It is almost time for the Thanksgiving holiday – guess what holiday staple has been missing from our recipe archives? That’s right, stuffing….well, um, dressing.
OK, this recipe is technically not stuffing. Kyle’s preferred method of turkey roasting is spatch-cocking (go on, get the giggles out now). The flattened turkey leaves you with no place to stuff the stuffing, so this dish is baked on the side – rather than inside – the turkey.
Disclaimer: Kyle has never been a fan of the traditional manner in which stuffing is prepared. It can taste like mushy-turkey-bread with an unappealing texture. While traditional stuffing has the flavor benefit of absorbing the turkey drippings throughout the roasting process, it also has the less-than-ideal texture, food safety issues, and the need to overcook the turkey just to bring the stuffing to a safe temperature. This creates something that renders making this legitimate stuffing not worth the hassle.
The term “dressing” is really something that is traditionally a part of a southern Thanksgiving, and, it is usually based with cornbread. To some, the term dressing may not have the same holiday ring to it, so Kyle has decided to intentionally mislabel this dish as stuffing to appease those who feel that it just isn’t the holidays without it. Here we go….
For the past several years, Kyle has used Smitten Kitchen’s Apple-Herb Stuffing for his Thanksgiving meal. The addition of diced apples with the celery and onion give this dish a wonderful autumnal flavor that make it taste like Fall in a Baking Dish (sounds like a movie title, a delicious one…). This is the reason it has become a Kyle Smith Thanksgiving staple.
Last year, when we had our Friendsgiving celebration a few weeks after Thanksgiving, Kyle was still riding high from his discovery of the Cheddar and Black Pepper Cornbread. He really wanted to incorporate it into his stuffing recipe that he has been using for years. The sweetness of the cornbread, along with the peppery bite from all the freshly ground black pepper, really elevated the flavor combo of the apples, celery, onions, and herbs.
So, this year, in the November (AKA Thanksgiving) issue of Food & Wine there was a recipe for Sourdough Stuffing with Sausage, Red Onion and Kale. It included large, rustic pieces of roasted sausage and onion throughout the stuffing that gave the dish a very comforting feel about it. The recipe seemed like the perfect way to incorporate the apple-cornbread concept that he used for the past few years while at the same time slightly tweaking the recipe to change things up a bit (nobody wants to suffer through stuffing monotony every Thanksgiving, right?).
Kyle substituted the sourdough for cornbread (one of Kyle’s favorite recipes, which we VERY recently added to the blog!) and added some sliced Granny Smith apples, whose sweet and tart flavors balanced the savory taste of the sausage. The kale was also removed from the Food & Wine recipe because he wasn’t sure how well it would mix with the new ingredients being introduced in his version.
A note about the spiciness of this stuffing: even with “mild” Italian sausage, Kyle felt the full teaspoon of red pepper flakes that Food & Wine calls for would yield too much heat for a Thanksgiving side dish. Instead, he used half of a teaspoon of red pepper, and while the resulting stuffing wasn’t exactly spicy, that 1/2 teaspoon still provides an aggressive heat that might be off-putting to some who are looking for a more traditionally seasoned side dish. However, the stuffing would not suffer if you’re hesitant about the spiciness and choose to leave it out completely, or at least reduce it a bit more.
If you’re making this for The Big Day, this stuffing tastes exceptionally delicious when made with homemade turkey stock (if you follow our Spatchcocked Turkey recipe, you’ll have ample turkey stock on hand in the days leading up to Thanksgiving!). Another benefit to this recipe is that one can assemble this the day before, then simply pop it in the oven on Thursday. You will be relieved of some of your Thanksgiving Day workload. Just bake the “stuffing” after the turkey is already cooked (another benefit of the spatch-cocking process is that it frees up extra oven time!), then drizzle about 1/4 cup of the turkey drippings over the stuffing for the final half hour of uncovered cooking. The resulting stuffing/dressing/whatever-you-want-to-call-this-deliciousness is sooooo moist in the center, while at the same time boasting a golden, lushly crisped exterior that puts to shame any stuffing that is shoved and baked in the cavity of the bird. Maybe this can become one of your holiday staples too!
Adapted from Food & Wine.
- ½ stick unsalted butter, cubed, plus more for greasing
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed and meat crumbled
- 2 medium red onions, cut into 1-inch wedges through the core
- 1 medium Granny Smith apple, cored and cut into 16 wedges
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt Black pepper
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups chicken (or turkey) stock or low-sodium broth
- 1¼ pounds cornbread, torn into 2-inch pieces
- ½ cup chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon thyme leaves
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- Preheat the oven to 375°. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the sausage, onions, apple and oil and season with salt and black pepper. Roast for about 25 to 30 minutes, until sausage is browned and apples and onions are softened. Transfer one-fourth of the mixture to a plate and reserve. Let cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the stock. Add the bread, the ½ stick of butter, the parsley, thyme, crushed red pepper, 1½ teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper; mix well. Fold in the three-quarters of sausage mixture, then scrape into the prepared baking dish. Decoratively scatter the reserved sausage mixture on top, gently pressing it into the stuffing. Cover the baking dish tightly with foil.
- Bake the stuffing for 30 minutes, until hot. Uncover and bake 30 minutes longer, until lightly browned. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
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