With holidays just around the corner, one of the first things that comes to my mind is Cornbread Dressing. This was always part of our holiday meal, both at Thanksgiving and at Christmas.

Over the years, I have added a few ingredients to change the recipe just a little, but I eventually went back and deleted those ingredients. The basic recipe using cornbread, breadcrumbs, onions, and chicken with spices is tried and true, and it can’t be improved.

I prefer to use giblets for taste and texture in my gravy, but there have been many times that I have used a cup of the cut up chicken. You can use the water you boiled your chicken in for broth — that’ll work as well as a can of chicken broth. This is just one of the side dishes I always have with turkey for the holidays. In the coming weeks, I’ll share more side dishes to help you create a gourmet holiday meal.

Cornbread Dressing and Giblet Gravy

Ingredients

1 batch of cornbread

2 cups onions, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

4 cups bread crumbs

2 tablespoons poultry seasoning

1 tablespoon celery seed

2 teaspoons sage

1 tablespoon salt

3 eggs, beaten

4 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon pepper

½ chicken, boiled

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a casserole dish and set aside. Bake your cornbread according to package directions using your favorite cornmeal; you’ll need to use a recipe for approximately 8 people.

Boil chicken until the meat falls off the bone. Crumble cornbread into a large bowl and add onions, breadcrumbs, poultry seasoning, celery seed, sage, salt, eggs, chicken broth and pepper and mix well.

Allow mixture to stand for 30 minutes to blend flavors to absorb broth. Add a little more chicken broth if necessary; mixture should be moist. Cut chicken into small pieces. Reserve one cup of cut up chicken for gravy.

Add chicken to the cornbread mixture. Add a little more broth if necessary to keep the mixture moist. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until lightly browned and moisture is absorbed.

 Giblet Gravy

 Ingredients

• 1 cup of cut up chicken or 1 package of chicken giblets
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• ½ teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 4 eggs, boiled

Cook giblets until tender or use 1 cup of cut up chicken. Add chicken to broth, add onions and cook until tender.

Slice boiled eggs and set aside.

Dissolve flour in a small amount of water. Add flour mixture, salt, pepper and eggs to boiling mixture. Cook for 2 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and serve with dressing.

From the scriptures

Almost all books in the Bible contain references to foods. Luke 4:4 says, “It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Reading the Bible will supply you with spiritual food the same way that cooking and consuming food supplies your body with physical food. This recipe references the following scriptures:

• Matthew 12:1
• Mark 8:14
• Luke 11:12
• Ezra 6:9
• Numbers 11:5
• Proverbs 30:33