Herb and garlic roasted chicken with sausage apple cornbread stuffing.
It’s getting to be that time of year. The holidays are just around the corner. So today, I’m sharing a tasty variation of the southern holiday staple, cornbread stuffing, served with an herb-roasted chicken. Cornbread stuffing, or dressing as it’s called where I am from, is a must for my holiday table. If you have never tried it, you are missing out!
The stuffing has everything you expect: onions, celery, herbs. It also has spicy sausage, sweet Fuji apples, and buttery chicken drippings. Let’s not forget the main ingredient, the cornbread.
This is my staple cornbread recipe. Normally I would bake it in a cast-iron skillet or muffin pan, but for this stuffing, I wanted large chunks. So, I baked the bread in a sheet pan, giving it more surface area to brown and form a crust. The extra crust helped the cornbread keep its shape during the mixing process.
I kept the chicken simple with fresh herbs, garlic, and butter. But I did use a technique called spatchcocking. Essentially, this is just removing the backbone and flattening out the breast. This technique helps the chicken to cook more evenly. It also exposes more of the skin so that it crisps evenly. If you want to skip this step, feel free. It will not affect the flavor, but the cooking time may need to be adjusted.
Roasted Chicken & Sausage Cornbread Stuffing
Ingredients
Cornbread
- 1 1/4 cup cornmeal
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup melted butter 1/2 stick
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
Stuffing
- 1 pan cornbread
- 1/2 onion small diced 1 cup
- 4 ribs celery 2 cups
- 1 apple 1 1/2 cups
- 1 pound spicy sausage
- 2 cloves garlic minced 1 tsp
- 1 tsp fresh sage chopped
- 10 sprigs thyme
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 eggs
- 3 cups chicken stock
Roasted Chicken
- 1 chicken
- 4 cloves garlic minced 2 tsp
- 4 tbsp butter softened
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp fresh sage chopped
Instructions
Cornbread
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients. Mix in the eggs, milk, and butter. Spray a sheet pan and pour the mixture into the pan. Smooth the surface of the batter and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool. Slice into 1 inch cubes and place in a bowl.
Stuffing
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat with 1 tsp oil. Brown the sausage in the pan. Remove the sausage from the pan and add the onions. Cook for 1 minute and add the celery, apple, garlic, thyme, sage, salt and pepper. Cook until soft. Add the chicken stock. Scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a simmer and remove from the heat. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove the thyme stems mix with the cornbread. Place in a baking dish.
Chicken
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the backbone from the chicken and press the breastbone so that the chicken lays flat. Rub butter under the skin and on both sides of the chicken. Season the chicken with the salt, pepper, garlic, and sage. Place the chicken on top of the stuffing. Tuck back the wings and cross the legs.
- Bake the chicken with the stuffing for 1 hour and 15 minutes. The stuffing and chicken should be browned. The meat should be 165 degrees. Remove from the oven. Cool slightly. Place the chicken on a cutting board. Carve the chicken. Remove the leg/thighs. Slice at the joint to separate. Cut the thigh portion in half. Trim off the wings at the joint. Cut the breast in half and cut each half into 4 portions. Spoon the stuffing onto a platter. Add the chicken portions around the stuffing. Garnish with fresh herbs and serve.
