What's in your stuffing?

[Bilby]

We are not turkey eaters but in our chicken we don't mind a tasty stuffing.
Do your stuff your turkey and chicken or just leave your chicken unflavoured from the inside?

We like fresh: bread crumbs, with finely diced and lightly sauted in a bit of butter bacon and onion, into a bowl and add mixed herbs, salt and pepper, with an egg to bind it all together.
It's a fairly firm stuffing but yum.

This is also nice popped into a muffin tin and cooked/baked separately and served on the side with left over seasoning frozen for another time.
Failing a bread stuffing I peel an onion and just pop in the cavity, the onion is so nicely flavoured to eat when the chicken is cooked.

What are you ideas on stuffing?

[barbszy]

When I make turkey I like to make a stuffing with bread cubes, onions, sausage and poultry seasoning.

[DeBora4BobbyL]

I usually make a large batch of cornbread. I cube that up and add any leftover stale bread. I add the broth from the turkey and maybe additional store-bought chicken broth. I saute onions and celery. I then add that to my bread mixture that I put in a large bowl. I add lots of sage and other seasonings. I don't usually add eggs unless I am making it into a dressing.

[Bilby]

Got me curious, I use the egg to make the ingredients stick together before it goes into the chicken. When you put your stuffing into the chicken is it loose?
Do cubes make it chunky? When I take my stuffing out I slice it, do you spoon it?

Ahhh the ins and outs of a good stuffing huh LOL

[cat lover]

I pull bread (white,whole wheat, sour dough; really any I have sitting around)into bite size pieces and let it air dry a couple of days. When I am ready to make the stuffing I saute celery and onion in fat free chicken broth till tender. Then pour all this over the dried bread, and mix in sage and thyme and enough fat free chicken broth to make it moist. Then I put it into a casserole and bake. Once in a while I will add dried cranberries, and walnuts to a small bowl. DH used to like hot sausage cooked and added to some, but he can't have the real sausage any longer and the Gimmie Lean just doesn't work in it. My Great Aunt alwyas made hers this way I just dearly love it so it is my basic recipe. Once in awhile I vear off and add other things as a change, but for regular dressing I don't add to it.

[barbszy]

Kathy, here is my grandmother's stuffing recipe, with my notes.

In her own words. (My words are in italics.)

Remove crusts from 45 slices of bread. (This is the only step I skip. I even use the bread heels. Nanny would KILL me if she knew.)

Let bread stand for a few hours to get a little dry. (She always spread it out on paper towels on the dinner table. I got to help "flip" the slices now and then to speed the drying process.)

Break dried bread into small pieces. (Kids can help!) Add enough warm water to moisten. (Yeah, I know, you just got it all dried out and now you're getting it wet. It defies logic. Just do it. And you're going to need a BIG bowl.)

Saute 2 medium sized onions in (lots of) butter.

Mix the sauteed onion with bread.

Add 1 lb. sausage meat
2 tablespoons of Bell's Poultry Seasoning
1/2 tsp salt.

Mix all these ingredients together so that the sausage meat is well distributed with the bread.

This makes enough stuffing for a 20 lb. or larger turkey. If you have a smaller turkey, cut the recipe accordingly.

The number of slices of bread is approximate. A few more or less won't matter.

[barbszy]

Forgot to answer the question of the consistency.

I "line" the inside of the turkey with cheesecloth and then shove as much stuffing in as I can get. :D The tighter you pack it, the denser the stuffing will be. You probably could cut it with a knife. That's how I like it. My grandmother always used to tell me I didn't break the pieces of bread small enough. Big pieces make a drier stuffing.

[Lizzie-boo]

My stuffing (although it's really dressing because I don't stuff it in the turkey, I bake it in a casserole) contains pork sausage (browned), onions and celery (sauteed in butter) and seasoned bread cubes. I like it to have a little density, so what I've started doing in the last couple of years is crushing half the package of seasoned bread cubes and leaving half in cubes -- that way I get some density and some lightness from the small cubes. I mix it all together and add a can of low-sodium chicken stock. Bake in a covered casserole.

