Herby Thanksgiving Stuffing

Thanksgiving is a huge food day in the US, and each year it’s a huge task to undertake. On top of that usually an entire family or extended family will be eating and judging each others dishes.

Stuffing is one of the first of the main Thanksgiving dishes that I made from scratch, even before I really got into cooking. My family always made boxed or bagged stuffing, with a little bit of “doctoring”, and my family out east made cornbread dressing, which is a southern version of stuffing. Making stuffing from scratch, was easier than I thought it would be and an easy way to impress the family.

Below is the recipe I use to make a simple and herbacious Thanksgiving stuffing. The dish leaves lots of room to add any other stuffing inclusions that might be traditional to your family.

I add a few extra items, like pecans or cranberries, to about 1/3 of the dish for family members that like more to their stuffing.

Herby Thanksgiving Stuffy

Serves: 8-10
Time: 45 minutes
Skill level: Easy
Oven: 400°

• 6c of Stuffing bread, anything small cut, crunchy, or slow toasted*
• 1c Turkey stock
• 3 Celery sticks, small diced
• 1sm Yellow onion, small diced
• 2tbsp Sage, fresh and chopped*
• 1tbsp Thyme, fresh and stemmed*
• 1/4c Flat leaf parsley, fresh and stemmed*
• 1/2tsp Rosemary, fresh and stemmed*
• 1tsp Garlic, minced
• 2tbsp Butter

1. In a large skillet, over medium heat, melt the butter.
2. Add the celery and onion to the butter and sauté until fragrant and the onion is translucent.
3. Add the garlic to the onion and celery and sauteé for another minute.
4. Add all chopped herbs to the onion mix and mix well. The pan should be very fragrant now, it will start to smell like the holidays!
5. Preheat oven to 400°
6. Add the toasted bread to the skillet and mix well.
7. Transfer the stuffing mixture to a 8×8 casserole dish, make sure the bread, onions, and herbs are well mixed.
8. Slowly pour turkey stock over the stuffing until damp. Press down with a spoon to ensure everything in the dish is in the turkey stock. Don’t make it a soup! Just enough to moisten everything.
9. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes, or until the top is browned.
10. Impress the family and enjoy Thanksgiving!

 

*Bread can be saved in the pantry for a few weeks until it gets nice and stale, or many grocery store bakeries will start selling pre-diced and toasted bread for stuffing around this time of year.

*Dried herbs are much more potent than their fresh counterparts. If you decide to go dry, cut your herb measurements to 1/3 of what I have listed for fresh.