Momma's Stuffing

My mum went through like 15 stuffings before she finally found one that our entire family liked. This is that stuffing. Can be made veggie if you want, subbing in apples for sausage and veg stock for chicken. But I don’t want to, cuz I love pork.

Stuff You Need

3/4 cup chopped mushrooms (don’t skimp on these babies. Get the good stuff – chanterelles, shitakes, baby bells, whatever. Just not those little white pizza death mushrooms)

3/4 cup diced onion

1/3 cup celery chopped super thin

1/3 cup butter

1/2-3/4 cup cooked spicy Italian sausage

4 cups dried bread crumbs, the more grains the better (all the grains, yes)

Lots of chicken stock to moisten. Like oceans of chicken stock. Or at least more than you think you could possibly need.  I’d say probably more than a box/ a few cans of that shit. Besides, you can never have too much stock, since you should totally also be making gravy. Oh, maybe I should do a post on gravy…

Fresh Herbs! Lots of ‘em! I like sage, rosemary, thyme and a bay leaf. You can either chop them up super fine and mix them in with the rest of the ingredients (what I do), or leave them whole, on top of the stuffing, to be removed after baking.

Cook the sausage.  You want it to be in small pieces. If I'm feeling super ambitious, I’ll squeeze the sausage meat out of the casings before cooking.

Sautee all of the veggies with the butter, adding a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Mix all of your stuff in a deep pan – bread, sausage, veggies, herbs. I add all of the accumulated juices too, because that shit is tasty. Moisten liberally with the stock. If you have bird drippings you can use those too for extra tastiness.

Stick your stuffing in the oven at about 300-350 degrees, but don’t forget about it for too long. When it looks like it’s starting to get toasty and dry out, take it out, toss everything and add more stock. Add some extra butter if you want, I won't tell. 

KEEP DOING THIS WHOLE DRYING THEN MOISTENING THING until you are sure your stuffing has been saturated and then re-toasted to your desired level of crispy. Since everything is already cooked, it doesn't really matter how long you do this part, but I like my bread crumbs to be a little crisp and herby on the outside and deliciously stock and butter flavored on the inside.

I’m pretty sure that’s it. Easy peasy.

Full disclosure: I hate soggy or jiggly foods, so in-bird stuffing is useless to me unless it has been removed from the bird carcass and recrisped in the oven separately. But you could totally do it in-bird if you want.