Thanksgiving is just over a week away, and people are gathering their recipes and consulting with their guests about pies. Okay, maybe that’s just me, but knowing the pie menu is the most important aspect to the meal for this family. I’ve gone on about pies many times in this blog, so today I am going to put out my mom’s recipe for stuffing. She called it that, so I will just keep the name, though I use it as dressing not a stuffing. She used to stuff the turkey back in “the olden days”–what my kids call the time before their births. I don’t do that as my turkey cooking technique requires an empty bird.
What you need:
One large loaf plain white bread. (I use a country-style loaf.)
one half cup butter (I use buttery sticks, but my mom used cow butter)
two large onions
one large head celery
two cans sliced water chestnuts
1 cup slivered almonds
1-2 cups broth (Turkey homemade, or canned chicken)
poultry seasoning
Salt
Pepper
The method is simple, melt the butter, add celery and onions and cook until very soft. 15-20 minutes. (Use your largest pan for this.) Add in the almonds and water chestnuts. Stir until coated. Sprinkle with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Be generous here…it should smell very fragrant at this point. Stir in the toasted bread until coated in the base mixture–continue to stir and cook for a few minutes. Begin to add broth 1/2 a cup at a time until the stuffing is as moist as you like. Put in greased casserole and cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350®F for an hour. Check after half an hour to see if the top is drying out. If you like a crust, just leave it. If you like things to be moist, stir it up and add extra broth.
(If your largest fry pan isn’t big enough to hold all the ingredients, it’s okay to pour the bread into a large bowl, dump the hot ingredients on top and mix in the bowl. It’s better if you CAN fry the bread with the rest, but it’s a big mess if you don’t have a big pan.)
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- Tear up the bread into rough chunks and put on a cookie sheet. Toss in a warmed oven and turn off the oven, leave overnight. If you forget to do this, take a few minutes and gently toast all the bread before tearing it. I find it easier to tear when it’s soft and then let it harden overnight. But, you do want the bread pretty dry so it will soak up the flavors from the onion and spice mixture while it bakes.
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- The chopped onion and celery in the pan. The butter has already melted and we’re just getting started.
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- The onion and celery have cooked down and are all softened and melty.
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- Slivered almonds and water chestnuts–the crunchy secret ingredients.
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- The bread is all mixed in with the the celery and onion mixture. Time to add some broth and put in the casserole.
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