This is my mom’s recipe–it is seriously my favorite thing she makes for Thanksgiving. I’m making it, too! She came up with this about 30 years ago. I am JUST NOW starting to see recipes for stuffing that includes most of these ingredients (namely the sausage and wild rice). She is one of the reasons I am a good cook.
Ingredients:
One box of Mrs. Cubbison’s cornbread stuffing mix (Vons, Ralphs or Stater Bros should have this)
CAVEAT: you can make this with day old cornbread that you have made (that’s how I do it)–make your cornbread from scratch if you can using real cornmeal. Make cornbread up to two days earlier, set it out on towels and break it up. Leave it uncovered to get it stale. If you do it this way, you will probably need a 9×13 size cornbread.
IT IS TOTALLY FINE TO USE THE MIX, JUST DON’T GET THE CUBED CRAP.
One cup of cooked wild rice
1/2 pound sweet italian sausage removed from casing
1 small onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 med apple diced finely (green or yellow)
3/4 cup chopped mushrooms
1 egg
1/2 cup slivered almonds
sage or thyme or poultry seasoning (not a lot)
black pepper
1 stick of butter
1 cup chicken broth (you may need a little more, so have a little extra on hand)
Cook your rice–you will probably only need a 1/2 cup to yield 1 cup+
While the rice is cooking, dice your onion, celery, apple, mushrooms
In a deep frying pan (the biggest one you have), over medium-high heat, melt the whole stick of butter, and add sausage (make sure to break it up so it’s in small pieces), celery, onion, apples, mushrooms. Saute until sausage is cooked.
Add chicken broth to make sure all the good stuff on the bottom comes up. TURN HEAT OFF. Then add stuffing mix, rice, and almonds. Add seasoning now, too. You will not need salt for this recipe! Combine all until it is the consistency of slighty tacky meatball mix. You don’t want it drippy, but it needs to be saturated.
Put in large baking dish, 9×13. HERE’S the MOST IMPORTANT PART: crack and beat one egg in a small bowl, and add it to the baking dish, incorporating it with your hands.
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until crispy and brown on top.
I think you will love it as much as I do:)
CookWrite 
Yummy! How much dried bread is in that box? In case I want to make my own cubes?
So, I made cornbread (one recipe as per the box of cornmeal), and that was plenty for the recipe. If you use a box, I’d say one large box is enough. I also found that using two eggs to bind it at the end was better than one. Enjoy!