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Cornbread Stuffing

Delight your family and friends with this delicious and easy cornbread stuffing recipe filled with big pieces of crumbly seasoned cornbread and crunchy buttery veggies.

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cornbread stuffing in a casserole dish made with butter, onion, celery, spices parsley, vegetable stock and eggs
Photography by Gayle McLeod

The Best Cornbread Stuffing Recipe

Say goodbye to bland, dry, stuffing! This is the year to make your stuffing recipe with cornbread! Crunchy and tender pieces of fluffy cornbread marry with fresh herbs and seasoned onions for a classic take on everyone’s favorite thanksgiving side: Cornbread Stuffing. While this recipe is straightforward, keep in mind it bakes for an hour in the oven, which allows the perfect amount of time for putting the final touches on your other dishes. Other cornbread stuffing recipes include ingredients like oysters, bacon or sausage, but we keep our recipe for cornbread stuffing simple, light, and layered with flavor with only the basics. Feel free to use pre-made or boxed cornbread to keep it extra easy!

cornbread, butter, onion, celery, spices parsley, vegetable stock and eggs in bowls to make cornbread stuffing

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What Is The Difference Between Cornbread Dressing and Stuffing?

Historically, cornbread dressing refers to the fluffy savory bread mixture cooked outside the bird while stuffing, a nod to the name, when the turkey is stuffed with the herby bread mixture. Nowadays, both cornbread dressing and cornbread stuffing are interchangeably used. This comforting dish originated in the South by swapping out cornmeal for stale bread, which has more recently turned to use subtly sweet and light cornbread and is sometimes referred to as southern cornbread stuffing.

onion and celery being cooked in butter in a skillet
broken cornbread pieces, parsley and cooked onion and celery being mixed together in a bowl for cornbread stuffing
chicken stock being poured over cornbread, parsley and cooked onion and Celery in a large mixing bowl
chicken stock whisked with eggs being poured overtop of cornbread stuffing in a large mixing bowl

What is Cornbread Stuffing Made Of?

If you’re deciding on what cornbread for stuffing you’re going to use – pre-made or boxed works just fine! But, if you’re looking to make cornbread from scratch, we suggest our Homemade Cornbread which you’ll want to 1.5x for exactly 10 cups! The rest of the ingredients are simple (nothing too fancy here!) but makes a well-rounded flavor profile, and can be found at your local grocery store if you don’t already have them:

  • Day-old cornbread, homemade or store-bought

  • Unsalted butter

  • Yellow onion

  • Celery

  • Fresh sage

  • Fresh thyme

  • Fresh rosemary

  • Kosher salt

  • Freshly cracked black pepper

  • Nutmeg

  • Fresh flat-leaf parsley

  • Chicken stock (or vegetable stock to make it vegetarian)

  • Eggs

cornbread stuffing in a casserole dish ready to be baked in the oven
cornbread stuffing made with cornbread, butter, onion, celery, spices parsley, vegetable stock and eggs

Should You Dry Out Cornbread For Stuffing?

The secret to crispy, flavorful stuffing is making sure your cornbread isn’t too fresh beforehand! Otherwise, you risk a soggy instead of a perfectly toasted cornbread top. We want this easy cornbread stuffing to suck up all the brothy, herby, buttery flavors which result in a golden brown exterior and a tender, fluffy interior with the seasoning distributed throughout. If you feel your cornbread is a bit fresher than you’d like, you can always speed up the staling process by popping it into a low-heat oven to dry it out.

cornbread stuffing made with cornbread, butter, onion, celery, spices parsley, vegetable stock and eggs

How to Make Cornbread Stuffing

Our homemade cornbread stuffing is not only easy but also a crowd-pleaser! Follow these few steps for all the tricks and tips you might need for making the best cornbread stuffing:

  1. Sauté! Celery and onion not only help develop a savory rich flavor but also add a little crunch and texture to your dish! Fresh herbs of sage, thyme, and rosemary combine with cracked pepper, salt, and nutmeg for a burst of seasoning.

  2. Mix! Take your big chunks of cornbread for stuffing and generously mix it with the buttery, herbaceous celery onion mixture until combined. Drizzle over some of the stock and mix again! Whisk the egg – which we use as a binding ingredient – with the remaining stock and drizzle it over the pieces until all the liquid is absorbed!

  3. Bake! We like to butter the inside of our dish first for extra flavor! Keep it covered in the first half so the cornbread stuffing doesn’t get too crispy on the top. Cook for the remaining time with it uncovered until set. Garnish with your favorite herbs, like parsley or leftover sage, thyme, or rosemary!

cornbread stuffing in a casserole dish topped with fresh parsley with a scoop taken out

Tools You’ll Need

Thanksgiving Side Dishes for Everyone!

We’re big on Thanksgiving side dishes! So much so, we made a roundup of 40 Best Thanksgiving Sides. But, there are simply a few we can’t live without:

We’re Not Stuffed Yet!

We love this recipe so much, we make it more often than just Thanksgiving! You can too! Snap a photo of your cornbread and maybe even a video of the beautiful people you feed it to. Tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper. Happy eating!

Cornbread Stuffing

  • Serves: 10
  • Prep Time:  10 min
  • Cook Time:  1 hr 10 min
  • Calories: 301

Ingredients

  • 10 cups day old cornbread, homemade or store bought, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into 16 pieces, plus more for baking dish
  • 1 large yellow onion, chopped
  • 3 ribs celery ¼-inch dice, 1 cup
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, plus more for garnish
  • 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
  • 2 eggs

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13 baking dish with butter.

  2. In a large skillet set over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and celery and cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Add the sage, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper and nutmeg, stir to combine and cook until fragrant, about 1 more minute.

  3. In a large bowl gently mix together the cornbread pieces with the onion mixture and parsley. Drizzle 2 cups stock over the bread mixture and gently toss to combine.

  4. In a bowl, whisk the remaining 1 cup stock and eggs until combined. Pour over the bread mixture and fold gently until combined.

  5. Transfer to the 9x13 baking dish, cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil, bake until set, no longer jiggly in the center and the top is golden browned and crispy, about 30 minutes longer.

  6. Serve warm sprinkled with additional parsley if desired.

Note 2: If making The Modern Proper homemade cornbread for this stuffing, it takes 1 ½ batches.

Nutrition Info

  • Per Serving
  • Amount
  • Calories301
  • Protein3 g
  • Carbohydrates3 g
  • Total Fat19 g
  • Dietary Fiber1 g
  • Cholesterol96 mg
  • sodium458 mg
  • Total Sugars1 g

Cornbread Stuffing

Questions & Reviews

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  • Saga

    Can this be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator to be baked 1-2 days later?

    We wouldn't recommend that. It will probably make it much too soggy.

  • Jenn

    Why have I never made cornbread stuffing before this?! So good!

    Right?! We love it too!