I love turkey and dressing and am planning on a sausage and onion dressing this year. But I would love a second recipe, so what’s your best dressing/stuffing recipe?
It can be weird and bear little resemblance to traditional stuffing, so long as it’s delicious.
Mine is pretty traditional:
Cubed bread + stock + butter + (rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage) + celery + (the turkey liver chopped up and cooked in butter along with the onions and pork sausage) + dried cranberries + diced apple = Delicious.
I need to try one with apple sometime. Do you use a really tart apple like a Granny Smith?
Cornbread
2 cups yellow cornmeal
2 cups flour
8 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar (optional)
2 tsp salt
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 tbs vegetable oil
Heat oven to 425°. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Place oil in 13x9 pan and heat in the oven while you add the wet ingredients to the bowl. Mix well. Remove hot pan from oven, swirl the oil around to coat sides of pan, and pour oil into batter. Mix well, and pour into pan. Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
Traditional Southern Cornbread Dressing
1 9x13 pan cornbread, cooled and finely crumbled
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2-3 ribs of celery, finely chopped
4 tsp rubbed sage
2 tsp poultry seasoning
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 stick of butter, melted
2-3 eggs
2-3 cups chicken stock (or fresh from the simmering giblets)
splash of milk (optional)
Mix cornbread, onions, celery and seasonings. (You can add some chopped giblets if you like.) Add melted butter and the eggs. Mix (with your hands!). Add broth, a little at a time until sufficiently moist. Cornbread should just barely hold together when squeezed. You can add a splash of milk for more moistness. Place into a 9x13 pan, and bake for 30 minutes at 350°.
I tried out Sunset Magazines’ Sourdough, Artichoke & Parmesan stuffing last week. It was wonderful!
I used my homemade sourdough bread, home-grown onions and Costco’s Parmesan cheese and marinated Artichokes. The guinea pigs…errr… family that tried it declared it to be a winner.
In the same issue of Sunset there was a recipe for Creamy Gorgonzola Broccoli. That really was a hit.
I’ll be serving both of those for Thanksgiving.
One I got about 6 years ago from the Washington Post (same article I got the cider brine recipe from). I always assemble it the night before, and bake just before serving. Bread Stuffing With Apples, Bacon and Onions
This is the first stuffing I’ve ever had that tasted good even when not baked in the bird (as I brine the bird, I’m leery of putting anything inside that might add more salt to the mix). This is moist and flavorful.
This is my stepmother’s recipe. Simple but effective.
Sausage Stuffing
1 lbs. sausage
1 Loaf of “Stuffing Bread”
1 bunch fresh sage - dried is OK if you can’t get fresh
2 Medium cooking onions
1 egg
Salt
Pepper
½ tsp. basil
*In a large bowl put sausage meat, onion, salt, pepper and basil.
*Chop ½ bunch fresh sage finely.
*Grate or shred ½ loaf of stuffing bread.
*Break up other half of stuffing bread into larger chunks.
*Mix everything together thoroughly.
*Beat 1 egg and mix in.
*Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
*Cook in covered dish for about 1½ hours. You will have to drain off some fat 2 or 3 times during cooking. Never drain it all.
*Cook uncovered for the last 20 minutes.
No, I usually use the golden delicious for their sweetness. Complements the hardiness of the rest of the ingredients well.
These sound so good.
Despite not being the biggest fan of bacon, I think Mama Zappa your recipe sounds amazing.
I don’t have the recipe handy, but I once did a portobello/foccacia dressing that was mighty tasty. Also, a few splashes of white wine adds a tremendous flavor!
Oh, and oysters, please! I’m pleasantly amazed that, although it seems that most people find oysters distateful/disgusting, oyster dressing is so popular (or, more popular than one would thing, or that if even exists!)
I’ve never had oyster dressing. I don’t think I’ve ever had oysters at all, strangely enough.
My uncle makes a wonderful apple/raisin dressing. I need to ask him for the recipe sometime.
It’s hard to choose which is my favourite… Grandma’s savoury stuffing or uncle’s apple raisin!
I might have to try this one for my Thanksgiving dinner. See, I was speaking with one of my sisters-in-law last night, who wanted to bring something for dinner at my house next week. I suggested bringing stuffing, and she thought about that and asked, “You don’t stuff your turkey?” I said no, I never have. Her immediate response was that she didn’t think she should bring stuffing since it tastes awful unless it’s been cooked in the turkey. :dubious: (Previously I’ve made the stuffing when I’ve hosted Thanksgiving for my inlaws.)
I never stuff the bird because people want more than can fit in the turkey, and hey, I’m a vegetarian and sometimes I want stuffing too! The thing is, for the last year, she’s been practically vegan and I told her that nearly everything else I was making besides the turkey would have a little butter at worst.
I’d warn her about the stuffing’s ingredients, though. I’m not that mean.
