once foaming stops, add sausage and stir until cooked and no longer pink. Around 6 or 7 minutes. Transfer cooked sausage to bowl using a slotted spoon.
Add approximately half of the onions and celery to the remaining fat inside your skillet. Cook, until tender, over medium heat, around 5 minutes. Transfer onions and celery to bowl with sausage.
Return your empty skillet to heat and add remaining 6 tablespoons of butter. Once foaming stops, add the rest of your celery and onions and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper, thyme, sage and garlic and remove from heat after 30 seconds.
Add everything to your big bowl with cornbread inside. Once added, carefully stir until blended.
Your goal is to not break up the pieces of cornbread any more than already done. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour if not ideally 3 hours to meld flavors together.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and prepare two 9 x 9 inch cake pans or the equivalent with butter. Maybe a 10 x 15 inch pan. Place stuffing inside dish or pans as well as all of the liquid inside the bowl. Every last drop. Press stuffing down with spatula to make it fit inside your baking pan or dish.
Bake until beautiful golden brown, somewhere between 35 and 40 minutes.
Serve and enjoy every bite.

Dry Cornbread Recipe

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a 13 x 9 inch cake pan with butter and set aside.
In a good sized mixing bowl whisk eggs, then add buttermilk and milk.
In another bowl whisk cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt until blended.
Push your dry ingredients up the sides of the bowl to make a deep hole. Pour egg mixture inside hole and stir with a whisk until just combined.
Stir in butter until incorporated.
Pour batter into your prepared pan.
Bake until top is golden brown and edges have pulled away from sides of pan, somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes.
Place pan on wire rack and allow to cool for about an hour.

Notes

To make the stuffing a day in advance, increase both the chicken stock and half-and-half by ¼ cup each and refrigerate the unbaked stuffing 12 to 24 hours; before transferring it to the baking dish, let the stuffing stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes so that it loses its chill.

If you are using this cornbread for stuffing, you will need about ¾ of the total recipe. The rest you will have to eat with a little butter or honey perhaps?! For best results, make sure to follow stuffing directions and dry the cornbread and soak in some half-and-half. You'll be so glad you did!

Dry out your cornbread by cutting your cornbread into cubes and spreading them out on rimmed baking sheets and allow them to sit overnight on your kitchen counter. The other option is to bake cubed cornbread at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until crisp. Exact timing will depend on how big your cubes are so keep an eye on it. Once corners and edges start to brown it's time to come out of the oven. Your other option is to spread in even layer on 2 baking sheets, and dry cornbread in 250-degree oven for somewhere between 50 and 60 minutes. Decide which method will work best for you and go for it!

Recipe adapted from America's Test Kitchen

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