The stuffing is the best part of the Thanksgiving meal. It is the one dish there never seems to be enough of. This recipe has been in the family for three generations. It is so simple, it's too good to be true. And, insanely delicious. With any dish, the technique is the key to success. Please be sure to scroll down the entire page to read all the goodness I have added.
Thanksgiving Stuffing
Ingredients
- 3 sticks of butter
- 3 yellow onion diced medium
- 1 package of celery diced medium - Room temperature
- 1 - 8 Oz package Baby Bella mushrooms sliced medium - Room Temperature
- 1 package of fresh sage leaves chopped fine. More if needed
- 2 - 14 Oz packages of Pepperidge Farm Herb stuffing
- 2 cans Swanson chicken broth - 14.5 Oz
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste throughout dish
- Foil
Preparation
- Preheat large cast-iron pan on medium high. Preheat oven at 350 degrees
- Place butter into cast-iron pan - Please scroll down to bottom of page for clarified butter method.
- Add onions, allow to cook for 5 minutes. Add celery, mushrooms, and sage
- Allow vegetable to sear and caramelize. Caramelization is where the flavor bits are created. This is key.
- In a separate bowl pour herb stuffing mix.
- Slowly pour and mix 1 1/2 cans of Swanson chicken broth. Add more if mix seems dry.
- With hands finish mixing to make sure liquid is incorporated.
- Once vegetables are caramelized, fold herb stuffing into cast-iron pan with the vegetables. Fold until incorporated.
- Remove stuffing from cast-iron and allow to cool until able to mix with hands. This incorporates every ingredient.
- Place stuffing into a large piece of foil and close tightly. Place stuffing back into the clean cast-iron pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
- Key: Season the dish with salt and pepper from beginning to end until desired taste is reached.
- NOTE: Growing up, my mother always finished this stuffing inside the turkey. It is insanely delicious like this. It is now advised we no longer cook our stuffing this way. Finishing it in foil is insanely delicious too, but, I sure miss the old-fashioned way.
Recipe Tags
Preheat large cast-iron pan on medium high.
Preheat oven to 350. Once temperature is reached, allow oven to heat for ½ hour. This is with any product going into the oven. This allows entire oven to heat equally. This is especially important with baking.
2 sticks butter. Unsalted is great. This way you can control salt content.
3 Medium diced onions. Equal size matters with knife cuts. This is with any dish. This allows consistency with texture and flavor. Technique matters.
1 full package of celery medium diced. Equal knife cuts.
Mushrooms medium sliced. I love mushrooms. Add more if desired. Caramelize the mushrooms for ultimate flavor.
Sage is the most important part of the dish. Roll the sage, slice and chop small. You can use the dry sage in the bottle, also. I recommend fresh. Add more if needed until you have the distinct taste of sage.
Isn't it beautiful? Fresh aromatic sage. It will makes the kitchen smell like Thanksgiving.
Use 2 bags of this goodness. When feeding more than 4 people I recommend double or triple batches of this recipe. It is heaven the next day. Make up a few batches the day before Thanksgiving. Pretty please no substitutions on any of the ingredients.
I add 1 can of broth to herb stuffing and mix well. Next step, I add more as needed, but, no more than 2 cans.
This is the herb stuffing mixed with the chicken broth.
This deliciousness is an image of the onions, celery, mushrooms, sage, salt & pepper. It is caramelized golden goodness. The key is a sizzling hot cast-iron pan and room temperature vegetables.
Drop water droplets into the pan when it is preheated. If the drops bounce back up in the same place, the pan is hot enough. Make sure not one flavor bit is left behind. Scrape every morsel from the pan when mixing everything together.
CLARIFIED BUTTER: This is great to use when caramelizing so the butter does not burn. I do this with this dish. I highly recommend it.
I put my butter in the microwave. It works great and fast. I included a link that will break it down for you. Once you start clarifying butter, you will find yourself doing it all the time. It has so many uses. I keep it in the refrigerator for cooking eggs. Confession... I use cooking spray when I cook for just little ole' me.
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/08/clarified-butter-recipe.html
Do you have a culinary conundrum? Just ask Mama G. I'm happy to help!
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Mama G
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