Sausage Stuffing

Ingredients

• 2.5 lbs high-quality white bread (I like to use half sourdough) cut into 3/4 inch chunks

• 8 tablespoons butter

• 1.5 lbs sage sausage, removed from casing

• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped 

• 4 large celery ribs, finely chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/3 cup fresh sage leaves, minced (or 2 teaspoons dried sage leaves)

• 2 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced (or 1 tsp dried rosemary)

• 2 tbsp fresh thyme, minced (or 1 tsp dried thyme)

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 1 quart of turkey or chicken stock, divided (see my turkey gravy recipe for homemade stock!)

• 3 large eggs

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

Preparation

What is Thanksgiving without stuffing (dressing?)?! Feel free to make this ahead of time by only doing the first bake and then cooking and freezing. Then thaw the day before and finish in the oven!

1. Preheat your oven to 275 degrees F.

2. Spread your dough out on 2 baking sheets and bake for about 45 minutes or until completely dried (mixing occasionally). Then turn your oven to 350 degrees F.

3. While the bread bakes, melt the butter in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat just until foamy and then fry the sausage while breaking into quarter inch chunks. When there is just a little pink left, add the onion, celery, garlic and herbs and cook until softened.

4. Turn off the heat and add half of the stock. Whisk the remaining stock, eggs and soy sauce in a separate bowl and then slowly add to the sausage mixture while stirring.

5. Add bread cubes and gently fold until everything is nice and mixed together.

6. Cover the dutch oven with a lid or foil and bake for about 45 minutes (after this you can stop if you want to freeze ahead of time). Then remove the lid/foil and bake for another 20-ish minutes or until nice and golden brown.

7. Smother in gravy and enjoy!