THANKSGIVING is TOMORROW!!!!!
I am one of those folks who loves stuffing. Call it what you will…stuffing, dressing, turkey side dish. I want it. I'm not a huge fan of just wet seasoned bread. I really like to kick mine up. After a few years of playing around with different variations, this is the recipe that I landed on and stick to.
It involves:
1 12 oz box of seasoned stuffing (any brand will do. I use Mrs. Cubbison's)
1 12 oz box of corn bread stuffing (or just crumbled up old cornbread)
1 medium to large onion
4-5 stalks of celery
1 Granny Smith Apple
chopped or crushed garlic
crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 stick of REAL butter
cranberry juice and/or red wine
roasted chestnuts (already roasted)
black pepper
seasoning salt
Okay, ready?
This makes a LOT of stuffing. I only make it once a year so I just go for it. Feel free to use only one box of stuffing. Or to use half seasoned and half corn bread to make one bag of stuffing.
Start by melting your stick of butter in a large frying pan on medium heat. Please don't use margarine. Or butter substitute. I really think it's best to just use the real stuff. Not just because the flavor is divine, but the fake butter and substitutes have all these weird chemicals and that can't be good.
As your butter begins to melt, dice your onion into smallish size pieces. Think bite sized. I don't particularly enjoy having huge pieces of onion in my stuffing so I keep that in mind while I'm chopping up my veggies. Add into your pan with the melted butter. Try to keep you heat medium to medium low so that you don't brown the butter (though that is delicious too!) or crisp the onions.
I also clean and chop the celery, also remembering to keep the pieces bite sized. You can feel free to use more or less celery. I know celery can be a point of contention for some folks (ah hem…Argelia, I still haven't forgotten about the celery incident of 2009). I happen to love cooked celery so I like to use a good amount.
Add the chopped celery into your butter and onions.
I take the opportunity to season my veggies now. I don't use seasoning at any other point in this recipe for two reasons: 1) I think seasoning while cooking the veggies are the optimal time to incorporate seasoning into your dish and 2) the seasoned bread crumbs have a lot of good seasoning in them so I don't want to OVER salt this dish.
I use course ground black pepper and Lawry's seasoning salt. Feel free to use kosher or sea salt if you'd rather skip the seasoning salt. (Lawry's seasoning salt uses no MSG so I like to use it often.)
While your onions and celery are getting yummy in the butter, grab your stuffing.
Pour into a LARGE bowl. Notice this is corn bread stuffing and seasoned traditional stuffing. You can use one or the other. I like to use both. I should mention that it's super easy to just cube up stale bread, but that would mean I would need to plan ahead and buy bread or make corn bread, remember NOT to eat it, let it get stale, cube it up, yadda yadda...and who really needs to add a whole bunch of extra steps to this? Not me! BUT if you're more put together than I am, you should totally do it.
And look…our celery and onions are beautiful.
I cook them until they are soft, but not browned or crispy.
Pour on top of your bread and corn bread mix…and yes, there is a good deal of melted butter.
It all goes in over your stuffing.
In the same pan you just used, start to cook up your sausage. I like to use this kind:
You can use any kind of sausage you want. I like this kind because it's easier to crumble up while cooking. I've used andouille, kielbasa, chicken sausage and they are all good. I just love the pork sausage and the way it works with the
Use a spatula to smash into smaller pieces. It's up to you how large or small you want your sausage pieces to be in your stuffing. I like a combo of both good sized chunks and crumbles.
When it's almost done, I add an obscene amount of crushed garlic. This was about 2-3 large tablespoons. Again, this is my chance to get a lot of flavor in the stuffing without using salt.
I also like to add some more crushed red pepper to the sausage. I don't find the Jimmy Dean sausage to be that spicy even though it's labeled as HOT. I don't need this to burn anybody, but I do like a nice spicy bite so I like to add it. This is totally optional and you can feel free to avoid it like the plaque if you want.
Cook for another 4-5 minutes. Mmmmmm. Spicy, garlic and sausage.
Add that into your bowl of fun.
For years, I used to peel and roast my chestnuts. Nowadays, you can buy already roasted chestnuts. I got these at the Korean Market near me, but I think you can buy them in non-Asian stores too. DON'T use the canned ones. They are mushy and overly sweet from being stored in light syrup. If you can't find these, feel free to substitute walnuts or sliced almonds. You can skip them too if you'd like. The reason why I use them is I love, love, love roasted chestnuts. They are soft and starchy and I grew up eating about 2 thousand pounds of them. If you've never tried them, you should. They remind me of baked potatoes with their starchy texture (no wonder I love them). I used 4 out of the 5 packs that came in this bag. I use a lot because I like to get a bite of everything when I eat this stuffing. You can use more or less depending on what you like.
I like to chop about half them and keep the other half whole.
Like this:
Now is that part where you need to add some liquid to get the bread crumbs moist.
I call it my "wet-ner". I use cranberry juice. Why? Well, I've already added a lot of butter and sausage fat so I don't really think my stuffing needs anymore flavor. I like the IDEA of cranberries in my stuffing, but I don't really want cranberries in my stuffing.
I poured in about 2 cups to start. You may or may not need more. You can decide as you're mixing. Some people like their stuffing crumbly and some like it really moist. Get in there! Start mixing.
I almost forgot! Wash your Granny Smith apple because we're going to use the skin. I like the way it looks and it helps the apple pieces keep their integrity and not turn to mush.
Chop into bite sized pieces.
Add into your stuffing.
Do you have to use a Granny Smith apple? No. But I love the tart, crisp contrast of green apple balanced with the savory, buttery, garlic sausage. So much so that I'll cut thin pieces of green apple from the core and put a bit of sausage on it and eat them right then and there. They are like little apple and sausage canapés! I stand there eating a lot of it actually. Good thing this recipe is gi-normous.
I happened to have a little bit of red wine left over (or maybe I just wanted to be able to say I didn't drink the whole bottle) so I added it into my stuffing to help moisten. Feel free to use any left over chicken stock or just more cranberry juice if you'd like.
It's ready for baking. Stuff into a turkey or spoon into a oven proof dish. If baking in a casserole dish, bake covered at 350 for about 35 minutes and uncovered for another 10 minutes. If stuffing into a turkey, be sure to follow directions regarding time and temperature as dictated by the size of your turkey.
Happpppy Thanksgiving!!!!! Eat, Eat, Eat and be thankful!
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