Cornbread Dressing With Sausage and Corn Nuts

This is not your typical Southern cornbread dressing recipe (or cornbread stuffing, if you prefer). Yes, it gets plenty of melted butter, diced onions, and chopped celery. Yes, distinct bites of crispy, toasted, golden brown cornbread dot the top, while below the surface lies an almost-but-not-quite-custardy interior laced with sage-rich breakfast sausage. But we gave the classic Thanksgiving side dish a wake-up call courtesy of hot chiles and—the true star—corn nuts. Pulverized into an earthy, sweet magic dust and bloomed in oil, just like you might warm spices, the crunchy snack seriously pumps up the casserole’s corn flavor.

You can absolutely use store-bought cornbread, but homemade cornbread (like our Buttermilk Cornbread recipe, developed specifically for stuffing) will give you more control over the sweetness and texture. If you’re looking for a gluten-free dressing, use a cornbread made with 100% cornmeal, no wheat flour. Meanwhile, you can leave out the sausage if you prefer a vegetarian stuffing.

This dressing recipe soaks up quite a lot of stock (homemade or store-bought turkey or chicken stock are both fine), but it may take a few minutes. If the liquid pools when you pour it in, walk away and give it a few minutes to do its thing while you prep the rest of Thanksgiving dinner.