Crunchy Croissant, Cornbread and Sausage Dressing
This (absolutely delicious) recipe is designed to serve a crowd, but can easily be reduced or frozen (pre-baking) if you like. Just freeze half of the dressing in freezer-safe bags for up to three months and then thaw and use as directed, whenever the craving strikes. Bake half now, and the other half later.Â
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8 to 12 1x
- Category: Holiday
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 12-ounce package Pepperidge Farm herb seasoned dressing/stuffing mix
- 1–pound cornbread or a few large corn muffins (store-bought)
- 8 tablespoons butter
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 4 celery stalks, diced
- 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
- Salt and pepper
- 3 garlic cloves, minced or grated
- 1.5 pounds country sausage (hot or mild or a combo of both)
- 32-ounce box chicken stock
- 2 eggs
- 4 or 5 large croissants
Also needed: Nonstick cooking oil spray, foil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Spray a large (9-by-13-inch at least) baking dish with non-stick spray (or grease with butter).
- Put the dressing/stuffing mix in your largest mixing bowl. Break up the cornbread into pieces/chunks and add those to the bowl.
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, poultry seasoning and a good pinch of salt and pepper and cook until the veggies are tender; about 5 or 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Transfer the vegetables and all of the garlicky, buttery goodness to the bowl with the cornbread and dressing mix.
- Put the pan back on the stove and cook the sausage, over medium to medium-high. Once it’s just cooked, add it to the bowl as well, along with any drippings.
- Combine the eggs and 1 cup of the stock and pour this into the bowl. Mix everything together to evenly distribute and moisten. Pour the dressing into the prepared baking dish. At this point you can cover and store in the fridge for a few days, as needed.
- If you plan to bake your dressing right away, pour another 1 to 1.5 cups of the stock all over the dressing in the dish. I like to ensure my stuffing/dressing is pretty moist but this is totally a preferential thing – you may not want to use much stock at all. Up to you! You can’t really mess it up.
- Tear up the croissants into large pieces and tuck those in all over the top of the casserole. Spray the top of the casserole with more oil spray (optional, but great for browning). Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove the foil and bake for another 15 or so minutes, until everything is good and hot and the tops are nice and golden brown (see baking note). Enjoy warm.
Notes
If the top is getting darker than you’d like, before the dressing is really heated through, you can move it to the bottom rack and/or lay the foil right back over top, just loosely draped is fine. That will impede any browning for you.