Chicken and Cornbread Dressing

"This is an old family recipe that my wife has made a few changes in the contents to suit herself. Everyone that has ever eaten her dressing has said how much they enjoyed it." Lloyd Rushing of Texas City, Texas USA.

Recipe Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, approximately 3 1/2 pounds
Water to boil chicken
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 cups chopped green onions - divided use
Double batch of baked cornbread
6 slices white bread or 4 large biscuits
12 hard-boiled eggs

Cooking Directions:

1. Place chicken in a large pot and cover with water. Add salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and chopped celery. Boil chicken until almost tender, add 1/2 cup of the chopped green onions and cook until chicken is tender. Remove chicken to a platter to cool.
2. In another pot, crumble cornbread and white bread, or biscuits. Add enough broth from cooking the chicken to the corn bread until it is slightly soupy. Chop up 9 of the hardboiled eggs finely and add to the bread. Add the remaining green onions.
3. Debone the chicken, (don't put the liver, heart or gizzard into the dressing) and add it to the dressing. This will make more dressing than most families want at one time. Take out enough, about 1 1/2 cups to make gravy for the dressing. Freeze the rest for a later time in a zip lock bag. Be sure to try to remove as much air from the bag as you can before sealing it. Taste for salt and pepper content and add as needed. Put enough in a casserole pan to bring the level to 1 1/2 to 1 3/4-inches and bake at 350°F (175°C) until the top has started to brown.
4. In a smaller pot, take about a quart of the broth, add the 1 1/2 cups of dressing and coarsely cut up the remaining 3 eggs and mix in it.
5. Take 2 tablespoons of flour in a small jar and mix with some water and a ice cube and use it to thicken the gravy to the consistency you like it.

Makes 4 servings.