Thanksgiving is the most celebrated meal of the year and we want your stuffing to be a belly-filling reason for your holiday guests to cheer! Our all-American stuffing, inspired by Bon Appétit, delivers all the festive flavors your family and friends love.
Featuring big toasted chunks of homemade cornbread, delectable bites of sausage, and a delicious depth of flavor from onions and collard greens, this is a Thanksgiving stuffing you will want to make year-round.
ALSO TRY: Sausage, pear and chestnut stuffing
Is stuffing an all-American dish? Though we don’t know if the Pilgrims actually served a stuffing at their premiere harvest feast, there is a good chance that their first Thanksgiving dinner featured wild bird, such as a turkey, and a wild rice dish, like a stuffing or dressing. Regardless, the great American turkey holiday we celebrate today wouldn’t be complete without some form of stuffing.
Our all-American cornbread-based stuffing has roots in the South, where soul-food-loving Southern cooks take great pride in their cornbread (and their collard greens!) and use it as a hallmark ingredient for the Thanksgiving side dish that accompanies the holiday bird.
This stuffing doesn’t get stuffed in the turkey. Despite the name, our stuffing is baked in a casserole dish in the oven and not in the bird. We have found that stuffing cooked in the bird boasts a richer turkey flavor but is also dense with moisture. For a lighter texture and a crisp top, we bake it separately. As a bonus, an unstuffed turkey requires a shorter roasting time, which is always a win in our book.
Note: An 8-inch square baking dish of cornbread will yield the 10 cups of cubes needed for this recipe. You can also bake a dozen generously sized cornbread muffins and have plenty of cubes for this recipe with some left over.
Never made a cornbread stuffing before? No problem! We’ll show you how.
>> Click here to jump straight to the recipe
Combine the cornbread and pecans
Toasting brings out the best flavor of the cornbread and pecans. In a large bowl, combine the yummy cubes of toasted cornbread and pecans. Set aside.
Cook the sausage
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Remove the casings from your favorite sausage and add to the skillet. Cook, stirring often, using a spatula to break the sausage into pieces. When the sausage is browned and cooked through, transfer it to the bowl with the cornbread and pecans.
Sauté the onions, celery, and collard greens
Add the onions, celery, and collard greens to the skillet and season with salt and pepper. Cook the vegetables, stirring often, until the onions are golden brown and the greens are tender. Transfer the vegetable mixture to the cornbread mixture.
Deglaze the skillet with vinegar and add butter
Reduce the heat to medium. Add vinegar to the skillet and use the spatula to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Toss butter into the skillet and stir until melted. Drizzle the butter mixture over the cornbread mixture.
Whisk together eggs and stock
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together eggs and chicken or turkey stock. This liquid will bind and flavor the stuffing as it bakes.
Add egg mixture to the stuffing ingredients
Pour egg mixture evenly over the cornbread mixture and season with salt and pepper. Toss the stuffing ingredients to combine evenly. Add more stock in small increments, if needed, until the cornbread is moist.
Transfer into a baking dish
Butter a large baking dish and 1 side of a large piece of foil. Pour stuffing ingredients into the baking dish and dot with butter. Tightly cover the baking dish with the foil, buttered-side down.
Bake the stuffing
Place the stuffing in the oven and bake at 400°F for 30 to 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the foil and increase the oven heat to 450°F. Bake the stuffing until the top is golden brown and crisp.
Serve the stuffing hot
Remove the stuffing from the oven and allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Serve this all-American stuffing hot.
Look at all of those fantastic flavors and textures!
Savory and sweet, this All-American stuffing is everything you could ever want!
All-American stuffing
Yield 8 servings
Ingredients
- 10 cups of your favorite premade cornbread, cut into two-inch pieces, toasted
- 1/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 12 ounces sausage, casings removed
- 2 onions, diced
- 4 celery stalks, diced
- 4 cups collard greens, tough stems removed, torn into two-inch pieces
- Sea salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces, divided into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups turkey or chicken stock, plus extra if needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- In a large bowl, combine the toasted cornbread and pecans. Set aside.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage and cook, breaking it into small pieces, until browned and cooked through, seven to ten minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to the bowl with the cornbread mixture.
- Add onions, celery and collard greens to the skillet, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring often, until onions are golden brown and soft, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer the collard green mixture to the bowl with the cornbread mixture.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add vinegar to the skillet, scraping up any browned bits, until the liquid is almost all evaporated, about one minute.
- Add 1/2 cup butter to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until the butter is melted. Drizzle over the cornbread mixture.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the eggs and two cups turkey or chicken stock. Pour evenly over the cornbread mixture. Season with salt and pepper and gently toss, adding more stock 1/4 cupful at a time if needed (you may not use it all), until combined and the cornbread mixture is moist.
- Butter a shallow 3-quart. baking dish and a sheet of aluminum foil
- Transfer mixture to the prepared baking dish and dot with remaining 1/4 cup butter.
- Cover the baking dish with the foil, buttered-side down. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Increase the oven temperature to 450F. Remove the foil and bake stuffing until the top is golden brown and crisp. Allow the stuffing to rest for ten minutes. Serve hot.
Courses Sides
