In honor of the holidays, and to give you a real taste of the farm, we’ve decided to share a few of our favorite recipes with you. You’re likely to find some of these dishes featured on our menus, depending on the season, but until we can invite you all down as our guests, we’ve decided to post a few of them here on our blog.
It’s almost Thanksgiving, so there’s no better time than now to post our Aunt Sissie’s recipe for a traditional holiday favorite: cornbread dressing.
Aunt Sissie’s Cornbread Dressing
Our Aunt Sissie makes this for a big crowd, so she upsizes these quantities accordingly. But if you just want to make a smaller amount for a small family dinner, the recipe below should give you a delicious starting point.
Cornbread*
Chicken broth**
1 medium onion
4 ribs of celery
Rubbed sage (to taste)
1 stick of margarine or butter (optional***)
2 eggs beaten
*NOTE: Aunt Sissie says the dressing will be better if you’ve make the cornbread a few days in advance and just freeze it until it’s time to make the dressing.
**NOTE: Aunt Sissie boils bone-in chicken leg quarters and breast meat to make her broth because it gives the recipe a little more fat, which help binds the dressing together and makes it more flavorful.
***NOTE: If your chicken was a little too lean, you can add a stick of butter or margarine to add a little additional fat to the mixture.
First, make an 8-10″ skillet full of your favorite cornbread recipe. (Naturally, we recommend our own.) Let it cool, remove it from the skillet, and then set it aside in a separate container.
Make your chicken broth. Once you have your broth, pour it over the cornbread. Set the chicken meat aside for later.
Next, chop your celery and onion and add it to the cornbread mix. Add some rubbed sage to taste. Mix it all up thoroughly.
Pull your chicken meat off the bone and mix it into the cornbread. Add a stick of margarine or butter if needed.
Beat your eggs and pour over the entire cornbread mixture. Mix well.
Put your cornbread mixture into a 2 quart casserole or baking pan. Cover it with aluminum foil and bake at 400°F for between 30-40 minutes. At that point, remove the foil and check to see if the celery and onion is cooked. If not, put back into the oven for a little longer, but check on it every 5 minutes. When the onion and celery are cooked, remove the foil and brown for another 5-10 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!