For Thanksgiving? It is turkey, our traditional herbed bread stuffing with onion and a bit of sage and other fresh herbs, and Granny's cranberry salad. At Christmas, I sometimes mix it up between a ham or some slow-baked prime rib instead of turkey, but we always have some stuffing and cranberry salad on the side there as well.
Mr. ReddHedd would probably prefer that I just make the whole meal out of stuffing, but he's always been a bread sort of guy.
What I started doing a few years ago was playing around with the stuffing recipe so that I incorporated a few more veggies and fresh herbs into the traditional family mix. I think the fresh herbs and veggies add a better flavor. Given how quickly it disappears at our house? I think everyone agrees.
Here's how I've been doing it:
I take a 14 oz. bag of Pepperidge Farm herb-seasoned stuffing and half a 14 oz. bag of the Pepperidge Farm sage and onion cubed stuffing, and mix them together in a humongous bowl.
Then, I heat up a large amount of turkey stock -- homemade if possible or chicken stock if I just didn't get time to make it -- on the stove with half a stick of butter melted into it. Just to a simmer, though -- this doesn't need to be boiling, just warm enough to blend in with the bread.
When I say a large amount, I mean it -- I use a lot of stock in my stuffing to keep it moist, and the rest gets used for turkey basting throughout the day or for gravy, so it never goes to waste at our house.
A lot of times, I'll save the turkey neck from the giblets (I don't tend to use the other organs as I think the liver makes everything taste nasty and I'm not so fond of using the heart either -- all of that just goes in the trash at our house, but YMMV according to your family's taste.). Then, I'll simmer it in the broth for an hour or so to get more turkey flavor into it before using it in the stuffing.
I like a rich broth, and especially if I haven't had time to make my usual turkey stock and am having to make do with low-sodium chicken broth from a carton, this is a great way to amp the flavor a bit before making the stuffing.
In the food processor, I chop up 2 yellow onions, 3 or 4 ribs of celery and a couple of carrots, along with some fresh sage, rosemary, parsley and thyme so that everything is chopped very small -- into a mince but not into a full, mushy puree -- so that it will mix into the stuffing without leaving large chunks (thus enabling me to hide my veggies from the veggie averse in this house). I saute this veggie and herb mixture in a large nonstick pan heated to medium high with some olive oil (about 2 Tbsp.) and a bit of butter (about 1 Tbsp. or so) in it. Saute until the veggies soften and begin to brown ever so slightly, and the herbs are really fragrant.
Personally, and this may just be my taste buds, but I hate stuffing with large, barely cooked chunks of celery or onion in it. I like everything to sort of blend into a melded whole, with all the flavors coming together instead of standing out in big chunks that crunch a harsh, uncooked flavor in my mouth. That's my taste, though, so if it isn't yours, leave things in a larger chunk if that's how your family likes it.
But do saute.
The flavor develops really well that way, and you don't get big, uncooked chunks in your stuffing which don't blend well with everything else. It's a little step that makes a huge difference in flavor, I think.
At our local store, I can get a bundle of fresh rosemary, sage and thyme together, labeled as "poultry seasoning," and that is what I use along with a large bunch of Italian flat-leaf parsley (I think this has better flavor than the curly kind). I never use more than one Tbsp. or so of fresh rosemary -- any more than that is overpowering for the stuffing, even in a large amount, but I love the pine-y sort of kick that fresh rosemary gives along with the fresh taste of a whole lot of parsley.
Make sure you carefully pull just the rosemary leaves -- that look more like needles - from the stems, as well as just the thyme leaves from their stems. The woody stems of both do not taste good, and you wouldn't want them in your stuffing, even chopped up small with the food processor. Trust me on this one. You can pull them off by working your fingers backward down the stem, which should just strip those leaves right off. I don't really use the sage stems either, but for taste reasons and not because they are not edible, but I do throw in the the parsley stems and leaves for extra flavor since they are being chopped up well before you saute them.
If you don't want to deal with fresh rosemary and thyme, dried will do although it won't have the punch of flavor that fresh has. The rule of thumb is for every tablespoon of fresh that you would use, add 1 teaspoon dried.
The sauteed veggies and herbs go into the bowl with the dried stuffing, and everything gets mixed together along with a heaping tablespoon or two of Penzeys poultry seasoning blend (sometimes more depending on how in the mood for sage I am, sometimes less depending on how much of the fresh herbs I've used) and some salt and pepper.
Mix all of this really well, and then begin ladling in the warmed broth.
I will pour in two or three ladles full of broth, then stir and assess how moist everything is. And I'll keep ladling broth until it reaches a moist consistency but doesn't become utter and complete mush. Make sure you mix in the bread from the bottom of the bowl or you'll have a bunch of crunchy bits that pour onto the top of your pan at the end that you will then have to pull off and moisten, which is a pain when you are in a hurry. (I speak from experience here. It's annoying, so just stir really well.)
All of this gets spooned into my huge 5 qt. glass baking dish that has been coated with cooking spray. It gets baked alongside the turkey, at 325 F to 350 F, for a couple of hours or so until it is heated through and everything is cooked well together. I cover it with foil for the first hour and a half or so, then uncover so the top can crisp up nicely around the edges.
If I can, I try to make the stuffing up to the baking time the night before, that way all the flavors can meld together and it only requires me to pop it in the oven on Thanksgiving day. When I do this, I use one of those disposable aluminum pans so I don't have to worry about a glass dish getting angry at the change in temperature from the fridge to the oven.
So, that's our usual stuffing. Since everyone has a favorite family recipe, please feel free to share yours in the comments...
(Photo via Lutz-R. Frank.)
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