Cornbread Dressing

Chambers Cornbread Dressing

Chambers-size (serves 21-24)

  • 9 cups corn bread (two full recipes My Mom’s Cornbread)
  • 9 cups dry white bread crumbs
  • 4 Tablespoons oleo margarine or butter
  • 1/2 cup rendered chicken fat*, oleo, or grease from frying 5 slices of bacon
  • 1-1/2 cups diced celery, plus a few tender leaves from the stalks
  • 1 bunch green onions (scallions); chop all the whites plus up to 1” of the green stems
  • 1/2 large onion, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon sage
  • 1 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
  • 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 3 beaten eggs
  • 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
  • 2 to 2-1/2 cups chicken broth (Swansons’ brand is salty)

Chatfield-size (serves 10)

  • 4-5 cups corn bread (one full recipe My Mom’s Cornbread)
  • 4-5 cups dry white bread crumbs
  • 2 Tbsp oleo
  • 1/4 cup rendered chicken fat*, oleo, or grease from frying 3 slices of bacon
  • 3/4 cup diced celery, plus a few tender leaves from the stalks
  • 1/2 bunch green onions (scallions); chop all the whites plus up to 1” of the green stems
  • 1/4 large onion, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon sage
  • 1 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
  • 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • 1 hard boiled egg, chopped
  • 1 to 1-1/2 cups chicken broth (Swansons’ brand is salty)

One to two days before serving, prepare cornbread and bread crumbs. Boil chicken for rendered fat* (save back 2 cups chicken broth if you don’t make chicken soup or chicken and dumplings).

To dry bread, spread bread slices out in 100 degree oven to dry out for a day or overnight, okay to turn oven off after an hour, break into crumbs ranging in size from length of thumb to thumbnail-size.

Make cornbread; allow to cool completely, break into chunks about size of thumb.

*Rendered chicken fat: boil one whole chicken, cut into pieces. Allow to cool completely to room temperature or chill in refrigerator overnight. Remove container from refrigerator; scrape off top layer of rigid, pale yellow fat, leaving the gelatin-like layers below; the hard layer is the rendered chicken fat. It has been boiled out of the chicken pieces. As the broth cools, the fat rises to the top and congeals. It turns rigid because that is what fat does when it is not heated. (No wonder it’s so hard to get rid of body fat.)

Serving day, select the very heaviest, covered baking dish you have to prevent the dressing from drying out. If you don’t have a heavy-duty baking dish, cover the dressing with heavy duty foil before baking. GREASE the baking dish. No need to grease the lid.

Cut the first measure of oleo (1/2 stick for Chambers’ size) into the mixed bread and cornbread crumbs. Okay to mix these ingredients in the baking dish you will use in the oven.

Heat the rendered chicken fat, oleo or bacon grease in an iron skillet. Sautée celery and onions slowly in fat. Add these sautéed vegetables and any fat that remains in the skillet to the dressing crumbs in the baking dish. Pour beaten eggs over dressing crumbs. Sprinkle spices and chopped hard-boiled eggs over the beaten eggs. Mix all into the dressing crumbs.

Sprinkle the minimum measure of chicken broth over the dressing mixture in the baking dish. The crumbs will be well dampened, but not soggy. Soggy crumbs will never dry out and will turn the dressing mushy. Damp crumbs will retain their texture, but the dampness will allow them to be molded together while baking. Use the extra 1/2 cup of chicken broth, only if you need it to dampen dry patches of the dressing before baking.

Cover the dressing (with baking dish lid or heavy duty foil). Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes. If you like the top of your dressing a little drier, remove lid or foil in the last 5 minutes of baking.

Ruby Cole Chambers Phillips
Adapted by Diane Chambers Foshee, 1978