How do you make good stuffing thats not stuffed?

I always laugh at the TV folks that tell you not to stuff your turkey. The stuffing that comes out of the turkey is pure extacy. The stuff that is cook along side OK. It’s usually dry and the bread is toasted a little. It never tastes quite like turkey, because it’s only put in along side the turkey at the end of cooking the turkey so it never gets the turkey juices. Usually chicken broth is substituted. It just never tastes the same.

I could care less about the “risks” of stuffing the turkey. My problem is that the turkey cavity isn’t large enough to make enough stuffing to last more than a day past Thanksgiving.

I feel exactly the same way about stuffing; I wish they’d get rid of the “broad breasted” turkeys and start breeding “large cavity” birds instead…

I have taken some of the juices from the turkey while it’s cooking and adding them to the “stuffing” (while it’s still cooking as well). It’s still not the same, but at least you get some real turkey flavor in it.

One does not, can not.

Stuff your bird. Cook it long and slow.

You will not die. It’s ok to rock again.

My mom always makes a huge pot of stuffing as well as what goes into the bird; is that what you mean? It’s never quite as good, but she uses the giblets to flavor it–I don’t really want to think about how it’s done, but the end result is pretty good.

Yes, this is what I mean. The bird just doesn’t have a big enough cavity to get enough stuffing for all. To you take the juices out before the turkey is done, you have to take the turkey out of the oven. Even then, the stuffing is never quite right. Somebody must know the secret. Or do all the non-stuffers not even know what they are missing.

Squeeze in another big bit between skin and breast works really nice.

Never tried it, but thinking laterally here. What if… one were to spatchcock a whole chicken and lay it on top of the dressing in the pan. Bake that over the top so the drippings drop down and give the dressing that real stuffing flavor. Serve the chicken or save it for other recipes- soup or sandwiches or something.

Alternately, one could just make a nice moist pan of dressing with chicken/turkey stock and the giblets (Liver if you’d like) and then, if you can get it, use a whole chicken skin to seal the top… instead of covering it with tin foil, cover it with a chicken skin for that lucious moisturizing and dripping rendered fat.

Or hey, you know what would be good? One could add some duck fat to the dressing for flavor and moistness!

A few days prior to the big day, roast a few turkey legs in the oven and reserve the drippings and refrigerate. Strip off the meat and make stock with the bones and some veggies. Skim the fat off the drippings and mix the drippings and some of the stock in with your side dish dressing and bake it in a covered dish. It won’t be exactly the same, but should be pretty tasty.

My dad roasts his in tight pouches he makes from aluminum foil. It came out moist and delicious. Not sure if he added stock or some of the pan drippings. I’ll try to remember to ask.

Exactly. I’m not sure why this is so hard. We make stock with a small turkey the week before so we can make the huge quantities of stuffing and gravy we adore with actual turkey stock instead of chicken stock.

(Oh, skip the canned turkey broth. It’s really dreadful. And I’m okay with canned chicken broth in a pinch, so that’s not a kitchen snob talking; turkey broth really is awful.)

We make our stuffing by drying out a couple loaves of the cheapest, nastiest, whitest bread we can find the day before. Then melt your refrigerated, gelatinized turkey stock in a bowl. Grab a piece of dried out bread, dunk it briefly in the stock and then squeeze all the excess stock out before thunking the wet mass of bread into a large mixing bowl. This gets the perfect bread:stock ratio. Continue until all the slices are moistened and squoze. Add sauteed onions, celery and mushrooms, a few eggs and a shitload of sage, black pepper and poultry seasoning. Mix well. Salt to taste. Baking pan (deep if you like soft stuffing, shallow if you like the crunchy bits.) Bake at 350 until done.

This year we baked it, in the oven, inside the crock from a crock-pot, and when it was done, we moved the crock into the heating part of the crock-pot and put it on “keep warm”. Freed up the oven for other stuff and it stayed nuclear hot.

The wife followed this recipe this Thanksgiving. It was awesome!

I’ve never considered making two turkeys for Thanksgiving. It seems a bit excessive since then my wife and I would be stuck with way more turkey than we need. Maybe I could cook some legs earlier in the week, but I’m not sure what kind of drippings I would get out of that.

Legs are dark meat and will render substantial drippings. You might want to use about 4-5 pounds. This is also a good way to create drippings for making gravy in advance.

Turkey Gravy

For the stock:
4 TBSP butter (perhaps more)
6 turkey legs or other dark meat parts (about 6 pounds)
salt and pepper
1 medium onion, peeled, stuck with 3 cloves
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
3 stalks celery with leaves, trimmed, cut into chunks
2 bay leaves
12 black peppercorns
1 cup white wine or water

For gravy:
12 TBSP flour
salt and pepper

Heat oven to 375. Melt 4 TBSP butter. Sprinkle turkey parts with salt and pepper, place in roasting pan and brush with melted butter. Roast 2 hours, basing with butter every 20 minutes.

Transfer turkey to stockpot, set roasting pan aside. Add onion, carrots, celery, bay leaves and peppercorns to stockpot. Add cold water just to cover. Bring to simmer and cook, mostly covered, about 6 hours.

Place roasting pan on stove and bring juices to a simmer over low heat. Pour in wine, stirring and scraping. Pour all liquid into a bowl and refrigerate. When liquid is cool, lift of top layer of fat and reserve. Add deglazing liquid to stockpot.

Gravy:
Melt 12 TBSP reserved turkey fat in a skillet over medium heat. Use additional butter, if necessary. Gradually whisk in the flour. Cook until golden brown and toasty smelling, 3-5 minutes or longer.

Whisk in a small amount of stock, then add remainder more quickly and whisk until smooth. Simmer, continually whisking, until thickened. Thin if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. If desired, whisk in a few tablespoons cold butter to smooth and enrich.

Yields 3 quarts. Can be frozen for up to a month.

I’m glad to see I’m not the only one that prefers stuffing to dressing, although I enjoy the latter as well. When I do dressing I use turkey broth I’ve worked up myself, to get a good flavor.

I prefer the stuffing cooked outside the turkey. Inside stuffing is too wet.