With Halloween behind us, Daylight Savings Time over (damn it), and Thanksgiving just around the corner, I’m putting my plans together for the big meal. Since I’ll be traveling to the east coast to see my family for Christmas this year, I’ll being staying put for Turkey Day, and we’re going to be doing a Friendsgiving at our house with another Las Vegas couple. We may ever pull up the “Friends” Thanksgiving episodes to watch while the bird cooks, because they are some of my favorite episodes of that classic sitcom, dontcha know.
Anyway, I know I’ve talked about this before—but the stuffing (or ‘dressing,’ if you like) is my absolute favorite part of the traditional* Thanksgiving meal. I have made it many different ways over the years (cornbread stuffing is my least favorite), but the very best, in my opinion, is the one I have adapted slightly from my sister Laura’s sausage stuffing, that she adapted from the ones our paternal grandmother Anna** and her husband Jay’s mother used to make. Sadly, Anna and Sylvia are gone now, but they loved to cook! (My grandmother, for one, used to made a special homemade dessert to go with every single dinner. I’ll never forget that, because we thought it was so decadent.)
Anyway, my friends, this stuffing is a winner of all the Thanksgiving stuffings.
The recipe as described here is baked in a dish in the oven—the way I always do it—but you could also spoon this right into the cavity of the raw bird (hence the word ‘stuffing’) if you like. I just kind of find that icky, so I stopped doing it years ago. Instead, I stuff the bird with oranges and onions.
This is also one of the dishes you can assemble beforehand, refrigerate, then bake when needed.
Speaking of baking when needed…you should see my very detailed Thanksgiving Day Time Sheet (I’ll post it soon). I plan each step down to the minute. It’s literally the only way to get everything to finish at the same time and the only way to get dinner on the table at the correct time.
What’s the correct time in your house? I say 3:00 p.m. A big-ish breakfast…heavy snacking on appetizers mid-day…the meal at 3…dessert at 4-ish…and then raid the leftovers around 7 or 8! Or something like that.
* I guess I should use the term ‘traditional’ loosely, as everyone and their mother has a different idea about what the correct Thanksgiving menu should consist of. In my house these days, it’s either a whole roasted turkey or a roasted turkey breast, sausage stuffing, homemade gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, both homemade and canned cranberry sauce, and snowflake rolls. I also make a corn souffle casserole, but I have eliminated the creamed onions that I grew up with, because they are kind of gross.
** Grandma Anna used royal lunch crackers instead of the cubed bread…and she would cook a whole pork roast for the meat. My mother and sister have changed, but, man, it’s still so yummy. And a lot less work.
THANKSGIVING SAUSAGE STUFFING*
Servings: 8 – 10 / Prep: 30 minutes / Cook: About 2 hours 20 minutes total
Ingredients:
- 10 cups hearty white bread, cut into 1/2” cubes**
- 3 to 4 stalks celery, finely chopped
- 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
- 1 stick of butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1 pound sausage, crumbled, browned***
- 1 to 1.5 cups turkey or chicken broth
- ½ cup heavy cream
- Cooking spray
* This stuffing is baked in a dish outside of the bird. If you prefer, do everything up until #8, then spoon into the cavity of the turkey. You’ll have leftover stuffing mix; put that in a smaller 8×8 Pyrex, or similar dish, and bake on its own.
** I generally use Arnold’s brand white bread. However, if you want to buy bagged plain or herbed bread stuffing mix, do it; it’ll be just as good and it’ll save a lot of prep and cooking time. But keep in mind that you’ll have to adjust your seasoning if you use seasoned stuffing mix.
*** I use Jimmy Dean Regular or Sage.
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 200º F (94º C).
- Cut bread into 1/2” cubes and spread on a rimmed cookie sheet.
- Bake for about 90 minutes to dry the bread, checking and turning every 20 minutes, until done.
- Meanwhile, finely chop the onion, celery, and parsley.
- When bread is almost done, in a large frying pan, melt butter over medium heat then add onion, celery, parsley, salt, and pepper, and sauté for about 10 minutes.
- In the biggest bowl you have, combine bread and sautéed vegetables then mix in the poultry seasoning (this is a guesstimate, but ½ a tablespoon will probably work; I add and taste and add some more).
- In the same frying pan, brown the sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks.
- Add the sausage to the bread mixture and stir to combine.
- Transfer the mixture to a large prepared baking dish.
- At this point, you can cover and refrigerate the stuffing until it’s time to bake.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325º F (163º C) then moisten the mixture with the broth and cream, stirring to combine.
- Cover dish with foil, then bake for 40 to 45 minutes.
- Take the foil off for the last 10 minutes to crust up the top a bit, as you see fit.
- Enjoy the rich stuffing goodness!
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