Thanksgiving Stuffing

It’s getting close to Thanksgiving, so why not toss out some recipes for this holiday?  Here is a good recipe for the most sought after side dish to take home as leftovers. (Besides the juicy turkey).

Now y’all know me by now.  I prefer to us Stove Top stuffing when I’m making a whole roasted chicken for a Sunday dinner.  Why?  Because it takes 5 minutes!  But for Thanksgiving, I do go the extra mile on my side dishes and do everything from scratch.  I know, shocking, right?  This lazy cook turns into Martha Stewart during the holidays.  Making stuffing from scratch is extremely time consuming, so it’s best to make ahead of time.  You do not want to be making this on Thanksgiving Day.  (Learn from my mistake).

I would start a few days in advance to make the breading.  You need to have completely dry cubes of bread.  So cut those up 3-4 days before and let them sit out on the counter or kitchen table, any place that is warm and the cats and dogs aren’t allowed on.  That’s the most time consuming part of this recipe because of the wait time.  You could always dry them in the oven, but I don’t trust myself to get them out before they get toasted, or worse, burned.

Ingredients 

• 2 small onions diced
• 4 stalks celery diced
• ⅔ cup butter
• 1 ½ teaspoons poultry seasoning or ½ teaspoon ground sage (Poultry seasoning is best but if you don’t have it, sage is the next best option).
• salt and pepper to taste
• 12 cups bread cubes (It’s about 2 loaves of bread.  I use white and wheat bread, just to give it a little color difference).
• 3-4 cups chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon fresh herbs: sage, thyme, rosemary (You can use dry herbs for this, just use less, but I don’t recommend it.  Using fresh herbs truly does enhance the flavor).

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
3. Add onion, celery and poultry seasoning (Add the rosemary here, if you are using it.  Unfortunately, my family hates rosemary so I leave it out).
4. Cook over medium-low heat until tender (do not brown), about 10-15 minutes.
5. Grab your big ol’ bowl of bread crumbs that have been drying out on the counter and add the onion/celery mixture, parsley and fresh herbs.
6. Toss gently to mix it evenly throughout.
7. Poor broth over mixture until cubes are moist but not soggy, mixing every so often to distribute broth evenly. (You might not need all of the broth.  And that’s okay.  Save the rest for the gravy).  Season with salt and pepper while doing this step.
8. Grease baking dish with butter (You don’t have to do this, so I didn’t add the extra butter in the Ingredients, but this southern gal loves butter).
9. Place mixture in a serving dish, dot with additional butter and cover. (This is where you can cover and place in refrigerator overnight and finish it off tomorrow.  Just be sure to pull it out at least 30 minutes before you bake it, to help bring it to room temperature).
10. Bake covered for 35 minutes, then uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes.  (You may need to adjust the cooking time, depending on how cold it is after pulling it out of the refrigerator).

Tips

• If you would like to freeze this, you can do that!  It should last a few months.  To reheat it from frozen, place it in the oven at 375°F for about 20 minutes.  Be sure to add some broth to it so that it doesn’t dry out.
• When preparing this in advance, you don’t want to keep it in the refrigerator for more than 48 hours.

 Serves 12 people

Calories are not counted on Thanksgiving.