THE YEAR DRESSING IS THE STAR

With loads of meat and flavor, side dish rises above turkey

This year, large family gatherings are frowned upon due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the usual stars of the show — those 20-pound birds — are having their roles reduced to just breasts or leg quarters. This is the year for dressing to steal the spotlight.

But not just average ho-hum, cornbread dressing. This week I have three outstanding recipes that add spicy chorizo, smoked sage sausage and smoky bacon to the dressing.

It’s a trio that not only hold their own as side dishes but can stand in as the main course because they contain so much meat.

“It’s one of those dishes where on the ride home from Grandma’s house, nobody will say the dressing was the highlight, but there’s potential for it to be,” said San Antonio chef Ceasar Zepeda of Sangria on the Burg and the Alamo Biscuit Co.

Like the tomato is to pasta sauce, bread is the foundation to any good batch of dressing. Cornbread and cubes of dried breads are essential.

If you want to dig up a recipe for cornbread, bake a fresh loaf and let it dry out, go for it, but it’s unnecessary. Bagged versions of cornbread mixes work well, and there’s nothing wrong with using prepared dried breads.

“There’s not much of a noticeable difference between those and doing it all from scratch,” Zepeda said. “My philosophy is to save time where you can when you likely have other things going on in the kitchen.”

Bacon makes every recipe better. That’s a Food Shack commandment. Bacon elevates a basic cornbread dressing, with assists from jalapeños and pepper jack cheese. Vegetables for the dressing are cooked in the leftover grease, and it’s love at first scent in the kitchen when this cooks.

Cornbread dressing also gets a Latin twist with chorizo and jalapeño, which add a dark red hue and a hard kick of spice. I cooked this in a pan on the cool side of a charcoal grill, and it simmered like a batch of chili, picking up classic charcoal flavor and a golden brown crust.

Dressing also takes very well to the smoker with your favorite wood, and in a recipe with sage-seasoned pork sausage, the mixture of bread and meat will absorb a noticeable amount of smoky flavor.

Dressing, like a classic bowl of Texas chili, is open to interpretation. It doesn’t have to be relegated to the wings at the Thanksgiving table.

Kin Man Hui / Staff photographer Cheesy Bacon and Jalapeño Cornbread Dressing, from top, Smoked Sage Pork Sausage Dressing and Grilled Chorizo Jalapeño Cornbread Dressing: Dressings like no others for a holiday like no other.