Great-grandmother Butler's Chicken and Dressing Recipe
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Category: |
Category: |
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Chicken and Dressing |
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Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 1 hen or chicken, stewed, reserve broth
2 cups cornmeal
2 cups buttermilk
2-3 eggs
¼ cup oil
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 large onion, diced
1/2 stick butter
1 can refrigerated biscuits, baked; use inexpensive type which will be more dense
3-4 crackers, crushed
2-4 cups reserved chicken broth
Sausage seasoning
Sage
Salt and Pepper
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Directions: |
Directions:Stew chicken in water. Cool and de-bone, reserving broth. Preheat oven to 400º. Grease a 9 inch cast iron skillet and put it in the middle rack of the oven to preheat. In a bowl, mix cornmeal with buttermilk, eggs and oil. Mix until smooth. Pour into very hot skillet. Cook in a hot oven for about 25 minutes or until cornbread begins to brown on top. For big family events, make two pans of cornbread, and adjust remaining ingredients accordingly.
While the bread is baking, melt butter in a skillet, and sauté two or three stalks of celery and a large onion. When bread is done, crumble it into in a large bowl. Add 4 or 5 crumbled crackers, 4 or 5 of the canned and baked biscuits (torn into small pieces), onion and celery. Add pieces of the de-boned chicken (optional: serve chicken separately). Using your hands to gently combine, mix in chicken broth.Season with sausage seasoning, sage, salt and pepper. The seasoning depends on taste. Some like more sage. Do not over-mix, but keep adding broth until moist, but not soupy. Transfer mix into a large Pyrex dish. After it is in the pan, never add broth or it will be mushy. Bake 350º about 30 minutes, or until slightly brown.
Note: the biscuits should be made early in the day and allowed to dry out. They should be dense or somewhat stale. Alternately, stale bread or more crackers could be added. |
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Gravy for Dressing |
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Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 2 boiled eggs, cut up
Small pieces of cooked chicken
Salt and Pepper
Broth
Butter
Cream of Chicken Soup, undiluted
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Directions: |
Directions:In a saucepan, add broth, butter and undiluted Cream of Chicken Soup. When heated, add salt and pepper, chicken and eggs. Per Carolyn, "I'm sure mother never used the soup, but we like it better and it makes it creamy." |
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Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: Almost every family has a special dressing recipe that is passed down through the generations. Ingredients are generally estimated and substituted at will. For this recipe, the sausage seasoning is a must because Ms. Butler always used it in combination with the sage.
This recipe was passed to Carolyn when she visited her mother, Evelyn Butler, in the nursing home, Ms. Butler said, "You better learn how to make my dressing because you know how much James and the family are depending on you". Carolyn did learn to make the dressing, and it has become a requirement for her to bring the wonderful heritage dish to Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations in Nashville.
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