I love my momma’s chicken dressing. When I think of the holidays, I think of her dressing. I can almost make it. But I am getting something wrong. It is close, but not quite the same. I think it was the water that you boil the chicken with. Who would have thought water would make such a big difference, but she loads hers down with celery and onions and carrots. She doesn’t put any of those veggies in the actual dressing, but strains them for the broth. It is all about the broth, apparently. My problem was not enough veggies in the water for the broth. But, I will keep trying!

I asked Facebook and Twitter friends and followers to share their favorite dressing recipe, and there was a LOT of responses. Everyone seems to LOVE dressing during the holidays.

Marsha Woods is like most of us, learning to cook by watching our mom and grandmothers.

“I love to make dressing but I don’t have a ‘recipe,’’ Woods said. “I just learned from cooking with my mom and grandmothers. They never used recipes. I would have to really think to write it down. Doing it just comes natural now.”

Ruth Mcculloch Odom said a few months ago there was a crock pot dressing recipe going around on Pintrest that she tried and her family loved it!

“It is really good,” Odom said. “I make it but I bake it instead of using the crock pot. My family loves it and it is so moist even when I brown the top of it.”

Everyone loves momma’s dressing.

Sue Boatman said her dressing is almost identical to her momma’s recipe, except she adds a cup of diced celery.
Sue Boatman’s Dressing

1 pan Cornbread
1 cup onions, diced (about half of a large onion)
1 cup of celery, diced (about 3 stalks)
1 cup of green bell peppers diced (about 1 medium green bell p epper.
1 cooked chicken breast or cooked chicken thighs, shredded
3 boiled eggs chopped
3-4 cups of chicken or turkey broth
1 can cream of chicken
1 to 2 tbsp. of sage to taste
1 tbsp. black pepper to taste
1 tsp. salt to taste

Lisa Mitchell Lindley said Boatman’s recipe was very close to hers, except she uses no celery or bell pepper and leave out the chicken. Lindley also uses 2 raw eggs mixed in the cornbread mixer and use fresh sage. She sautés the onion and sage and adds it to the cooked cornbread. Lindley adds chicken if she is making chicken and dressing, when it is not Thanksgiving or Christmas and they don’t have a big turkey to eat. And after you mush all of the ingredients into the cooked cornbread, bake it in a casserole dish at 350 until brown (about 45 min.).

Ricky L. Watson it sounds a lot like his wife, Amanda’s, dressing, which was originally his mother’s recipe and probably his grandmother’s.

“I think she uses raw eggs – a lot of them and sautéed onions, and celery,” Watson said. “A lot of cornbread. Poultry season and sage. But I do know the key is in the sage and in the salt and plenty of chicken broth. Make it soupy and when the sides are brown take it out and it won’t be dry.”

Sarah Jordan Dickson said she makes a simple dressing–a recipe a friend uses and her family likes it:
Big skillet of cornbread with 6 eggs in it
4-5 chicken breast (boiled and deboned)
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
1 med-l large onion
1 bunch celery
5 sticks of butter
Salt & pepper
Chicken broth

Boil and debone chicken. Cook cornbread. Chop onions and celery and sauté in the 5 sticks of butter. Crumble the cornbread into a large mixing bowl. (She uses a plastic dishpan.) Add all ingredients and stir well. Start off with only a couple cups of the broth and add more until you get the desired consistency you want. Pour all into a large foil pan and bake at 350 degrees in the oven until a little brown. Dickson said the more you cook it, the dryer it tends to get.
“I have used a can of cream of celery in place of one of the cans of cream of chicken soup,” Dickson said. “Als,o my family doesn’t like poultry seasoning or sage, so this recipe works for us. You can add other seasonings, if you like.”

Ruth Mcculloch Odom said this recipe is identical to the one she uses and her family loves it.

“I do use 1 can of cream of celery soup and 1 can of cream of chicken,” Odom said. “We love it.”

Sherry Bell Johnson said this recipe is like her Momma’s dressing, except they add sage. “Not too much but some!!”

“My momma made dressing we all loved,” Johnson said. “He famous words when making dressing: ‘your dressing is only as good as your broth is rich’!!! In other words, she believed in having a rich broth to make good dressing. Sure do wish I could be in the kitchen making it with her! Nothing like your Momma’s cooking!”

Johnnie Abbott  said she doesn’t use butter in her dressing, but her recipe is about same as Dickson’s.

Susie Sisk Shaw said she uses a sleeve of crushed crackers in her dressing and sausage seasoning instead of just sage.

Donna Pearson  said she uses cream of celery and “definitely a hint of old bay seasoning! Mmmm!”

Amanda Richardson said this is her dressing recipe that she came up with several years back. “My family loves it!”
1 hen (boil and debone)
1 pan of cornbread (crumbled)
3-4 biscuits (left from breakfast😀)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken broth
1/2 onion chopped
1-3 celery rib chopped
2 eggs raw
1 tsp of sage
1 tsp of poultry season
Pepper
Salt 1/4 to 1/3 tsp
1/2 c butter
Mix all together
Grease pan and pour
Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 min. Cover first half.

