Active Time

　　50 minutes

　　Total Time

　　2 hours 20 minutes

　　There are over 250 Thanksgiving dressing and stuffing recipes on Epicurious, including a heap of cornbread stuffing recipes. Some are packed with Italian sausage and Parmesan, some are meat-free and enriched with buttermilk biscuits, others are gluten-free and docked with sweet potatoes and spicy pork sausage, and still, there are many, many more.

　　To determine how to make our ultimate cornbread dressing recipe, the Epicurious Test Kitchen baked batch after golden-brown batch of the classic Thanksgiving side dish. Rounds of testing lead us to our most delicious Thanksgiving stuffing ever, which has a mix of country bread and cornbread, savory breakfast sausage, and plenty of fresh herbs to make it truly irresistible.

　　The tricks to making this great, crispy-topped stuffing are easy: tear the two breads into bite-sized pieces and dry them out slowly in the oven so that they retain texture and body when mixed with flavorful chicken stock, fresh sage, and other herbs. Cook sausage in a pan over medium-high heat until crusty and browned, then melt butter in the same pan and sauté diced white or yellow onions and celery, scraping up any stuck-on sage sausage bits so that you don’t miss out on an ounce of flavor. And bake in a covered casserole dish (butter or spray it with cooking spray first, so that the baked dressing doesn’t stick) at a steady medium heat until cooked through, before removing the cover to brown the top.

　　Editor’s note: This recipe was originally published October 9, 2017.

　　

Ingredients

8–10 servings

　　½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for pan

　　½ pound good-quality day-old crusty country-style or peasant bread, torn into ¾" pieces (about 5 cups)

　　½ pound day-old cornbread, broken into ¾" pieces (about 5 cups)

　　1 pound breakfast sausage links, casings removed, or ground breakfast sausage mix, broken up into ½" pieces

　　2½ cups chopped onions (about 1 medium plus 1 large onion)

　　3 medium celery stalks, sliced

　　2 large eggs

　　2½ cups low-sodium chicken broth

　　½ cup chopped parsley

　　2 tablespoons chopped sage

　　1 tablespoon chopped thyme

　　2 teaspoons chopped rosemary

　　2 teaspoons kosher salt

　　1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

　　

Special Equipment

A 13x9x2" or other 3-quart baking dish

　　

Step 1

Preheat oven to 300°F. Butter baking dish; set aside. Arrange bread and cornbread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake, tossing occasionally, until completely dried out, 35–50 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet, then transfer to a very large bowl.

　　

Step 2

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium-high. Break sausage into ½" pieces and cook, stirring and breaking up into smaller (about ¼") pieces with a wooden spoon or spatula, until browned, 8–10 minutes. Transfer to bowl with bread but do not stir.

　　

Step 3

Heat remaining 1 stick butter in same skillet over medium-high. Cook onions and celery, stirring often and scraping browned bits off bottom of pan, until just beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add to bowl with bread mixture and let cool.

　　

Step 4

Whisk eggs, broth, parsley, sage, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Add to bread mixture and fold gently until thoroughly combined.

　　

Step 5

Increase oven temperature to 350°F. Transfer mixture to prepared dish, cover with foil, and bake stuffing until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 160°F, 40–45 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake until set and top is browned and crisped, 45–50 minutes more.

　　

Step 6

DO AHEAD: Stuffing can be assembled, but not baked, 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. When ready to bake, bring to room temperature and bake according to recipe. Stuffing can be baked 1 day ahead. Let cool completely, then cover with foil and chill. Keep covered and bake in a 350°F oven until warmed through, 25–30 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is crisped, 7–10 minutes more.

　　Cooks' Note

　　Omit the sausage and use vegetable broth instead of chicken to make this stuffing vegetarian-friendly.