After a Covid-19 forced week off, LSU returned to action on Saturday with a 52-24 beatdown of South Carolina to even their record at 2-2. This Saturday, the Tigers will try to carry the momentum into Alabama where they face the Auburn Tigers. Auburn enters with a 3-2 record, fresh off a 35-28 win over Ole Miss.

Since LSU will face Alabama later in the season, I had to be selective about what I wanted to feature for the first of two Alabama-themed recipes this season. There doesn’t appear to be a culinary dish distinct to the Auburn area but I did come across another southern comfort food that has at least some ties to the the Yellowhammer State — chicken and dressing.

A Brief History

In order to picture chicken and dressing, just think about Thanksgiving. But let’s answer the elephant in the room first. If you’re a Yankee you likely call this stuffing. If you’re a southerner, it’s surely dressing.

According to the Huff Post, a Google Correlate scan shows that people searching for recipes using the term dressing span the souther states — Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Arkansas.

While many in the north and pacific northwest have traditionally made stuffing with a variety of stale breads, dressing historically uses another bread-like staple of southern households — cornbread. Dressing is a way to utilize leftover cornbread rather than throwing it away.

It’s also pretty distinctly a dish drawn among racial lines, as described by Toni Tipton-Martin in “Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking” from this Chicago Tribune article.

“Cornbread dressing is Southern; it is also African,” she explains. “It descends from a memory dish some of the enslaved called kush made from cooked cornmeal mush or crumbled cornbread. The one-pot meal reminded West African captives of kusha, a couscous-like dish of steamed or boiled grains of millet or sorghum.”

While it’s not as unique to the state of Alabama as it is the general south, chicken and cornbread dressing is mentioned in Only In Your State’s list of “26 foods that people in Alabama simply can’t get enough of” with the caption, “Here in Alabama, we eat chicken and dressing year-round, not just on holidays. It’s that GOOD!”

That was good enough for me to give it a try.

The Recipe

Since chicken and dressing essentially originated as a way to use up leftovers, the longest part of this recipe will be smoking your chicken, unless you already have some leftover chicken.

Fire up your smoker to 300 degrees indirect using your choice of wood. I usually go with pecan when I smoke chicken, but any fruit wood like apple or cherry, or even hickory, is good with chicken.

Start by spatchcocking your chicken. This is where you remove the backbone in order to allow your chicken to lay flat, which helps it cook faster and more evenly. With the backbone facing up, take a pair of kitchen scissors and cut along the backbone on either side until it is completely separated. It’s a little weird the first time you do it, but once you get the hang of it, it’s super easy.

Next, turn the chicken over and press down hard on the breasts to break the breastbone. This will allow it to lay as flat as possible.

Cover all sides with your Song Bird rub, which is our brand new chicken seasoning that is full of citrus, herbs, and ginger. It will be available for pre-order later this week! Make sure to get underneath the skin to get some flavor onto the meat as well. Also slide a couple pats of butter under the skin, which will melt and flavor the meat while it cooks.

Place a few sprigs of rosemary and a few leaves of sage onto a wire rack, then set your chicken on top of them, breast side up. Put this into your smoker and let go for about 4-5 hours until the internal temperature of the meat is at least 165 degrees.

Once you get the chicken on, it’s a good time to cook your cornbread so it has time to cool and sit out before you put it into the dressing. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees with the cast iron skillet inside.

In a large bowl, combine 5 cups of self-rising yellow cornmeal, 5 tablespoons of flour, and 5 teaspoons of sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk 3 eggs, then add 2.5 cups of milk and whisk together. Add these to your cornmeal mixture and mix well.

Add in 8 ounces of cottage cheese — I know this isn’t necessarily a traditional ingredient in cornbread, but hey, this is my recipe — and a stick of melted butter and mix well.

Carefully remove the skillet from the oven and add vegetable oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Pour your cornbread batter in, then put into the oven and cook for approximately 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Once your chicken has reached 165 degrees internal, remove from the smoker, let cool, and shred.

Dice up 3 stalks of celery, 2 large carrots, and a yellow onion. On the stovetop, sauté them with a stick of butter on medium-low heat, stirring often to make sure they don’t brown. Cook these for about 20-30 minutes, then add a few shakes of your Song Bird seasoning.

In a large bowl, crumble your cornbread, then add your vegetables and mix together. Add in 4 cups of chicken stock and 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup.

In a separate bowl, whisk 6 eggs, then add those to your cornbread mix. Mix in your shredded chicken and stir it all together. Pour this into a 9×13 baking dish or a half foil pan, then put back into your smoker. It should cook for about an hour, until the top is golden brown and the inside has set. Because of the cream of mushroom soup, it won’t be fully dry on the inside, but that’s ok.

Serve as a side or as the main course and wash it down with some McKenna 10-year Bottled in Bond.

Smoked Chicken and Cornbread Dressing

My take on a true southern comfort food, combining smoked chicken with cornbread dressing for a taste of Thanksgiving

For the Chicken

• 1 Whole chicken
• Song Bird rub
• 4 sprigs Rosemary
• 8 leafs Sage

For the Cornbread

• 5 cups Self rising yellow cornmeal
• 5 TBSP Flour
• 5 tsp Sugar
• 2 ½ cups Milk
• 6 Eggs
• 8 ounces Cottage cheese
• 1 stick Butter
• Vegetable oil

For the Dressing

• 1 stick Butter
• 1 Yellow onion
• 3 stalks Celery
• 2 large Carrots
• 4 cups Chicken stock
• 3 Eggs
• 2 cans Cream of mushroom soup
• Song Bird rub

For the Chicken

1. Fire up your smoker to 300 indirect using your choice of wood. I usually use pecan for chicken, but a fruit wood also works great.

2. Lay your chicken on a cutting board and use sharp kitchen scissors to cut out the backbone. Once removed, flip the chicken over and press down on the breast to break the breastbone so that the chicken lays as flat as possible

3. Cover liberally on all sides and under skin with Song Bird rub

4. Place a few sprigs of rosemary and leafs of sage onto a wire rack, then place your chicken, breast up, on top

5. Set on the grate in your smoker and let go for 4-5 hours until it reaches 165 degrees internally

For the Cornbread

1. Once your chicken is cooking, it's time to cook the cornbread.

2. Preheat your oven to 375 with your cast iron skillet inside

3. Mix together 5 cups of self-rising yellow cornmeal, 5 tablespoons of flour, and 5 teaspoons of sugar

4. In a separate bowl, whisk 3 eggs, then add 2 ½ cups of milk and mix together.

5. Add the wet ingredients into your cornmeal mix and mix well

6. Mix in 8 ounces of cottage cheese, then a stick of melted butter

7. Carefully remove your cast iron skillet from the oven and add about ⅓ cup of vegetable oil to coat the bottom of the pan

8. Pour in your cornbread batter and put into the oven for approximately 40 minutes

9. Once it is golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean, remove from the oven and let cool

For the Dressing

1. Once your chicken has reached 165 degrees internal, shred it up

2. Once your cornbread has cooled, crumble it up into a large mixing bowl

3. On the stovetop, sauté 3 stalks of diced celery, 2 diced carrots, and a diced onion in butter over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes. You don't want them to brown. Remove from heat and add a few shakes of your Song Bird rub

4. Add this to your bowl of crumbled cornbread

5. Add 4 cups of chicken stock

6. Add 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

7. Whisk 6 eggs, add to the bowl, and mix it all together

8. Mix in your shredded chicken

9. Pour into a 9×13 baking pan or half foil pan, then put into your smoker

10. Let go for about an hour until golden brown and the inside has mostly set