This is THE best Southern cornbread stuffing recipe for Thanksgiving! It's rich, savory and full of flavor without using a ton of butter. This traditional stuffing recipe needs to be on your holiday table! (vegetarian, gluten-free option)
Favorite holiday food of all time? Mine is stuffing, hands down.
What could be better than a pan full of carbs? Bread AND cornbread with a rich, savory, buttery, brothy, herby flavor that only comes around once a year? Pass me a fork!
Southern cornbread stuffing is one of those Thanksgiving dishes that never seem to have a recipe when our family makes it, but it always turns out absolutely delicious. Like, the best. And I have always wanted to share the absolute best ever cornbread stuffing with you for Thanksgiving, so I set out to find (or build) our family recipe.
Many of my family's traditional recipes were passed down from my grandmother, who I never met as she passed away before I was born. I was given her Joy of Cooking cookbook, which she called her 'bible,' as a wedding gift, so I turned to it, hoping it might give me some insight into her Thanksgiving stuffing recipe. This is what Joy of Cooking had to say about stuffing and dressing:
"There is no set rule for the proportions of ingredients in bread dressing. It should be palatable, light and slightly moist, well-flavored but bland."
Okaaay?
Each stuffing recipe in the book has very ambiguous measurements and ingredient variations that seem very open to interpretation. Hmmm. So that's why our family doesn't have an actual recipe for Thanksgiving stuffing.
So I guess I was going to have to make my own Southern cornbread stuffing recipe based on memory. Luckily, there is no shortage of Thanksgiving memories in my family!
The resulting recipe for traditional Southern cornbread stuffing I came up with is quite literally THE best stuffing we've ever had. My husband and I could not stop eating it. It's so flavorful, but not too overpowering. It's the perfectly moist but light texture, and honestly, if your measurements are off or you substitute a couple of ingredients, you're probably fine.
So it turns out Joy of Cooking was completely right with its unhelpful comments about stuffing. Try this Southern cornbread stuffing recipe for yourself and make it your own as you see fit. Maybe one day your family will have it's own traditional Thanksgiving stuffing recipe that can be passed down through the generations.
Did you make this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the comments!
PrintTHE Best Southern Cornbread Stuffing
This is THE best Southern cornbread stuffing recipe for Thanksgiving! It's rich, savory and full of flavor without using a ton of butter. This traditional stuffing recipe needs to be on your holiday table! (vegetarian, gluten free option)
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1hour 20 minutes
- Yield: one 13x9" pan 1x
- Category: side dish
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: Southern
Ingredients
- 1 8x8-inch pan prepared cornbread, about 7 cups cubed
- ½ loaf bread (sandwich, French, whole grain all work), about 7 cups cubed
- 3 green onions, chopped
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 med onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 stalks celery, sliced
- 2 ¾ cups chicken or vegetable broth, divided
- 3 large eggs
- Pinch salt
- ½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Cut cornbread and bread into roughly ½-inch cubes. Place on a baking sheet and let sit overnight on the counter covered loosely with a towel, to stale, or toast in the oven at 350°F for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add stale bread to a very large bowl with green onion, parsley and thyme.
- If it isn't heated already, heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 13x9-inch baking dish.
- Place butter in a large skillet. Heat over medium-low heat. Add onion, garlic and celery. Cook, stirring, until onion and celery is slightly softened, 5-10 minutes. Add 1 cup of the broth and let simmer about 5 more minutes.
- Add onion and celery mixture to bowl with the bread. Gently stir to coat.
- Whisk together eggs, remaining broth, salt and pepper. Pour over bread mixture and stir gently again. If bread appears too dry, add more broth as needed. Pour mixture into prepared pan and cover with foil.
- Bake 45 minutes, then uncover and bake an additional 15-20 minutes.
Notes
For gluten free stuffing, use your favorite gluten free cornbread and bread.
Keywords: southern cornbread stuffing, the best cornbread stuffing, cornbread stuffing
This was delicious!!! So sweet and flavorful!
★★★★★
What type of parsley does this recipe call for?
★★★★
Fresh parsley, flat leaf or curly are both fine!
Can I use bread croutons for the white stale bread
Yes, you should be able to.
I made this for Thanksgiving and it was amazing! Perfectly flavored with just the right amount of moisture and crunch.
Definitely my go-to stuffing recipe now.
★★★★★
I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks so much for leaving a review.
Can you make early and heat. ASAP
Hi Allison, Yes you should be able to. I’d suggest reheating in the oven covered with foil, and remove the foil at the end to crisp the top a little bit.
If I don't make our own cornbread, how many cups store bought cornbread can I use?
Hi Farrah,
You'll just use one full pan of cornbread from the store (an 8-inch pan or so). I'm not sure how many cups it comes out to, but my estimate is roughly 6 cups.
2- 12oz bags of store bought cornbread like Pepperidge Fram ...that'll work fine