Smoky Southern Cornbread Dressing
Serves 8 to 10
Ingredients:
- 1 cup diced smoked bacon
- 1 cup diced hot smoked sausage links (casings removed)
- ½ cup chopped yellow onion
- ¼ cup minced pimento (from jar, drained)
- ½ cup chopped celery
- ¼ cup minced fresh jalapeno, stems and seeds removed
- 2 tablespoons dried herbs de Provence
- 1 teaspoon rubbed sage
- 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
- Sea salt to taste
- 1 (15-ounce) can cream-style corn
- 1 (10.5-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
- 2 square 9-inch pans baked cornbread (see Note), cooled and crumbled
- 2 to 3 cups low-sodium chicken stock
Preparation:
Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a skillet over medium-high heat, cook bacon and sausage until done. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Use some of the pan drippings to liberally coat a 9×13-inch casserole dish; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine bacon and sausage with fresh vegetables, herbs, seasonings, corn and soup. Fold in crumbled cornbread. Adding a little chicken stock at a time, stir the mixture until nicely bound but not soupy. (You can stir in a little of the pan drippings if you like an extra-rich dressing.) Transfer mixture to casserole and cover with foil. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking until browned on top, another 15 minutes or so.
Note Lambert recommends using two 8-ounce boxes Jiffy cornbread mixes, baked according to package instructions.
A guy who knows a thing or two about Southern cooking, Fort Worth catering/chuck-wagon chef Rodney Lambert is known around Fort Worth from his long-ago Deer Creek BBQ and Cowtown BBQ, his tenure at Fred’s Texas Cafe and most recently at Honey Smoke Pit. We like his cornbread dressing’s blend of cowboy influences — smoked bacon and sausage, plus a bit of fresh jalapeno — as well as the use of herbs de Provence (“I love the lavender in there,” Lambert says). Time savers come via cream-style corn and Jiffy cornbread. Reach his Diamond L Ranch Country & Cowboy Catering outfit at 817-287-9195 or email [email protected].