I saw a Rachael Ray show yesterday where she makes Stuffing Muffins and portions her stuffing into a muffin tin which provides lots of crusty edges and portions. I may have to try that method.

Liz

[DeBora4BobbyL]

Stuffin Muffins sounds good. I may change the recipe a bit, but I like the general idea! Thanks for the idea.

[sweetnell3]

My stuffing is simple cornbread ,onions,celery,broth & seasonings.

[Lizzie-boo]

DeBora,
I agree -- I was only going to use the method, not her recipe for stuffing, especially in light of many of the reviews posted with her recipe -- it seems like many people had trouble with her recipe not holding together as muffins and that caused them to crumble when people tried to remove them from the muffin tins.

Liz

[DeBora4BobbyL]

Lizzie, when I make dressing instead of stuffing, I use a lot of eggs and bake it in a 13 X 9 inch pan. Then, I'd cut the dressing into squares. I was thinking that baking the dressing in muffin tins and calling it stuffin muffins would be much more fun!

[Bilby]

That is what I do also, make a double batch of stuffing, stuff the chicken, and the rest goes into muffin tins and bake. These can then be frozen and used instead fo bread rolls for a dinner accompanment. Yes lots of crusty edges.
My favourite part of chicken stuffing is the end piece that is crusted.

[cat lover]

I haven't ever done that with dressing, but sounds good; I do make some potato "pancakes" that way and enjoy them so this will probably be as enjoyed; thanks!

Hi Sweetnell!

[Lizzie-boo]

Well, I ended up not doing the "muffin" thing with my stuffing this year -- I have a new stove and I wasn't sure I'd have enough room for the dressing and the turkey, so I did my usual practice of putting the dressing in my medium-sized crockpot on low and just heated it that way.

I have to say, though, that both DH and I thought that the dressing this year was the best I have ever made. Maybe it was because we haven't had it in so long or maybe this year's "tweaks" to the recipe really worked, I don't know, but we both thought it was fabulous! I made sure to write down my changes on my recipe so that I can replicate it next time!

Liz

[cat lover]

I cooked my dressing in my large crockpot this year also; did it last year and it worked so well I decided for space to do it again. Now, I can have some dessing during the summer when I don't want to use the oven! LOL

[pag36]

I put some stuffing in the turkey and rest in a casserole dish in oven, the one in turkey is usually more moist than the other one but we like it both ways. I also put a BIT of rice in it as well as TINY cubes of potato. My EX use to do it that way and we always liked it so have continued. I don't like celery itself but a kind FC member awhile back sent me some Celery Powder and that is what I use in anything I want celery in.

[Bilby]

Page I put celery powder in vegetable soups and it gives it a lovely flavour, I will have to try in it my stuffing

[cat lover]

I've never used celery powder; does it really give a celery flavor to the foods as if bits of celery in it? Also, is it a celery salt or just a celery powder?

[LifeStar]

I never "stuff" a cicken or turkey with traditional .. I make the bread stuffing and bake it seperately. I do put fresh rosemary, and garlic cloves in the turkey cavity, along with about a cup of white wine, An alternative to the rosemary is a thinly sliced lemon that works very well in a chicken... You could use orange slices too..

PS I use celery seed in my stuffing.. (and I love it in coleslaw)

[Bilby]

I don't think celery powder or salt has a particularly celery flavour but enhances the flavours already there. Do the same recipe with and without and you can always tell the difference.

[Coll]

For our stuffing I use white bread broken into small pieces, onion chopped fine, green pepper chopped fine, S&P, and an egg, mix all together and add chicken broth if more moisture is needed.
The amount of bread, onion and green pepper are determined by the size of the turkey or chicken This years bird took 4 loaves bread, 3 large green peppers and 3 large onions, 2 eggs and some broth.
This recipe has been in the family for ever, everyone loves it so we don't change it.