Lowcountry Seafood Dressing

Just don’t call it «stuffing.»

Prep: 20 mins

Cook: 45 mins

Cooling: 10 mins

Total: 75 mins

Servings: 6 to 8 servings

Yield: 8 cups

The Lowcountry, a region found across the low-lying coastal areas in southern South Carolina, is a special place. It’s full of culture, history, and, of course, good food. The proximity to not only the ocean, but its many estuaries, streams, and rivers, has been supplying the people who live in the area with fresh seafood for hundreds, even thousands of years. There is an abundance of all sorts of ingredients, with fish, shrimp, and shellfish being some of the most commonly found and eaten on Lowcountry dinner tables. 

A Lowcountry Cuisine Primer

Some people know about Lowcountry seafood boils, and frogmore stew, one-pot seafood based dishes that usually have a variety of ingredients like sausage, seafood, corn, and potatoes. These dishes are served family style, meant to be made and shared with family and friends because of their large portions. Many dishes in the lowcountry were created this way, with a sense of physically feeding family and community and nourishing them with the best local ingredients everyone could gather. 

In cooler months, oysters are in season, and the Lowcountry is known in particular for their cluster oysters, named as such because as the oysters spawn and grow, they cling to one another, creating clusters that can contain many individual oysters of various sizes. These oysters have a fresh, slightly briny flavor and are best eaten fresh out of the water or lightly steamed over a hot fire just until their shells pop open, just barely cooking in their own salty liquid. 

What is Lowcountry Seafood Dressing?

Seafood, and oysters, show up on dinner tables in more ways than one however, and a holiday favorite in the Lowcountry is seafood dressing. Sometimes it’s made with just oysters, or just shrimp, but for a decadent and almost indulgent treat, many types of seafood can be added to the dish. 

Dressing for us in the Lowcountry is different from stuffing, although they are almost the same thing. The key difference between the two is that the dressing is made from cooked ingredients and made in its own dish, rather than being stuffed inside of a bird and baked. The reasoning I always got growing up was two fold: it’s very easy to get sick from the ingredients (often including bread) that had been put into an undercooked turkey, and that stuffing inside of your bird would make the bird (and the stuffing) spoil more quickly. 

For me, dressing is one of those things I really only crave during the cooler months around oyster season. The oysters add a sweet and briny flavor that gets sopped up by the cornbread used here instead of bread or breadcrumbs. The crab and shrimp add plump sweetness to the dish, and the holy trinity adds flavor and texture. 

Some people enjoy a chopped boiled egg in their dressing, and use different seasonings. Here, poultry seasoning adds savory herbaceousness to the dish that feels like the holidays, and the chicken stock brings it all together, although I am very partial to using pan drippings when you can! 

Tips for Making Lowcountry Seafood Dressing

• Avoid precooked shrimp—Cook the fresh, raw shrimp rather than using precooked shrimp to not only add better flavor, but to avoid rubbery, tough, over cooked shrimp.
• Flavor the cornbread—Adding various ingredients like jalapeños, honey, paprika, and more to the cornbread can impart delicious flavor to the dressing.
• Use drippings for the best flavor—This recipe uses salted stock, but drippings reserved from the cooked Thanksgiving bird are preferred for the most flavor. Seafood stock is also a great substitute here as well. Clam juice can be used but should be used sparingly.

Make Ahead

Make the cornbread ahead of time. Cornbread that is a day or two old will work better than freshly made. 

Your vegetables can all be prepped a day or two ahead of time, as well as cooking the shrimp. 

«The amount of seafood in this Lowcountry dressing makes it an extra-special side dish that’s sure to impress—it’s a fabulous Southern dressing to make for a holiday or Sunday dinner. The crab and shrimp add sweetness to the savory dressing, and the poultry seasoning flavors it perfectly.» —Diana Rattray

A Note From Our Recipe Tester

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, more for the baking dish

• 1/2 cup diced celery

• 1/2 cup diced yellow onion

• 1/2 cup diced green bell pepper

• 1 1/2 cups oysters, 1/2 cup liquor reserved

• 1 cup raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped

• 1 cup crabmeat, picked over

• 4 cups crumbled cornbread

• 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning

• 1 teaspoon fine salt, more to taste

• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, more to taste

• 1 cup salted chicken stock, drippings, or water, more as needed

• 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion

Steps to Make It

1. Gather the ingredients. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 350 F. 

   

2. Coat the inside of a deep 2-quart oven-safe baking dish with butter. Set aside.

   

3. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter. When the butter begins to foam, add 1/2 cup diced celery, 1/2 cup diced yellow onion, and 1/2 cup diced green bell pepper. Sauté until the vegetables just begin to soften and become translucent, about 3 minutes.

   

4. Add 1 1/2 cups oysters, 1 cup raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped, and 1 cup crabmeat, picked over, and cook until shrimp are pink. Remove from heat and set aside.

   

5. In a large bowl, combine 4 cups crumbled cornbread and the vegetable-seafood mixture. Fold together to combine. 

   

6. Add 1/2 cup reserved oyster liquor, 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning, 1 teaspoon fine salt, 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1 cup salted chicken stock, drippings, or water, and 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion and mix well. If the mixture seems dry, add a bit more chicken stock. Taste and adjust seasonings.

   

7. Transfer the dressing to the prepared baking dish, pressing it down gently into an even layer.

   

8. Bake the dressing until the top is golden brown and toasted, about 45 minutes. If you like your dressing a little drier, cook it for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.

   

How To Store

Leftovers should be cooled completely and can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Dressing can also be frozen and reheated later by portioning the dressing into smaller pieces, wrapping with plastic wrap, and then freezing. To reheat, let the frozen dressing come to room temperature before reheating in the microwave or stove.

Feeling Adventurous? Try This:

• Make it with chicken or turkey instead—Feel free to take the seafood out and substitute for more traditional ingredients like chicken or turkey giblets. 
• Add hard boiled eggs—Some families in the lowcountry add chopped boiled eggs to the dressing. 
• It’s dressing, not stuffing—This dressing should not be used as a stuffing for poultry. 

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6 to 8
Amount per serving
Calories	454
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 14g	18%
Saturated Fat 4g	21%
Cholesterol 147mg	49%
Sodium 1374mg	60%
Total Carbohydrate 58g	21%
Dietary Fiber 1g	2%
Total Sugars 2g
Protein 24g
Vitamin C 15mg	74%
Calcium 337mg	26%
Iron 7mg	40%
Potassium 478mg	10%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.