Kathleen Rear

It shouldn’t go unnoticed that this article isn’t about “stuffing” it’s about dressing. Which to be fair is stuffing that is un-stuffed and rather baked in a separate pan.
You with me so far?

I know I’m going to get pasted for this, but I don’t care for stuffing.
It comes out of the bird as a homogeneous brown mass, not to mention stuffing your turkey adds to the cooking time resulting in a dry bird.
Before you kick me out of the club for heresy, let me tell you there are two more reasons dressing is preferable over stuffing:
Because it’s not dependent on when the turkey is ready, you can make it in advance and reheat in the microwave.
You can make as much as you want! Much like Gravy, folks get grumpy if they feel cheated out of their fair share of stuffing.
The recipe below might make you see things my way.

Apple and Sausage Dressing

8 cups dried baguette or Italian ciabatta bread (cubed or torn into small chunks)
6 tablespoons butter
2 small onions
2 stalks celery
2 large apples (cored and cut into chunks)
2 cups turkey stock or chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
¼ cup fresh sage (chopped)
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
3 large eggs (beaten)
2 cups Italian sausage (browned and crumbled)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Tear or cut the bread into chunks and place into a very large bowl; allow them to dry overnight.
Brown the sausage and place into the bowl to cool. Chop the herbs and toss them in with the meat and bread.

Melt the butter in a large sauce pan. Chop the onions, celery and apples, add them to the melted butter and cook until softened; about 3 minutes. Remove the vegetable mixture and place it in with the bread mixture to cool.

Mix the chicken stock, heavy cream and the eggs together. Add 2 teaspoons of salt and pepper.

Combine the egg mixture with the bread/meat mixture and toss well, making sure the bread gets moistened well.

Scoop the dressing into a buttered baking dish and cover with foil.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Uncover the dressing and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden on top.

This recipe has also been featured in “The Family Table” by Kathleen Rear