There's a country cookin' restaurant here in town and every once in awhile they have chicken and dressing. I attempted to make it once using my homemade dressing recipe and while it came out very tasty, it wasn't what I was looking for. So i scoured the internet for a few suggestions and Viola! Sarah's Chicken and Dressing was born.
I wasn't under the impression that this was a "southern thing", but apparently it is. I don't care if your southern or not - try this any time of the year because it is yummers!
First things first - we need a whole cooked chicken. Now, feel free to use a rotisserie chicken for this, but the ones at my local store are greasy and yucky, so i opted to boil a whole fryer. I believe it was approx. 4 lbs. Plus this way, I get to use my grandmother's cast iron pot! (If you decide to use a rotisserie chicken, you'll need to pick up a couple cans of chicken broth.)
Place the chicken into the pot along with a coarsely chopped onion, 3 celery stalks and some carrots. You can use 2 or 3 regular-sized carrots instead, but I had the baby carrots on hand. (The chicken ought to come with a bag of goodies including the neck, liver, etc... I placed them around the chicken with the vegetables so they'll add to the flavor.) Also add a tablespoon of white pepper.
Now cover the whole thing with water, cover your pot and bring to a boil. Once it's boiling, turn the heat down to a gentle boil and cook for 90 minutes. If it starts to boil over or isn't boiling enough, make sure to adjust the heat accordingly.
Once the chicken is done, it should look a little something like this:
Use a baster to remove 4 cups of the broth because we will be using it for the dressing. As for the veggies and chicken parts, do with them as you please. Personally, I gave the cats some of the liver and stuff and the rest went into the garbage (I hate cooked carrots!).
While the chicken is cooking, use this time to make your cornbread. I picked up 2 packages of Martha White Buttermilk Cornbread Mix. Its easy and good, but if you prefer to make your cornbread from scratch - knock yourself out! Follow the directions on the package of cornbread and then add chopped onion and celery.
Mix all this up good and then transfer to a pan. I'm using my great- grandmother's cast iron pan, but if you don't have any cast iron, a normal pan will do fine. (PS: if you are in the market for cast iron, I wouldn't buy it new. Try and find pieces at a flea market or thrift shop. The older, the better because it's seasoned and worn in.)
Bake the cornbread according to the directions on the package and then let cool briefly. Once the cornbread is done, remove it from the pan and put into a large bowl. Don't worry if it breaks and crumbles or whatever because we're going to be smushing it all up in a second anyway.After putting the cornbread into the bowl, add 3 slices of torn-up white bread and the 4 cups of chicken broth from the chicken. Mush the whole mixture up with a fork or potato masher.
To this mixture, you'll add the chicken, which I've already deboned and pulled apart by hand.
Now mix in 3 eggs, sage, poultry seasoning and salt & pepper, ending up with this lovely concoction:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF and spray a large casserole dish with cooking spray. Transfer the dressing and chicken into the dish and pop that bad boy into the oven for 50 minutes.
The finished product will look pretty much exactly like this when you remove it from the oven. The top doesn't really brown so much as "harden" to more of a light crust. It gives a little resistance when biting into it and its lovely!
Serve with cranberry sauce and you're good to go! Enjoy!
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Chicken and Dressing
1 boiled chicken (save the broth)
1 tbsp white pepper (for the chicken)
2 packages of cornbread mix
5 eggs (2 for cornbread and 3 for dressing)
3 slices of white bread
3 unpeeled carrots (for the chicken)
2 onions (1 whole and 1 chopped)
6 stalks of celery (2 whole and 4 chopped)
3 tbsp sage
2 tbsp Poultry seasoning*
Salt and pepper to taste
*before BUYING poultry seasoning, check to see if you have all the makings for it instead and
make your own by combining equal amounts of the following dried herbs: rosemary, oregano, sage, ginger, marjoram, thyme.
Boiled chicken:
Place chicken in a large pot with onion, carrots, celery and white pepper; add water to cover.
Cover pot and bring to a boil; reduce heat to a gentle boil and cook for about 90 minutes, or until chicken meat is falling off of the bone.
Remove chicken, let cool and shred or chop the meat.
Dressing:
Prepare cornbread according to package instructions.
To uncooked cornbread, add chopped onion and chopped celery.
Cook according to cornbread mix instructions.
In large mixing bowl, add cornbread, white bread, and 4 cups of chicken broth. Mix with a potato masher.
Add deboned chicken to the mixture and stir.
Add 3 eggs, sage, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper.
Pour mixture in a large casserole dish sprayed with non-stick spray.
Cook at 350ºF for approximately 50 minutes.
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