Our Favorite Stuffing With Cornbread and Sausage
4.4
(27)
There are over 250 Thanksgiving dressing and stuffing recipes on Epicurious, including a heap of cornbread stuffing recipes. Some are packed with Italian sausage and Parmesan, some are meat-free and enriched with buttermilk biscuits, others are gluten-free and docked with sweet potatoes and spicy pork sausage, and still, there are many, many more.
To determine how to make our ultimate cornbread dressing recipe, the Epicurious Test Kitchen baked batch after golden-brown batch of the classic Thanksgiving side dish. Rounds of testing lead us to our most delicious Thanksgiving stuffing ever, which has a mix of country bread and cornbread, savory breakfast sausage, and plenty of fresh herbs to make it truly irresistible.
The tricks to making this great, crispy-topped stuffing are easy: tear the two breads into bite-sized pieces and dry them out slowly in the oven so that they retain texture and body when mixed with flavorful chicken stock, fresh sage, and other herbs. Cook sausage in a pan over medium-high heat until crusty and browned, then melt butter in the same pan and sauté diced white or yellow onions and celery, scraping up any stuck-on sage sausage bits so that you don’t miss out on an ounce of flavor. And bake in a covered casserole dish (butter or spray it with cooking spray first, so that the baked dressing doesn’t stick) at a steady medium heat until cooked through, before removing the cover to brown the top.
Editor’s note: This recipe was originally published October 9, 2017.
Recipe information
Total Time
2 hours 20 minutes
Yield
8–10 servings
Ingredients
Special Equipment
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat oven to 300°F. Butter baking dish; set aside. Arrange bread and cornbread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake, tossing occasionally, until completely dried out, 35–50 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet, then transfer to a very large bowl.
Step 2
Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium-high. Break sausage into ½" pieces and cook, stirring and breaking up into smaller (about ¼") pieces with a wooden spoon or spatula, until browned, 8–10 minutes. Transfer to bowl with bread but do not stir.
Step 3
Heat remaining 1 stick butter in same skillet over medium-high. Cook onions and celery, stirring often and scraping browned bits off bottom of pan, until just beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add to bowl with bread mixture and let cool.
Step 4
Whisk eggs, broth, parsley, sage, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Add to bread mixture and fold gently until thoroughly combined.
Step 5
Increase oven temperature to 350°F. Transfer mixture to prepared dish, cover with foil, and bake stuffing until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 160°F, 40–45 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake until set and top is browned and crisped, 45–50 minutes more.
Step 6
DO AHEAD: Stuffing can be assembled, but not baked, 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. When ready to bake, bring to room temperature and bake according to recipe. Stuffing can be baked 1 day ahead. Let cool completely, then cover with foil and chill. Keep covered and bake in a 350°F oven until warmed through, 25–30 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is crisped, 7–10 minutes more.
Omit the sausage and use vegetable broth instead of chicken to make this stuffing vegetarian-friendly.
How would you rate Our Favorite Stuffing With Cornbread and Sausage?
Leave a Review
Reviews (27)
Back to TopAmazing recipe as-is. Nothing needs to change. Minor nitpicking that celery “stalk” clearly means “rib”. That would be an absolutely insane amount of celery and no reasonable person would think 3 stalks was reasonable and would instead use 3 ribs. This recipe works amazing with breakfast sausage links, patties, bulk raw sausage, impossible/beyond breakfast sausage, and rough mushroom duxelles w/ breakfast sausage spices. It also works great with vegetable broth, chicken broth, or turkey broth. Also works great with store bought stuffing breads and homemade. Just get the measurements right and you’ll get results varying between delicious and fantastic. The only thing I haven’t tried is dried herbs. Be careful with salt also. Lots of the ingredients have salt so minimal salt needs to be added. Taste a spoonful before adding the egg mix and you’ll know whether it’s seasoned enough.
Anonymous
Santa Monica, CA
11/24/2022
New family favorite! I added 1/2 chopped Granny Smith and 1/2 SugarBee apple
Pam N
Roseville, CA
11/30/2021
My family begs for this stuffing every year. Begs. And it's great, but because i have to make it non-dairy, it means making my own cornbread, cubing and toasting it. Major pain in the neck, but worth it.
Anonymous
New Jersey
11/24/2021
Had people begging to come back...just for the stuffing.
Mathew
Montrose
11/22/2021
I like to print recipes. Your recipes frequently require more than a two-sided print. Is it possible to abbreviate your title page?
Anonymous
10/21/2021
I followed the recipe exactly, but clearly I did something very wrong. This was terrible. It was very dry and the ingredients didn't bind together at all; I had to add the basting liquids from the roasting pan at the last minute. The flavor of the sage was overwhelming and we couldn't taste the sausage at all. Everyone took only one bite and that was it. I won't make this again.
dgarrick
SF Bay Area
11/27/2020
When you write "rounds of testing beget our tastiest Thanksgiving stuffing ever"--I have to believe!! This is the best pan turkey dressing I have ever made or eaten!!! You nailed it epicurious!! I thought the mix might be too dry when I mixed the liquid parts to the dried breads but I resisted temptation to add more broth and was well-rewarded... Thanks for another really really good recipe!!!!!
ooowieee!
Upper Midwest US
11/27/2020
See Related Recipes and Cooking Tips
53 Christmas Dinner Side Dishes to Round Out Your Holiday Feast
If it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, you probably have a menu to plan. We can help.61 Easy Thanksgiving Recipes for a Less-Stressful Feast
These easy-to-prepare recipes will ensure a delicious holiday.Our 73 Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes
Round out your holiday table with our best ideas for Thanksgiving sides.Our 39 Best Stuffing Recipes
Call it stuffing or call it dressing; what's important is that everyone knows it’s the best part of Thanksgiving dinner.7 Steps to Better Thanksgiving Stuffing
After taste-testing tons of top-rated Epi recipes, we found the intel we needed to make the ultimate version.Our 67 Best Cornmeal Recipes
Looking for cornbread, corn cake, or corn muffin recipes? You've come to the right place.What to Cook for Canadian Thanksgiving
The best recipes for Thanksgiving turkey, stuffing, green beans, and more.102 Traditional Thanksgiving Recipes, From Turkey to Sides and Desserts
Here you'll find all the classics: turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pie—lots of pie.Absolutely Everything You Need to Know About Thanksgiving Stuffing
Including the definitive answer to “Should I cook the stuffing inside the bird?”
