Here’s What We Thought After Making Jiffy’s Classic Cornbread Stuffing

It’s nearly impossible to think of cornbread or corn muffins without immediately thinking of Jiffy. The muffin mix has been turning out reliably delicious cornbread and muffins (not to mention pancakes, biscuits, and more!) for decades — and since we’re battling off some of the most popular cornbread stuffing recipes this week, we knew we needed to include Jiffy’s.

The way we see it, Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix is to cornbread stuffing what French’s Original Crispy Fried Onions are to green bean casserole. Here’s how it fared in a showdown against five-star stuffing recipes.

Get the recipe: Jiffy Cornbread Stuffing

The recipe begins by having you make the cornbread according to the package instructions. When it’s done, you’ll crumble it into pieces and return it to the oven at a lower temperature for a few more minutes. Alternatively, you can let it sit out to dry.

Meanwhile, you’ll cook five strips of bacon and half a pound of breakfast sausage, and then sauté the vegetables (celery, onions, and mushrooms) in a separate pan. Once the vegetables are slightly cooled, you’ll add them to a bowl along with the meat, the two eggs, a can of broth, and spices (garlic powder and black pepper). You’ll also add the herbs at this point: sage and thyme. The recipe doesn’t specify whether to use fresh or dried herbs, so I opted for dried for ease. You’ll mix everything together, fold in the dried and crumbled cornbread, transfer the stuffing to an eight-inch square pan, cover with foil, and send it to the oven. You’ll remove the foil for the last 10 minutes of baking.

I was super skeptical about this recipe calling for bacon and breakfast sausage. Not only was I worried that the stuffing would be too meaty, but I also assumed using breakfast sausage instead of savory Italian sausage would make this stuffing too sweet. I’m happy to report I was wrong on both fronts!

Not only does this back-of-box recipe stand up to its five-star competitors, but it actually easily outshines some of them. The double dose of breakfast meats, along with the sautéed mushrooms, is what makes this upgraded classic so memorable and delicious. Most importantly, this recipe reminded me that good cornbread stuffing starts with good cornbread. The cornbread does crumble easily, which means this stuffing lacks thick cubes of bread, but I personally didn’t mind that.

While I loved this stuffing and will definitely make it again, I do have two criticisms. Parts of the recipe are vague, both in how the ingredients are listed and the brevity of the instructions. It’s also worth noting that of the four recipes I tried, this one left me with the most dirty dishes.

1. Add 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Salt isn’t included anywhere in this recipe, so I opted to add 1/2 teaspoon as I sautéed the vegetables. Even with the bacon and sausage, the addition of salt is still necessary.

2. Use 3 medium stalks of celery, 1 small onion, and about 6 ounces of mushrooms. The recipe calls for these vegetables by volume (in cups), which isn’t always helpful when it comes to grocery shopping. It also doesn’t specify the variety of mushroom to use, so I’d recommend either cremini or button mushrooms.

3. Use breakfast sausage meat, not links. This point isn’t entirely clear in the recipe, and there’s potential for confusion. You don’t want chopped breakfast sausage links. Instead, remove the meat from the casing or, if possible, buy just the meat.

4. Bake uncovered for an extra-crispy topping. If your favorite part of the stuffing is the crisp layer that blankets the top, opt out of covering the baking dish with foil.

5. Six to eight is a more accurate serving size. The recipe suggests you can get nine to 12 servings from this stuffing, but they would be small portions. Six to eight side dish portions is more realistic — especially since you’ll likely go back for seconds.

Rating: 8/10

Have you ever made Jiffy Cornbread Stuffing? Tell us what you thought!