GranNini's Cornbread Stuffing

Granini's Cornbread Stuffing

Cornbread Recipe:
(for step by step instructions, click here: Granini's Cornbread)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup sugar (*)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 1/4 cups milk

1 1/2 cups flour

Additional Stuffing Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter 

(if all you have is salted butter, that's fine, simply reduce the amount of salt you add to the stuffing)

5 or 6 celery stalks, washed and diced

1 medium onion, peeled and diced

2 teaspoons salt

3 teaspoons sage

2 teaspoons poultry seasoning

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 - 1 cup chicken broth *

*(Veggie broth works too, but only if it doesn't have tomatoes in the broth)*

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°.  
2. Add the ingredients, in order, mixing thoroughly after each addition.
3. Lightly spray an 8x8 glass baking pan with cooking spray.
4. Use a rubber spatula to ladle the wet ingredients into the baking pan.
5. Bake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown on top.  If you are unsure if the cornbread is finished, simply insert a knife in the center of the cornbread, pull it out, and make sure it comes out clean.  If the knife has wet cornbread on it when you pull it out, pop the cornbread back in the oven for 5 more minutes and repeat until the cornbread is completely baked.
6. Allow the cornbread to cool completely.  Feel free to wait a day or two before making your cornbread stuffing.  Or, freeze the cornbread after cooling completely, and use it when needed.  Freezes well for up to 6 months in a freezer ziplock storage bag.
7. When the cornbread has cooled completely, crumble the cornbread into small pieces into a large glass bowl, and set aside.
8. While the cornbread is cooling, in a large sauté pan, melt the butter over low / medium heat.
9. Slowly stir in the diced celery and onion.  Allow to sauté over low / medium heat until the onions and celery are completely soft.  Do not allow the onions to become so hot that they brown.
10. Gently pour the sautéed onions and celery into the bowl of crumbled cornbread.
11. Mix in the spices, and stir thoroughly.
12. Slowly mix in the egg.
13. Gently add in the chicken broth, a little bit at a time, until the cornbread is lightly moistened.  DO NOT OVER MOISTEN. Too little chicken broth, and your stuffing will be dry.  However, too MUCH chicken broth, and your stuffing will be a mushy mess.  Try to err on the side of too little broth.  You can always pour gravy over your cornbread to give it more moisture.  Mmmm.  Gravy!  Some people prefer it one way, some the other.  I find that if I add just a wee bit too much broth, I simply bake it a little longer, and it tends to crisp up on the outside.
14. Lightly grease a medium sized casserole dish.
15. Pour your cornbread stuffing into the casserole dish, and pop it into the oven.  
16. Bake for about 30 minutes or so, or until the top is lightly toasty.
17. You can make your stuffing a day or two before you need it, as long as you keep it refrigerated before baking.  Simply pop it from the fridge into the oven.  You may need to add an extra 5 to 10 minutes of baking time if your stuffing is cold, rather than room temperature, when you pop it into the oven.  Making stuffing ahead of time makes meal prep a bit easier.

For those of you who like pictures, here you go!

Enjoy!

 Crumble up your cornbread
(this is about 1/2 my cornbread from my 8x8 inch dish)

 Sprinkle on some poultry seasoning

 Sprinkle on some sage, salt and pepper

 Sauté up your veggies

 Add in veggies

 Stir altogether

 Add in egg

 Pour in some chicken broth

 Pour into a lightly greased casserole dish
(I use the end of a stick of butter -- I just slather that butter stick around until it coats all the surfaces, nooks and crannies.)  Pop it in the oven for 1/2 an hour or so, and it's done!

All done, and making my kitchen smell fantastic!  MMMMMM BOY! I love me some stuffin!

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Find other tasty Thanksgiving Dinner dishes here:

And tasty pie recipes here:

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I not only bake and cook, I write murder mysteries too!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond 
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)