With Christmas just next week, I'm sure everyone is getting out their cookbooks and making their menus and grocery lists. One thing that is always on our holiday menu is my mother's dressing. Oh, it's delicious. This year, we've opted to have a less traditional "Appetizer" lunch, so it's not likely that this will be on the table, but as delicious as it is - I'm thinking it will probably make an appearance somewhere.
It does take awhile to make, but the results are totally worth it! If you're up for it, here are the directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then, start a large pot of boiling water. Add some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and about 4 chicken bouillon cubes. Take a whole fryer (chicken), and place in the boiling water. You want it to boil for a good while - until your kitchen smells like chicken. But be careful, you don't want all of that liquid to be gone - you'll need it later.
As the chicken is boiling, take 3 boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix and mix those up. (I believe you need an egg and ¼ of a cup of milk for each box). Mix that up and pour into a greased baking pan or cast iron skillet. Then, stick that into your pre-heated oven.
Fill a small saucepan with water, and boil 4-5 eggs.
While your cornbread is in the oven and your eggs and chicken are boiling, chop up a medium white onion and about 8 celery sticks. Take a medium skillet and put it over medium/high heat and melt a stick of butter. Then, sautee until onions are clear and celery is tender. Set to the side.
When the cornbread comes out of the oven, you want to crumble it up, as best you can. Use a spoon or a fork, so that you don't burn yourself. Add the crumbles to a large mixing bowl. Then add the celery, onions and butter and mix together. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, poultry seasoning and sage.
Peel and chop the hardboiled eggs and add them to the cornbread. Stir until eggs are combined well.
When the chicken is finished, pull it out of the water and place it in a casserole dish to cool. Once cooled, pull the meat off the bone, in shreds and add to the cornbread/vegetable mixture. Mix all together. Add some of the chicken broth to moisten and continue to stir, until everything is combined.
Once combined, spoon into a casserole dish and spread out until even. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown.
Reserve the rest of the chicken broth to moisten dressing, as necessary.
My mother usually makes giblet gravy to go over the top of it, but I don't like giblet gravy so I'm omitting that part. The dressing is delicious and really doesn't need anything else!
Hope you'll make it and find out for yourself! Trust me, it's worth all the trouble!
Happy Cooking!
.jpg)
