Get Stuffed!
Since Lisa asked, here’s my stuffing recipe. (Pay attention, Jim: it’s not that hard to make, and it’s SO much better than Stovetop!)
If you don’t have time to make your cornbread ahead of time, the stuffing still tastes good with freshly-baked stuff but will be a bit more mushy. Also, keep in mind this is stuffing: you put it in the bird, not in a pan next to the bird. Yes, I know a lot of people worry about food safety when the stuffing’s cooked inside. The solution’s pretty simple: check the stuffing’s temperature along with the bird’s. Duh.
Kate’s Cornbread Stuffing
For the cornbread:
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (may need up to 1/2 c. more depending on humidity)
1 egg
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 vegetable oil (NOT olive oil)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease a 9×13″ baking pan.
2. In large bowl, combine dry ingredients except baking soda.
3. In small bowl, mix 1 c. buttermilk and baking soda and set aside.
4. In another small bowl, beat the egg, sugar and oil together. Pour this into the buttermilk/soda mixture and stir until combined.
5. Now pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring until just moistened. Add more buttermilk if needed. Do NOT over mix.
6. Pour the cornbread mix into the greased baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.
7. For use in stuffing: Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly, then cut into cubes. Turn the cubes onto paper towels and allow to dry out at room temperature for 1-2 days.
For the stuffing:
Cornbread from recipe above, preferably dried OR, if you just don’t feel like it, use 2 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread mix and follow the directions on it, then follow step 7 above.
1 and 1/2 sticks melted butter, separated
1 cup white onion, chopped
2 cups sliced celery, leaves included
1 tsp. dried, ground sage
10 oz. chicken broth
Salt to taste
Directions:
1. Place stick of butter and chopped onions in saute pan. Turn heat to medium-high. (This brings out the onions’ sweetness better than throwing them into hot butter.)
2. When butter is melted, add celery and sage. Cook until semi-translucent.
3. In large bowl, dump dried cornbread cubes. Pour broth and celery/onion mixture on top. Gently stir, taking care not to turn it into mush. (It’ll still taste great if you do mush it up, though.) Add additional 1/2 stick melted butter if necessary to moisten.
4. Shove it in the bird and tie the legs together. Stick a thermometer so it reaches the center of the stuffing. Roast your turkey in your desired method. The stuffing is done when it reaches 165 F.
Oh, and in case you’re tired of plain ol’ pumpkin pie, my super easy recipe for the Venomous Hubby’s favorite Pumpkin Dump Cake is up at ITTIB. But be warned: there’s even more butter in that thing!
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
A little chopped onion
A little minced garlic
A little dill
A little chopped spinach
Do you like parsley?
Some hamburger
Some rice
Salt and pepper
The whole thing should be about what fits inside your bird. Proportions depending on what you like.
Slightly brown the hamburger in olive oil. Also sauteing the onion and garlic in olive oil makes for a subtler flavor but … you know … subtlety isn’t everything.
ARGH! Meat doesn’t belong IN meat!
I agree with VK in principle but we had a big family and we would fight over the giblets so, unless my father exercised his right of eminent domain, my mother would chop them up and add them to the stuffing before serving. That is the ONLY meat fit for stuffing.
Giblets are fine. They’re original parts, so I have no problem reuniting them with the source. But hamburger in turkey? What’s this world coming to?!
VK Talks Turkey and Stuffing…
VK gives her recipe for turkey stuffing which sounds really delicious. I think I was almost thirty when I discovered…
“Meat doesn’t belong in meat”.
Sorry. It’s an old and honored tradition. A swan stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a hen, stuffed with a grouse, stuffed with a quail, stuffed with a thrush, stuffed with a hummingbird, stuffed with swallows’ tongues. Mine is the poor peoples’ version.
We could also disagree on whether poultry is meat. ^_^
Great googly moogly, that sounds DIVINE. Of course, I’d be stuffing it in a chicken, but hey, a bird’s a bird. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe, Kate…I’ve just printed it out!