Cornbread Sausage & Apple Dressing

I’m usually a stuffing purist. But. This has earned a spot at the table.

It's delicious and simple, and honestly the thing that takes the most time is drying the cornbread. You want your cornbread VERY dry when you make this, so want to cut the bread into cubes and either set them out for a couple days to dry, or toast the cubes in the oven at 250F for about an hour.

You can use any type of cornbread you like, you just need about an 8x8 pan of it. As for apples, I highly recommend using Granny Smith. They are tart and hold their consistency well in the dish. You can skip crisping up your sage leaves if you wish, but I think that it really just adds some deliciousness to the finished product. I like to mix my chicken stock with turkey drippings from the pan, so probably about 1 1/2 cups chicken stock + 1/2 cup turkey drippings, but you can just use chicken stock if you like!

You'll Need:

• 8x8 cornbread, cut into bite-sized cubes and dried

• 1 pound Italian sausage

• 4 sage leaves

• 2 cups celery, finely diced

• 2 cups onion, finely diced

• 1 Granny Smith Apple, diced

• 1/2 cup butter

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

• 2 cups chicken stock

Place:

Dried cornbread into a 9x13 casserole dish

Brown:

Sausage in a skillet

Remove from pan to casserole dish

Melt:

1/2 cup butter into drippings from sausage in skillet

Toss:

Sage leaves in butter+drippings in skillet over medium heat

Fry until leaves are crispy

Crumble overtop of casserole dish

Add:

Onion and celery to skillet

Toss around to coat

Pour entire contents of skillet over casserole dish

Now:

Add apple, salt, pepper, and chicken stock

Stir:

To combine all ingredients

Pop:

Casserole dish into a 350F oven for 35-40 minutes

Enjoy!