Sharing is caring!

This easy Cornbread and sausage stuffing recipe will become your go-to Thanksgiving side dish! Packed with flavor it combines your favorite turkey dressing and adds cranberries, parsley and more for the best turkey sidekick!

I’ll admit that this recipe is a bit hard for me, because for 40 years now I’ve only had 2 stuffing recipes on Thanksgiving. Either my Gram’s or my Nana’s.  Holiday recipes are a bit like that, aren’t they? Filled with nostalgia and the flavors of family.

And while I will always prefer those 2 stuffing recipes over any others, cornbread stuffing recipes have been calling to me for a while now. The idea of a toasty cornbread mixed with sausage, cranberries and parsley sounds pretty close to the ideal recipe for me.

So I combined a few recipes, mixed some things up and gave it a shot not too long ago.

My first attempt wasn’t bad, but I didn’t think it was a home run. The flavors were great, but it was a little more crumbly and dry than I like my stuffing. So I made it again and this time with an egg to bind it and some extra chicken broth, and I am officially in love!

I suppose technically I should call this dressing since I didn’t actually stuff it into a turkey, but I’m set in my ways and Thanksgiving stuffing is what I’m used to saying!

Easy Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing Recipe

For the ground sausage, I used James Dean Sausage with Sage. You can really use any kind of ground sausage you’d like, though. The first time I made it, I used fresh Italian Parsley and the second time just plain parsley. Both tasted great and didn’t seem to make that much of a difference.

For the cornbread, I made a quick batch of homemade cornbread in an 8×8 pan. You could very easily just use a box of Jiffy cornbread which I recommend just to make things easier on yourself. You can even make your cornbread ahead of time since you want it pretty dry.

In fact, once you cube the cornbread you’ll want to bake it a little longer on a cookie sheet so that it dries out even more. This helps prevent your stuffing from getting soggy once you add the chicken broth and other ingredients.

While your cornbread is baking, you can brown your sausage in a large skillet. Crumble and cook until no longer pink. Remove sausage and drain most of the grease. I leave about a tablespoon of grease in the skillet to cook the chopped onions.

Keep cooking those onions until they’re translucent and golden, about 5 minutes. Once they’re cooked through, add in your dried cranberries and fresh parsley.

Mix that well and saute for another minute or two. Then try to resist grabbing a spoon and just eating it straight out of the pan! The smells are sooo tempting!

In a large bowl, mix your cornbread cubes, onion mixture and cooked sausage. Add all your remaining ingredients and toss well to coat.

Pour into a buttered baking dish and pop it in the oven. I bake it covered for the first 35 minutes and then remove the foil for the last 15 minutes or so.

If you’re looking for more Thanksgiving recipes, these are some of my other favorites:

• Pumpkin Pie Bars
• Brussels Sprouts au Gratin
• Easy Green Beans
• Cheesy Sweet Potato Stuffed Pepper
• Parmesan Baked Potato Wedges
• Sausage Crescent Roll Braid
• Wine Slushies

Yield: 12

Cornbread Sausage Stuffing with Cranberries

Print

An easy stuffing recipe that combines that classic flavor of cornbread with sausage, cranberries and a delicious blend of spices! The perfect Thanksgiving side dish!

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 8x8 pan Cornbread, cubed
• 12 oz Ground Italian Sausage
• 2 Tbsp Butter
• 1 large Onion, chopped
• 1 cup Dried Cranberries
• 1 cup Fresh Parsley, chopped
• 2 tsp Dried Sage
• 1 tsp Dried Thyme
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt
• 1/2 tsp Pepper
• 2 cups Chicken Broth
• 2 Eggs

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spread cornbread cubes on a cookie sheet and bake until lightly toasted, about 10-15 minutes. Transfer toasted bread cubes to a large bowl.
2. In a medium size skillet, cook sausage until no longer pink, about 5-7 minutes. Transfer cooked sausage to the bowl with the bread cubes. Reserve about 1 tbsp. of the sausage grease and discard the rest.
3. In the skillet, saute onions in the reserved grease. Stir often until onions are translucent and golden brown, about 5-7 minutes. Add cranberries, parsley, sage, thyme, salt and pepper.  Stir well and saute for about 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and add onion mixture to bowl with bread cubes and sausage.
4. In a small bowl, whisk eggs until frothy. Add chicken broth to whipped eggs and mix well to combine. Pour egg mixture over the remaining ingredients. Gently mix all the ingredients together until well combined.
5. Grease a 3-quart baking dish and pour ingredients into dish. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes. If you like your stuffing a little dryer, add an extra 10 minutes or so onto the baking time. 

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

12

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 192Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 55mgSodium: 625mgCarbohydrates: 16gFiber: 1gSugar: 11gProtein: 7g

Don’t forget to PIN, SAVE and SHARE this post!