Crock Pot Cornbread Dressing

The holidays are coming soon and it's time to start planning your menus if you haven't already!  Do you have favorites you make year to year?  We definitely do and we spend all year looking forward to making and enjoying them!  There are a couple of recipes that my husband has given me strict orders not to ever share so sadly I will keep those off the internet but I do have some I'm willing to share so stay tuned over the next several days for those.

This recipe for Cornbread Dressing is one of my favorite holiday recipes.  It is super delicious and super convenient... it is made in the CROCK POT!  What a novel idea since trying to time everything that needs to go in and out of the oven is quite a task.  Taking one thing off of that list is huge sanity saver.

I originally found this recipe in the November 2010 version of Southern Living.  You can view an online version here.

I will copy the recipe over here with some hints of my own... enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 5 cups crumbled cornbread (according to the original recipe 2 packages of Martha White yields 5 cups, I believe I use 2 packages of Jiffy and have a little bit left over)
• 1 (14 oz) package herb stuffing 
• 2 (10 3/4 oz) cans cream of chicken soup (I have recently started making my own, recipe here)
• 2 (14 oz) cans of chicken broth (I make my own broth with boiling water and chicken bouillon cubes, 3 5/8 cups equals 2 14 oz cans)
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 1 cup diced celery
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon rubbed sage
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut up

Directions:

• Combine first 9 ingredients in a large bowl.
• Pour mixture into a lightly greased 6-quart slow cooker. (I would give it more than a light grease.)
• Dot with butter.
• Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours or until set and thoroughly cooked. (Definitely check it after 4 hours.  Mine tends to stick and burn to the sides of my crock pot if I'm not careful so this year I plan to decrease the cooking time and increase the greasing!)
• I make my cornbread the night before and combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl and then in the morning add everything else.  This saves time and keeps me out of the kitchen while my husband is prepping a turkey!