Southern Bacon and Crawfish Cornbread Dressing

Imagine you are dining outside at Blake Shelton's house this Thanksgiving and deep frying some big turkeys. A crawfish dressing would probably be on the menu. Deep fried turkeys and outdoor dining on Thanksgiving day is very popular in the South. And while people don't wild catch crawfish like they did a century ago, crawfish are always popular on the menu. Here I have  paired it with bacon, corn, mirepoix,and jalapenos to give you a dressing with real local flavor.

Here is what you need:
5 cups crumbled cornbread
1 1/2 lbs  boiled crawfish tails ( frozen is fine)
10 ounces bacon, cooked and coarsely crumbled
12 ounces yellow corn
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion
1/1/2 cups chopped celery
1/1/2 cups green red and orange bell pepper
1 jalapeno ( optional)
2 eggs beaten
2 cups chicken stock
salt, thyme, and sage to taste.

Fry your bacon until it is ready to crumble, remove from pan and set aside.
Saute the mirepoix, (onions ,peppers and celery) corn and jalapeno in the bacon fat until tender.
Add the crawfish and bacon  to the saute and continue to cook another few minutes.

In a large bowl, slowly add the saute mixture to the cornbread and seasoning. mix lightly then add the egg and chicken stock slowly, and mix until all the cornbread has dampened.
Transfer to a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.
This will feed about a dozen.

In Nashville it is hard to find frozen crawfish, however fresh is plentiful.  I recommend that you have the kids or a guest help with shelling the crawfish because it is fun but time consuming. It adds an extra 20 minutes to your prep time.
This dressing is delicious with a giblet gravy. I love mine with hot sauce!