One Pan Cornbread Stuffing and Roast Chicken Breast

Now that it is Fall, cooler temperatures are coming and the time for having warm savory meals is here. (Or at least I’m wishing that it was cooler, haha! I live in the South, so warm weather will be around for a while longer, but a girl can dream, right!?) Something in the warm savory food group that I’ve always wanted to try is cornbread stuffing. I love cornbread, and stuffing/dressing was always my favorite food on Thanksgiving Day. So, one afternoon I decided that I would try making this cornbread stuffing.

I had some corncakes left over from supper earlier in the week, and decided to use those instead of actually making cornbread. (If you don’t know what corncakes are, it is basically cornbread in pancake form. They are delicious! Blog post with recipe coming soon!) I tore the cakes into chunks and had about 4-5 cups of the corncake chunks. I then added half an onion and two stalks of celery chopped, four eggs, and a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and ground sage. I mixed this together with my hands in the cast iron skillet that I was using to bake it.

 I also had some uncooked Aldi chicken breasts in my refrigerator that I had gotten for $1.69/lb. earlier in the week. I took two of these chicken breasts (they were huge!) and cut each into three pieces, placing them in the stuffing mixture. Over this I poured two cups of chicken broth. I then cubed up three tablespoons of butter and placed it around on top of the chicken and stuffing. Lastly, I sprinkled the top of the chicken pieces with salt, pepper, and ground sage. It smelled amazing! I covered with foil and baked at 350⁰F for almost two hours.

Because the oven was already in use, I placed a few potatoes on the oven rack to bake and cooked a few frozen peas adding butter when done. In less than 20 minutes prep time and 2 hours cook time, we had a delicious savory meal that almost tasted like Thanksgiving! And it only used two dishes to cook it, my cast iron skillet and the pan to cook the peas. The only thing that I would change is the weather outside (it was 90⁰F outside the day I cooked this) and I would make some chicken gravy to pour over the stuffing. But I love my gravy and drowning my food in it; it was good without it, but would have been so much better with the gravy.

Cornbread Stuffing with Roast Chicken Breast

ü  4-5 cups cornbread chunks

ü  ½ onion, chopped

ü  2 stalks celery, chopped

ü  4 eggs

ü  ¼ tsp. ground sage

ü  2-3 uncooked chicken breasts, cut in pieces

ü  2 cups chicken broth

ü  3 Tbsp. butter, cut into small cubes

ü  Salt and pepper to taste

Mix cornbread chunks, onion, celery, eggs, sage, salt, and pepper together in a 14in cast iron skillet (or a rectangle baking dish). Cut chicken breasts into 3 pieces each and place on top stuffing mixture, pressing into the mixture to make top of the chicken piece level with the top of the stuffing. Pour chicken broth evenly over the mixture in the pan. Spread cubed butter chunks evenly over the top of the mixture in pan and sprinkle the exposed chicken pieces with sage, salt, and pepper. Cover with foil and bake in a 350⁰F oven for approximately two hours or until chicken is cooked through. Chicken must reach an internal temperature of 165⁰F to be safe to eat. Serve with potatoes, a vegetable, and maybe some gravy and enjoy!

Serves 6 people.