Healthy Cornbread Stuffing Recipe - Dr. Axe

Healthy Cornbread Stuffing Recipe

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Cornbread stuffing recipe - Dr. Axe

Ahh, cornbread stuffing. It’s a staple at many Thanksgiving tables (and often the favorite Thanksgiving side dish for many), but it can often be a calorie bomb on a day where there’s a ton of food already.

If you can’t eat grains, forget about it — traditional cornbread is not your friend.

That’s why my wife Chelsea came up with this gluten-free cornbread stuffing recipe. Made with real, yummy ingredients, this homemade stuffing deserves a place at this year’s dinner!

Key ingredients

Why should you bother making a cornbread dressing anyway? You can easily purchase cornbread mixes at the store.

Well, have you seen what’s in those?

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For starters, most are loaded with sodium. While we need sodium to maintain fluid balance in our bodies, packaged, processed foods deliver a whopping amount at once.

Lots of cornbread stuffing at the store also contains high fructose corn syrup, an unnatural sweetener you definitely want to keep away from.

Supermarket stuffing also comes with partially hydrogenated oils, which is made from canola oil. These oils are full of toxins that are harmful to our bodies.

Who wants that at Thanksgiving?!

You can avoid all those icky ingredients with this easy gluten-free homemade cornbread stuffing recipe.

For starters, you’ll prepare the cornbread from scratch. There are no mystery ingredients here.

Instead, you’ll use gluten-free flour and sprouted corn flour. Sprouted corn flour is fantastic because sprouting the grains allows the vitamins and minerals to “break free” in your food, allowing your body to absorb and digest them.

The stuffing portion of this cornbread stuffing is also fantastic. Instead of pork sausage, which you may want to avoid, this version uses chicken sausage and a variety of classic stuffing veggies, like nutrition-rich onions and celery.

Using fresh herbs also adds so much flavor — it’s worth skipping dried herbs for this one.

Finally, instead of regular old broth, this stuffing recipe uses turkey bone broth. Bone broth is known to protect your joints and keep your gut health in tip-top shape, and I love that you can get benefit from it while enjoying Thanksgiving.

If you can’t tolerate or digest corn, even using a sprouted corn flour might not be an option.

If that’s the case, I have a gluten-free, corn-free cornbread recipe that you can use in this recipe as well. It’s made with sorghum and cassava flour and naturally sweetened with maple syrup.

If you have a sensitive stomach, this could be a great option.

Cornbread Stuffing - Dr. Axe

How to make cornbread stuffing

It’s time to get this gluten-free cornbread stuffing cooking.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease an eight-inch square pan, and set aside.

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Mix the melted butter and coconut sugar until well combined. Add in the eggs, and continue stirring.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk coconut milk, lemon juice and baking soda together. Next, add the coconut milk mixture to the batter, and mix well.

Cornbread Stuffing - Dr. Axe

Add in sprouted corn flour, gluten-free flour and sea salt. Stir it all up until it’s all well combined.

Pour the cornbread batter into greased dish, and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cornbread Stuffing - Dr. Axe

Meanwhile, melt the butter for the cornbread topping, and set aside.

Once the cornbread is baked and cooled, remove it from the pan onto a cutting board.

Lower the oven heat to 300 F.

Slice the cornbread in half height-wise, and cut both layers into cubes. Then line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and fill with cornbread cubes.

Pour the melted butter over the cornbread, and toast in the oven for 25 minutes.

Stir cornbread as needed while toasting.

Cornbread Stuffing - Dr. Axe

While that’s going on, it’s time to make the rest of the stuffing.

In a large pan, melt butter, and add in chicken sausage.

Sauté the sausage with onion, celery, garlic, parsley, rosemary, thyme, sage, mushrooms and apples until the sausage is browned and the vegetables are soft.

Then, remove cornbread cubes from the oven. Crank up the oven temperature to 350 F.