Pamela Fulcher Awad Richardson’s recipe is much like hers, except “granny did not do the soup.” Her granny adjusted the liquid with chicken broth and/or milk, depending on how fatty the chicken broth was. It was a 2-day process. The bread had to be really dry and stale (cornbread and biscuits is what she used) and soaked overnight in the broth/milk/seasoning/veg, and adjusted again in the morning before cooking, with the addition of meat at that time. Awad said she also remembers her granny made her cornbread with six eggs for the dressing.

Tracy Hood Palmer said she doesn’t really have measurements for her dressing recipe.
Cornbread and loaf bread
Chicken breast, boiled and shredded or can use canned chicken breast meat
Chicken broth
Cream of mushroom and cream of chicken
Salt and pepper, heavy on the pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Mix until right consistency. Then mix in three or four beaten eggs. Mix and pour into pan. Dot with butter and bake at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes depending on how deep your pan is.

Kay Embry said she loves “Mamaw Dorothy Pepper’s dressing. About the only thing different with her’s is she uses 1 regular pan of cornbread and 3 packs of Mexican cornbread mix. Make you slap your Grandmaw!!!”

Pat Ray Bailey uses a recipe from a church cook book that was the late Mattelyn Booth’s.
“I go by hers somewhat and add poultry and sage to taste,” Bailey said. “I don’t put as many onions. I cook my celery and onions together then mix in dressing. Except for the fresh green onions. Put two or three bunches of those makes a great taste. I bake in the oven till brown. Don’t want it to be dry. It takes about an hour.

Christie Bailey Colvin said “if I could have anybody’s dressing it would be my Aunt Ouida’s. Her’s was the best!”

Millie Long Clanton loves her mama’s dressing! “Of course I️ don’t know the recipe but her’s is different from most.”

Shannon Bowen Jackson said her mom, Travie Bowen, makes the BEST dressing – “but I have no idea what the recipe is!”

Shannon Watson Zenor agrees! “Travie’s is the best!”

I still say, Everyone loves momma’s dressing.

This is what happens when a Kilmichael girl moves to Arkansas. Tricia Cummings Williamson said “It’s a thing here in Arkansas to add ground pork breakfast sausage. It’s delicious!!!!”

Tami Sturdivant Jones said she loves squash dressing instead of the traditional chicken and dressing! “It’s just boiled and drained squash in place of the meat,” Jones said. “And I add extra onions.”

Ashleigh Tindall Flora love duck dressing and said “The duck commander recipe is by far the best I’ve found!”

The Duck Commander’s Recipe for Duck Dressing from http://www.duckcommander.com.

·         5-6 ducks

·         salt

·         black pepper

·         bay leaf

·         hot dog buns

·         2 bundles of green onions

·         1 bell pepper

·         2 sticks of celery

·         1 stick of butter

·         corn bread

·         1 pkg. of saltine crackers

·         2 eggs

·         1/2 cup evaporated milk

·         sage

Place 5 to 6 cleaned ducks into a large pot. Then add salt, black pepper, one bay leaf, and fill pot with water. Boil for 2-1/2 hours. Bake one package of hotdog buns for 2 hours at 225 degrees. Dice up 2 bundles of green onions, 1 bell pepper, and 2 sticks of celery. With a 1/2 a stick of butter sauté your vegetables on a medium-low heat. Make one big pan of corn bread (Phil makes his own, but you can use a mix). After your cornbread and hotdog buns are done, take a very large roast pot and dump your buns, cornbread, and one rack of saltine crackers into the pot. With your hands crumble all the bread ingredients into a fine consistency. When your ducks are done boiling, remove them from the pot and pour 1/3 of your broth into your crumbled bread mix. Stir until you have reached a paste consistency. Add your vegetables. Add broth until you get a thick pour-able consistency. Add 2 whipped eggs, and 1/2 a cup of evaporated milk to your dressing mix and stir. Add one teaspoon of sage. Now place your ducks lightly on top of your dressing. Sprinkle Phil Robertson’s seasoning on top of your ducks. Lightly coat your ducks with butter. Bake duck and dressing in the oven at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

 “I will tell you something not to do to cornbread dressing,” said Patti K. Drapala. “My mother hated the taste of eggs and she refused to put eggs in the cornbread for the dressing. Sorry, mom, but your dressing had no punch to it.”

Now these two characters have got it going on.

“I am going to give you the best recipe–just for you, Gwen. Sysco!!” said Joyce Davis. “By now my family knows I just ‘gather’! Ha!”

“My mother had a friend whose family thought she made the best dressing,” said Sherry Bell Johnson. “This friend finally told my Mom that she’d been getting it for years at a local restaurant and taking it home and doctoring it up by adding sage, pepper etc.!!!!!! To my knowledge this family still thinks their Mom made the dressing!!!!”

Do you have a favorite dressing recipe? Send it to me at gwenwoodssisson@yahoo.com.