Fellow food blogger Sarah, the Curious Cuisiniere (we both have a French word in our blog names!), suggested that we guest post for each other and of course I said yes. We decided to swap Thanksgiving recipes. Below is her creation. Isn’t it beautiful? Click HERE to see Sarah’s blog and follow her!
One of my top five Thanksgiving foods is definitely the stuffing. Over here, we’re used to the classic white bread and cracker herbed stuffing. Which is great, don’t get me wrong, but I had seen recipes for cornbread stuffing floating around and I was really intrigued.
You see, stuffing is all about texture. Too mushy, and it can be gross. Too dry, and you just have breadcrumbs. With its grainy texture, how would adding cornbread effect the stuffing? It was a question I just had to answer. And I sure am glad I did.
Seriously. We devoured the whole pan of this in two days. Just the two of us.
This stuffing is part white bread, part cornbread. The white bread does a nice job holding the stuffing together and adds familiarity, while the cornbread gives incredible texture and flavor to the dish. I wanted to play off the sweet corn flavor by using sweeter, more mild veggies. Leeks give a soft hint of onion, carrots add a nice vegetable fullness, and celery brings in the flavors of a classic stuffing.
If you like stuffing, you’ve got to try this. If you hate stuffing because it’s too mushy, you’ve got to try this too. But carefully – you just might become a stuffing convert.
Cornbread Sausage Stuffing
Yield (1) 8×8 baking dish (roughly 2 qts) (enough to stuff a 10-12lb bird)
Ingredients
1/2 lb Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage (2 sausages), casing removed (You could use a regular Sweet Italian here, just be sure to drain the fat after cooking it)
3/4 c leek, diced
1/2 c carrot, diced very fine or minced
1/2 c celery, diced
4 c cornbread, prepared, left out to dry slightly, and crumbled into 1/2″ chunks
3 c white bread cubes (1/2″), left out out dry slightly
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sage
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 1/2 c vegetable stock
1 egg, beaten
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a non-stick frying pan, fry up your sausages, breaking the meat into chunks. Remove cooked sausage from pan.
3. In the same pan, saute leeks, carrots, and celery until tender. Remove from heat and combine with sausage.
4. In a large bowl, mix cornbread pieces, bread cubes, and spices. Toss to combine.
5. Add sausage and vegetable mixture. Mix to combine.
6. Add vegetable stock 1/2 c at a time, stirring to coat the bread. Continue adding vegetable stock until the bread mixture is moist. (There will be a notable point where the bread goes from soaking up all the stock to the stock pooling in the bottom. Don’t worry if there is a little stock pooling in the bowl.)
7. Mix in the beaten egg.
(If you are stuffing your bird, do so now. Stuffing can be made ahead of time up to this point and refrigerated until you are ready to cook your bird. It is best to stuff the bird right before it goes into the oven. )
8. Grease an 8×8 (or other 2qt) baking dish. Fill the dish with the stuffing and bake, uncovered, at 350F for 30 minutes. (Check the stuffing after 20 minutes to be sure the top isn’t browning too much. If it is, top with aluminum foil for the remainder of the baking time.) Stuffing is done when a metal knife inserted in the center comes out hot.