In a 9-by-13 dish, first add in the cornbread cubes and sausage mixture. Next, toss in the eggs, turkey bone broth and sea salt, and mix well.

Cornbread Stuffing - Dr. Axe

Cover the dish with tin foil to prevent the top from cooking too quickly, and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil, and continue baking uncovered for 15 minutes.

That’s it!

Time to eat the homemade gluten-free cornbread stuffing! Serve it hot, and enjoy.

More hearty side dishes

If you are looking for other filling side dishes that can work for your Thanksgiving feast and beyond, try some of the following:

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Cornbread stuffing recipe

Cornbread Stuffing Recipe


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  • Author: Dr. Josh Axe
  • Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
  • Yield: 16 1x
  • Diet: Gluten Free

Description

After noticing how unhealthy most cornbread stuffings are, my wife Chelsea created this delicious concoction of ingredients that perfectly complement your turkey or whatever meat dish you’re about to serve.


Ingredients

Scale

Cornbread:

  • ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
  • ⅔ cup coconut sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup sprouted corn flour
  • 1 cup gluten-free flour
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ cup butter, melted (for topping)

Stuffing:

  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • pound chicken sausage
  • 1 sweet onion, chopped
  • 3 celery stalks, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced finely
  • 4 sprigs parsley, chopped
  • 1 sprig rosemary, chopped
  • 3 sprigs thyme, chopped
  • 2 sage leaves, chopped
  • ¾ cup mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 apple, chopped
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup turkey bone broth
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  2. Grease an 8-inch square pan and set aside.
  3. Mix melted butter and coconut sugar until well combined.
  4. Add in eggs and continue stirring.
  5. In a small mixing bowl, whisk coconut milk, lemon juice and baking soda together.
  6. Add coconut milk mixture to the batter and mix well.
  7. Add in sprouted corn flour, gluten-free flour and sea salt. Stir until well combined.
  8. Pour cornbread batter into greased dish and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
  9. Meanwhile, melt butter for cornbread topping and set aside.
  10. Once cornbread is baked and cooled, remove from pan onto a cutting board.
  11. Lower oven heat to 300 F.
  12. Slice bread in half height-wise and cut both layers into cubes.
  13. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and fill with cornbread cubes.
  14. Pour melted butter over cornbread and toast in the oven for 25 minutes. Stir cornbread as needed while toasting.
  15. In a large pan, melt butter and add in chicken sausage.
  16. Sauté sausage with onion, celery, garlic, parsley, rosemary, thyme, sage, mushrooms and apples until sausage is browned and vegetables are soft.
  17. Remove cornbread cubes from the oven.
  18. Raise oven temperature to 350 F.
  19. In a 9×13 dish, add in cornbread cubes and sausage mixture.
  20. Add in eggs, turkey bone broth and sea salt and mix well.
  21. Cover the dish with tin foil and bake for 40 minutes.
  22. Remove foil and continue baking uncovered for 15 minutes.
  23. Serve hot.
  • Prep Time: 20
  • Cook Time: 110 min
  • Category: Sides Dishes
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 143g
  • Calories: 256
  • Sugar: 11.7g
  • Sodium: 362mg
  • Fat: 14.3g
  • Saturated Fat: 8.2g
  • Unsaturated Fat: 4.8g
  • Trans Fat: 0.5g
  • Carbohydrates: 24.5g
  • Fiber: 1.3g
  • Protein: 8g
  • Cholesterol: 96mg

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8 Comments

  1. Debbie on

    Intend to make this minus the turkey sausage. I already have gf corn bread cubes, so I will pick up the recipe at the point where the veggies are sauteed. And I will omit the mushrooms, but sounds delish. Can’t wait. Thanks for the gf recipe!

    Reply
    • Ethan Boldt on

      Great question but no, we wouldn’t advise making that substitute. Masa behaves very differently in a baked dish compared to corn flour.

      Reply

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