I make a chestnut/sausage stuffing my family seems to like:
2 loaves stale white bread
1/2 stick butter (no, you may not use margarine!), melted
3 eggs
3 stalks celery
1 large or two small yellow onions, finely chopped
1 lb. good breakfast sausage, browned, drained and crumbled
1/2 lb. chestnuts, roasted, shelled and finely slivered
Salt and pepper
Plenty of sage (when you think you may have added too much sage, add another pinch, just to be sure)
Enough chicken stock to moisten the whole thing.
Tear bread into chunks (this is a task young children love to help with. Put it in a large bowl. Melt butter in a heavy skillet and sautee the onions and celery in the melted butter. After veggies are softened, add the whole mess, butter and all, to the bread. Add the eggs, seasonings, and about a cup or stock. Mix with your hands (kids love to help with this, too) until it’s well-blended. Add the sausage and chestnuts, and about another cup of stock. Mix some more. Add more stock as necessary.
I stuff the bird, but also bake an 8X8 Pyrex dish full of stuffing, so we have enough.
I’m toying with the idea of adding a couple of diced apples, and maybe substituting 1C apple cider for 1C of the chicken stock this year.
I love turkey with dressing and all the other fixin’s. But I’m with Alton Brown on not actually stuffing it into a bird.
Here’s the thinking behind stuffing:
Let’s take a bird carcass that could easily be infected with salmonella and stuff some absorbent material into the hardest to clean part of the bird–where the guts used to be.
Make the absorbent material out of food so as to be a good growth medium.
Make sure that the stuffing is dry enough to soak up any raw blood forced inward by cooking the meat from the outside.
Roast long enough to cook the bird, but not enough to dry it out; thus insuring that the stuffing is not heated through enough to kill any bacteria soaked in along with the blood and other juices.
Remove to a serving dish while the bird rests and is carved (you do rest your bird before carving, don’t you?), and then leave it out for the rest of the day for the kids to snack on–in the temperature range at which salmonella grows best.
Yummm, stuffing!
ETA: I like the texture better when it’s baked in a pan, anyway.
The only problem with this is I’ve never even conceived of “too much sage.” There’s no such thing. 
I concur. But I know there are those foolish cooking novices who may be tricked by recipes calling for “2TBSP dried sage” or some such. Poor, poor pitiful uninformed fools. 
There are a number of American rules that must be followed:
*the bird must be stuffed.
*the stuffing shall not be declared a dietary dish (all ingredients must be as nature intended them, full of fat, salt and other potentially frightening chemical compounds).
*the sister-in-law that objects to the levels of fat, salt etc, shall be shunned.
*stuffing includes bread or cornmeal.
*apples are allowed.
*sausage is encouraged and will be full of fat (see above).
*walnuts are recommended but optional.
*sage=good.
*broth is better than water.
*extra stuffing, that which does not fit in the bird, can be rolled in cheesecloth and into a sausage shape then boiled until cooked. (This sounds weird but it’s really good, almost as good as actually in the bird.
*if you start talking about health or bacteria you will be shunned. (See sister-in-law above)
*those willing to cause dissent may move to another planet.
Sure, I’ll be happy to offer up my recipe. I’ve developed and tweaked this over the past twenty or so years. It is traditional with a modern twist. It’s colorful, tasty, healthy, and festive! Best of all, it is simple!
Crusty Whole Grain Bread (loaf) --Start with good quality; it makes a difference. I prefer an artisan bread that I can hand slice so I have slightly thicker slices. Lightly toast half the slices. Hand tear all slices, toasted and non, into 3/4" pieces.
**Celery, Garlic, and Onion **- Saute with small amount of butter (approx 1 tsp) and vegetable broth until softened. I do about 1/2 cup each celery and onion, and about 6 cloves of garlic. Pour over bread pieces. Lightly toss.
Toast 1/2 c slivered Almonds in a non-stick skillet on the stovetop. Sprinkle over bread mixture. Toss lightly
A handful of Cranberries. Dried works well. (This year I’m going to try fresh).
Vegetable Broth and/or Turkey Broth - Moisten to your taste. I like a drier dressing so am careful not to saturate the bread mixture. I also like the broth to be warmed before adding as it seems to give a better indication of the mixture consistency.
Pour into an oblong baking dish. It should be loosely arranged (not packed) and be about 1-2 knuckles deep. **Bake at 375 **until lightly toasted . . .20-30 minutes depending on your taste.
This is a wonderful side to anything else you serve and is easily adjusted to suit your taste each year. It pairs well poulty, meat, and seafood. I also like it just by itself as a leftover! 
I always cook the stuffing outside the bird. It’s hard to remove all the stuffing, and it’s an invitation to salmonella, IMO. I do, however, put quartered (and peeled if applicable) onions, celery, and carrots inside the bird’s neck and body cavities. These are easily removed.
I like seasoned bread cubes, butter, onions, celery, and poultry broth for my stuffing. Very simple, but very good. Cook the onions and celery in the butter first, to bring out the flavor.