Southern Cornbread Dressing with Chicken

Cornbread dressing with chicken is a traditional dish served at holiday and family gatherings across the South. Crumbled homemade cornbread, sautéed vegetables, hard boiled eggs, shredded chicken are baked in a casserole dish until golden brown.

This post may contain affiliate links. Click here to learn more about how affiliate links are used on this site.

Which type of dressing recipe do you prefer? Every Thanksgiving, there is a great divide in my house.  It is the issue over stuffing – or dressing – whatever you prefer to call it. I grew up eating stuffing of the cubed bread variety.  I love the taste of sage, the little bite of crispiness on the top and the warm gooeyness underneath.  My husband refers to my brand of stuffing as “soggy bread dressing.”

He swears by his mom’s recipe for cornbread dressing, passed down by his grandmother.  It is a family tradition and has a permanent place on the dinner table for every Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas buffet, and any other family get-together in between. Even though this is meant as a side dish, we have on occasion eaten this as a main dish as well. It’s that good.

What is the difference between stuffing and dressing?

This question comes up quite a bit. The answer, however, is very simple. Stuffing is “stuffed” into the cavity of a bird and cooks while the bird is cooking. Dressing, not to be confused with the sauce poured over a salad, is baked in a casserole dish and served on the side.

Ingredients you will need

Cornbread dressing with chicken requires less than 10 ingredients. If you will be short on time the day you plan to serve this, you can prep many of these ingredients ahead. To make this recipe, you’ll need:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter – I like to be able to control the amount of salt in my dish, which is why I prefer to use unsalted butter. However, you may use salted if that’s all you have on hand.
• 2 cups chopped celery – this is about two stalks of celery.
• 2 cups chopped onion – this is approximately the equivalent of one large onion. A white or yellow onion is preferred. Stay away from red onions as they can discolor the dressing.
• 6 – 8 cups crumbled cornbread – this can be store-bought cornbread or homemade cornbread. Just make sure you don’t use sweet cornbread.
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs or two slices of day-old white bread or wheat bread, torn – you can use store-bought breadcrumbs or make your own homemade breadcrumbs..
• 2 cups of chicken broth, plus more as needed – again, store bought or homemade chicken stock is fine. I prefer to use unsalted or low sodium broth.
• 2 large eggs slightly beaten
• 2 hardboiled eggs, chopped – check out this post for making easy peel hard boiled eggs.
• 1 cup shredded cooked chicken – I use chicken thighs, but chicken breasts or leftover chicken from a store-bought rotisserie chicken can also be used. If using raw chicken, save the water it was cooked in to use as your chicken broth.
• Salt and black pepper, to taste

Prep ahead

Making this casserole from start to finish can take a few hours. That’s why I like to break the process up into stages. I find it’s easier to plan ahead and work over the course of a few days rather than trying to get everything done at once. Once you’ve prepped, the dressing comes together pretty quickly.

Make the Cornbread

This recipe calls for 6-8 cups of crumbled cornbread. One batch of my homemade skillet cornbread makes the perfect amount. To save time, the cornbread can be made a few days in advance, wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the fridge until you are ready to use it. The cornbread can also be frozen. Often, if I have a few pieces leftover after a meal, I’ll toss it in a freezer bag and save it for a later use.

Boil the Chicken

You will also need one cup of cooked and shredded chicken. I like to use chicken thighs with the skin removed. We also need two cups of chicken broth. I like to “kill two birds with one stone” by boiling my raw chicken thighs in four cups of water for 20 minutes. If you have any vegetables that are past their prime in the vegetable drawer, toss those into the water too for more flavor.

After 20 minutes, remove the chicken thighs and set them aside to cool. Strain any vegetables or aromatics you may have used to season the broth and discard. Once the chicken has cooled enough to handle, remove it from the bone and shred. Store the chicken and the broth separately in airtight containers in the refrigerator. The broth and the chicken can be made four days in advance.

Boil the Eggs

After you boil two eggs, let them cool completely. Leave them in their shells – they will last longer — then store them in the refrigerator. Hardboiled eggs will last up to a week in the refrigerator.

Chop Your Veggies

Save even more time by chopping two cups of celery and two cups of onions 2-3 days in advance. These will also need to be stored in an airtight container or freezer bag in the fridge. You can store them together, as they will be going into the pan at the same time.

How to make Southern Cornbread Dressing with Chicken

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.
2. While the oven is heating, melt the stick of butter in a large skillet. Add the diced celery and onion and sauté until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Remove the sauteed onions and celery from the heat and allow them to cool.
3. If you haven’t crumbled your cornbread yet, go ahead and do that now. I find clean hands are the best tool for this. Place the cornbread in a large bowl and break the cornbread up into small pieces. Once you’ve done that, add the breadcrumbs or torn day-old bread. Pour in the chicken broth. Use a spoon, potato masher or even your hands to break up the cornbread pieces even more. When you are done, the cornbread should be soupy and kind of squishy.
4. Peel and chop the hardboiled eggs. Add them to the cornbread mixture, along with two raw eggs, the sauteed vegetables and the shredded chicken. Season with salt and pepper and stir everything together until it is well combined.
5. Coat one 9 x 13 x 2-inch casserole dish (or two 8 x 8-inch dishes) with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the cornbread mixture into the casserole dish and spread it around until it’s in an even layer. You do not need to cover it. Adjust your oven rack so that it is in the middle of the oven. Bake the cornbread dressing for one hour until it is set and the top is golden brown.
6. The dressing is going to be pretty hot right when you first pull it out of the oven, so I suggest letting it sit for about 15 minutes before serving. This also gives any residual chicken broth additional time to get soaked into the bread.