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Stuffing

November 20th, 2011

Stuffing is my favorite dish at Thanksgiving dinner. Sure, I love turkey slathered in gravy, I will carbo load with creamy mashed potatoes till I’m green, and I look forward to crispy Brussels sprouts all month- but stuffing? Favorite. Hands down. It even beats out my other favorite by a hair, buttery dinner rolls.

Stuffing is the potato salad of Thanksgiving. When I say that, I mean how every single family has their very own way of making potato salad, and whatever recipe you grew up with, is probably the recipe you will stick with.

I am no exception. My mother always made her stuffing with Challah bread, (which is still my preference.) She also used pork sausage (check), tart apples (check), walnuts (check) and golden raisins (almost!) I swapped out the golden raisins for dried cranberries because I loved that sourness that comes with them, and the color is so beautiful.

I am sure you have a family recipe, but if you are in the mood to try something different and totally DELICIOUS- whip this up. By the way, this stuffing is SUPER moist- that’s the way I like it- almost like a bread pudding. If you like a looser stuffing, I would cut the chicken stock in half.

Stuffing, serves 10-12
-1 large loaf of rustic white bread, (8 cups)
-.75 lb of hot pork sausage
-1 large onion, diced
-2 cups mushrooms, diced
-½ cup walnuts
-½ cup dried cranberries
-1 ½ cups celery, diced
-1 cup carrots, diced
-1 apple, peeled and diced
-½ cup butter, melted, plus 2 Tbs soft
-1 cup fresh parsley, minced
-2 Tbs thyme
-1 Tbs sage, minved
-2 cups wine
-4 cups chicken broth
-1 egg

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2) In a large sauté pan, squeeze the sausage from it’s casing and cook over medium heat.

3) Cook the sausage, breaking it up as it cooks, until it is browned and cooked through.

4) Remove the sausage from the pan and put it in a large mixing bowl, keeping the fat in the pan.

5) Add 2 Tbs of butter to the pan over medium heat.

6) Add the onion, sprinkle with a little salt and coat to cook.

7) Add ½ cup wine and 1 cup chicken broth, simmer the onions until most of the liquid has cooked off.

8) Pour the onions into the large bowl with the sausage.

9) Add the mushrooms.

10) Add the walnuts and the cranberries.

11) Add the celery, carrots and apple and fresh herbs.

12) Add the bread chunks.

13) Pour the ½ cup melted butter over the bread.

14) In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and the wine.

15) Pour it over the bread and mix everything together. Season with salt and pepper.

16) Pour into a large roasting pan and smush down.

17) Pour the rest of the chicken stock over the stuffing.

18) Bake the stuffing for about an hour, until it is piping hot and the top is crusty.

19) Spoon out and enjoy!