braslvr

Yes! And plenty of ground sage.

PurpleTravel

At Thanksgiving, I made a sausage italian bread stuffing based on a recipe from epicurious that was a huge hit! Delicious (and very high ratings on epicurious too). Lots of french bread, sausage, celery, onions, heavy cream, etc, etc...

It's also pretty good with mince pork instead of sausage because the juices of the pork combine more easily with the bread, cream, veggies, etc.

Recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/fo...tuffing-240559

CMK10

I'm boring and easy to please. Just give me Stovetop and cover it in plenty of gravy. When it comes to stuffing I am happy to substitute plenty of quantity for quality.

uaflr

OYSTERS are the best - with onions, celery & butter!!

SkeptiCallie

Cornbread dressing is southern. Bread dressing is for you folks up Nawth.

Hey, but Stovetop and Pepperidge Farm are for us all.

My family's Labor Intensive Cornbread Dressing

A few days prior to Thanksgiving or Christmas, remove giblets from and then boil a baking hen (this is a large, fat bird, not a fryer, found in places like Whole Foods right before the holidays) slowly for several hours in water to cover. When the chicken separates easily from the bone, it is done.

Remove hen and reduce the broth by half. (That's boil the broth until half of it is gone, you noncookers--sheesh! ) Refrigerate when cooled.

Prepare cornbread at least a day prior to holiday. Use traditional ingredients. (That means using bacon grease as the shortening, and also greasing the cast iron skillet with the bacon greese. Also maybe better to use two/thirds cornmeal to one/third flour, or half and half. Also use buttermilk and baking soda rather than plain milk.) Bake till crisp.

On feast day, crumble cornbread and add maybe three slices of dried white bread, toasted, which have been left sitting out on the counter for several hours in order to dry. Add sauteed celery and onion, lots. Mixture should be cooled if necessary, then pour in chicken broth. Never use hot ingredients, as this will adversely affect the texture.

Stir in lots of sage, a bit of salt and black pepper, maybe a chopped boiled egg or two (some like it, some don't), then--if mixture appears dry, add a beaten egg and/or maybe a bit of canned evaporated milk.

Next--this is the controversial part, but what makes the taste authentic, IMV--place the boiled chicken pieces on top. These will char and add authentic flavor.

After the turkey is removed from the oven, cook the dressing for about 20-30 minutes or until it sets. It should still be fairly moist.

It's good. But I've made it only a few times, too much trouble.

Anyhow, just for the history books--

ETA: Or forget about tradition and just chop a jalapeno into the Stovetop or Pepperidge Farm dresing.

magiciansampras

I enjoy mine with sausage, celery, pepperidge farm mix, evaporated milk, and lots of butter.

anaggie

I don't cook a whole bird at our house since we have a small family and plan on deep frying a small breast. Every year, my family does the box stuffing thing. I was hoping to change that this year -- with a more home cooked version of stuffing.

Wondering if anyone is wiling to share their recipe?

kipper

My recipe is pretty simple.

Buy a bag of bread chunks or unseasoned croutons. If you go with bread chunks, I usually leave the bag open overnight to harden a bit.
Saute diced onions and celery.
Mix bread chunks, onion, celery, pepper and salt to taste.
Add chicken broth (or veggie broth) until the mixture is soft.
Bake in the oven at 350 until hot.

emma69

Slice bread (I tend to use a white bakery loaf, find wonderbread type stuff tastes of nothing) into 1 inch cubes, put under the broiler until toasted. In a large frying pan melt some butter, and gently fry diced onions. As the onions start to turn golden, add fresh chopped sage leaves, as they become cripsy the mixture is done. Toss bread chunks in the frying pan to absorb some of the butter, then transfer to a bowl, add veggie stock to give you the texture you prefer, check seasoning, add salt and pepper to taste. You can then use it to stuff the bird (packed in well), dollop into balls (I prefer this, as the edges get crispy, the middle stays soft) or bake in a dish until crispy and light brown on top. Temperature tends to be irrelevant to me, it is whatever the oven is on at anyway (normally quite high as it will be turned up for the potatoes and yorkshire puddings by the time I am ready to cook the stuffing)

Starwood Lurker

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

Sweat:
1 large sweet onion, medium chopped
1 small stalk celery, medium chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Mix well in a large bowl:
1 cup corn meal (yellow or white...your choice)
2 cups buttermilk
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp honey
The sweated onions and celery


In a 10 - 12" cast iron skillet, add 2 tbsp bacon grease or vegetable oil. Place into pre-heated oven for 15 minutes or until the cast iron skillet is hot. Pull the cast iron skillet out of the oven and pour the contents of the large mixing bowl into it. Return to the oven for 45 minutes. Take it out and allow the cooked cornbread to cool to room temperature on top of the stove.

Once cooled, break up the cornbread mixture into small pieces in a large bowl. Add 1 - 2 cans of Swanson chicken or turkey broth until the mixture is just barely flowable. The idea is for the mixture to be moist, but not wet. Add 1 tbsp of poultry seasoning and salt and pepper to taste and mix thoroughly. Usually, 1 tbsp of poultry seasoning is plenty for us. Add more, but sparingly, if it isn't for you.

Pour this mixture into a 13" X 9" casserole and bake at 350 F for 40 minutes and serve.

You can add other stuff to this like sliced pecans and boiled eggs, if you wish, but we do not.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

braslvr

Similar to mine. I normally use the dried bread cubes that come with a seasoning packet, plus add a tablespoon of sage. Also saute a half pound of diced mushrooms with the celery and onion.

kipper

I've found adding extra spices to have too powerful of a taste.

missydarlin

my version 1. in addition to the onion an celery above, mine has mushrooms, carrots, and fennel. Also some poultry seasoning, or at the very least some rubbed sage.

my version 2 . same as kippers, but with chopped granny smith apple.


I also like to brown some italian sausage and throw it in to either version if there are no vegetarians in the crowd

anaggie

WOW !!

Thank you all for the ides -- I can already taste stuffing in my mouth.

Jaimito Cartero

I've got a recipe for Soylent Green stuffing, but strangely, no one ever asks for it.