Dates at least to the 1950's, possibly much older, as my eldest relatives made it also. It was served throughout the year as a main dish. A ladle of Golden Gravy over it makes for a delectable entree.

Ingredients:

1 pan non-sweetened cornbread

1 whole chicken (about 2 1/2 pounds)

2 chopped onions

1 whole head celery, chopped

4-6 slices white bread.

Put onions and celery in a pot of salted water (about 2 tsps salt). Cut up chicken and add to pot. Add the giblets to the pot. Bring to a boil for about 10 minutes, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer chicken until meat just begins to pull away from the small ends of the leg bones. Take chicken and giblets from the pot. Chill covered in fridge. Chill the broth.

Once chicken is cool, debone simmered chicken, and by hand pull meat into medium sized chunks. Don't cut it up. Return chicken to fridge for now.

In a large mixing bowl, crumble cooled cornbread. Don't overdo this step, just break it up, leave it semi-chunky.

Tear up 4-6 slices of white bread. Can remove crusts beforehand.

To crumbled cornbread and white bread, add all the deboned chicken, 1/2 to 1 cup freshly diced celery, 1/2 fresh onion diced, and 2-3 chopped boiled eggs.

To that add 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 tablespoon rubbed sage, 1/2 cup chopped green scallion onions, 2-3 raw beaten eggs, 1/2 tsp celery seeds, 1 tablespoon (grey-olive colored) powdered poultry seasoning, dash of allspice, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp ground black pepper. By hand, fold until it looks well combined.

Heat oven to 450°f. Well-grease a roasting pan, set aside.

Using the cold broth from simmering the chicken, add one cup of cold broth at a time to the dressing batter, then fold. Add enough broth to make dressing batter like a cake batter in consistency; not soupy, but pourable. Mix by hand until the dressing batter is well combined.

Some of my old folks added about a cup or less of buttermilk and a 1/4 tsp baking soda to the dressing batter, but not everyone did.

Pour dressing batter into greased roasting pan. Don't smooth out the surface, leave it craggy as those places become toasty and add extra flavor.

Bake for 30 minutes at 450°f, then reduce temperature to 350°f and bake until the dressing has pulled away from the roasting pan, and is a toasty golden brown across the top.

Allow it to sit uncovered for about 20 minutes before serving.

If using as a stuffing for chicken or turkey, omit the raw beaten eggs from the dressing batter.

It was common for this to be made with the chicken giblets cooked with the chicken at the beginning, and those were chopped and added to the dressing batter too. Chicken livers were cooked with the simmering chicken, but not added to the dressing batter. One of the cooks (or cook's helpers) usually ate them when no one was looking. :P

This is never a dry, hard dressing brick. It's meant to be juicy, savory and tender, with the outside edges crisped and toasty. It was a full meal in one pan.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas this dressing was always served with giblet gravy, baked sweet potatoes, baked ham or roast chicken, cranberry sauce, collards and jowls, corn in some form, pillowy soft rolls with butter, mashed potatoes, green beans, iced sweet tea - and *plenty* of pies, cakes and other sweets to finish up with. This was our typical family feast when the Holidays came around. Then again, when all the family came together, we numbered at minimum around 30-50 people, sometimes more.