This recipe for Sausage Cornbread Dressing has been the favorite at our house for decades! It is not Thanksgiving at house without it!
This year Thanksgiving will look a little different for us. Both of my boys are celebrating with their in laws so Jim, Cali and I are headed to NYC to celebrate with Tessa. This means that Thanksgiving dinner will be enjoyed in a restaurant. I’m kind of looking forward to it.
But the only problem with our plans is that there will be no sausage cornbread dressing, the favorite Thanksgiving food of just about my entire family. When we celebrate with other family members, my kids always make sure I make the dressing. My daughter in law just called for the recipe the other day so I know her family will be enjoying it this year too! So, I decided to give this post a little redo and some new photos so I made a big pan of it this week and my husband was in heaven! With the sausage in it, it is really a main dish in and of itself. You really don’t even need the turkey!
Here is the original post:
Lest you think I am totally ignoring Thanksgiving since there has been no mention of it or any Thanksgiving dinner recipes on the blog so far, I am sharing our family’s all time favorite dressing recipe today!
No, I am not ignoring Thanksgiving! In fact I am SO EXCITED for Thanksgiving! We are headed out to Utah to spend the holiday with our three college kids and Jim’s family! Yes, there will be close to 50 Wilkes’ gathered together to celebrate this next week. Many thanks and blessings to my sister in law Tricia who will be hosting this year!
Since we will be in Utah I won’t be doing much of the cooking so I haven’t been focused on a Thanksgiving menu. But I couldn’t let the holiday go by without sharing Aunt Dawn’s Sausage Cornbread Dressing recipe.
We have been making this dressing for Thanksgiving since the first time we enjoyed it over 20 years ago when we spent Thanksgiving with Aunt Dawn and Uncle Glenn up in Washington!
If you have been reading this blog for any length of time it will come as no surprise to you that I prefer my dressing dry – no mushy, runny, gooey dressing for me! Dry, dry, dry! The advantage to dry dressing is each person can personalize the mushiness to their personal tastes with the amount of gravy they add!
I love the combination of cornbread stuffing, sausage and brown rice in this recipe. The brown rice adds a nice texture and a nutty flavor. I’d love for you to try it and maybe it will become your family’s favorite too! 
Originally posted November 23, 2009
Other favorite Thanksgiving side dishes:
Roasted Brown Butter Maple Brussels Sprouts
Sausage Cornbread Dressing
Sausage Cornbread Dressing
Ingredients
- 2 12 cups water
- 1 cup brown rice
- 1 12 oz. box cornbread dressing
- 1 16 oz. pkg Jimmy Dean regular sausage
- 1 1/2 cup celery chopped
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Boil water and add brown rice. Cover and cook until rice is cooked and fluffy (about 30-45 minutes)
- Brown sausage.
- Melt butter and saute celery and onions until soft.
- Mix together cooked rice, dressing, cooked sausage, celery and onion mixture.
- Add in chicken broth and stir to moisten.
- Place in a 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 degrees F covered for 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 15 minutes until browned and crispy around edges.
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Clark
November 23, 2009 at 6:43 amBest stuffing ever! This comes from someone who has eaten their fair share of stuffing in my day. I even took second place once in a stuffing eating contest. If you know what’s good for you will make this stuffing this Thanksgiving, I’ve eaten it every Thanksgiving for the last 23 years and it never gets old! (Oh I’m the one on the far right of the picture under favorite things)
Melanie
November 23, 2009 at 8:27 amI knew we were soulmates since I like my stuffing dry, too. I’ll definitely have to try this. Oh, and your son’s comment cracked me up. Stuffing eating contest? Who ever heard of such a thing? This must be some good stuffing!
Susan Forehand
November 23, 2009 at 10:35 amLeigh Anne – this looks amazing….I’m on my way to the grocery store!! Isn’t there an easy way to print this recipe from your website?! Thanks!!!
Camryn
November 23, 2009 at 8:51 pmWOW. YUMMY!! Hey there–I’m visiting from MMB. This post made me hungry. I think I’m drooling….
Thanks for sharing your recipes!!
Angela
November 29, 2009 at 9:20 amOMG!!! Leigh Anne – this was the most delicious stuffing I’ve ever had & my family agrees! I added some sauteed mushrooms & next time might add some chopped pecans & maybe craisins or raisins. Thanks for the wonderful recipes you share! I’ve already told several friends about it & posted a link to your website so they could make it.
Susan
November 29, 2009 at 7:39 pmMy family and friends LOVED this stuffing. Thanks so much for sharing it!
Sarah Kay
December 2, 2009 at 7:28 pmDon’t know if you were in Provo or not, but we were there for Kay family Thanksgiving and I HAD to run to Wal-Mart to pick up the caramel chips you claimed were only in the Provo Wal-Mart. LOL. I am sure I will get around to making your recommended dessert, but the thrill of having something no one else in my city has is even sweeter.
Erin
November 18, 2010 at 9:45 amI just got back from picking up all the ingredients, but ran into a snag when looking for cornbread dressing – nothing out here (in Ohio) comes in a box with two pouches! What brand do you use, and how many ounces of dressing are in the box?? Thanks for your help!
Leigh Anne
November 18, 2010 at 10:15 amyou could just use any cornbread stuffing and I would think a box of it would work whether it has one or two bags in it? I have used the Mrs. Cubbison’s brand I think it is called .
Michelle
September 22, 2011 at 6:03 amLeigh Ann or anyone that can answer this question. In this dressing receipe it says use 1 box corn bread dressing. Do you mean buy cornbread mix and make it like you would for regular dressing? Sorry, this may be a silly question, but I rarely cook.
Leigh Anne
September 22, 2011 at 7:30 amNot a silly question. You use the cornbread dressing mix that comes with the dried cubes of cornbread. Does this make sense?
Alice Lau
November 19, 2010 at 12:31 pmI usually make an all meat stuffing, but I tried this stuffing with the corn bread and Jimmy Dean sausage for an early Thanksgiving dinner last month and my family “gobbled” it up.
They raved about it!
Kathie
November 20, 2017 at 5:23 amI am Gluten free and dairy free. I am in Canada. I am not familiar with the “boxed cornbread stuffing”. Can I just make my own cornbread and use that?
Leigh Anne
November 20, 2017 at 7:36 pmKathie, You sure could make your own, just let it dry out before using it.