Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Tastes Like Homemade Stuffing

Shopping List
2 boxes stovetop turkey (or chicken) flavored stuffing
1 lb ground breakfast sausage
1 onion
1 head celery
Craisins
Butter

Takes about 20-30 mins to prepare. If you're cooking it outside of a turkey, it will take another 20 mins to cook. If you're going to stuff a turkey with this, you can either make it right before you put the turkey in the oven or you can make it a day or two in advance. If you make it in advance, store it in the fridge - DO NOT stuff the turkey with it until right before you cook it! Leaving stuffing inside a raw turkey leads to salmonella poisoning.

Start by boiling enough water that you have enough to add the amount of water the directions on the stuffing calls for.

While the water is boiling, brown the sausage over medium heat. You brown sausage by putting it in a frying pan over medium heat. As it cooks, break it up and move it around the pan, making sure to scrape the meat off the bottom of the pan so it doesn't burn. I find a fork to be the easiest thing to do this with. You don't have to stir it constantly, but you do need to do so about every 2-3 minutes. Once you can't see any more pink, the sausage is cooked. I find the easiest way to drain it is to put two paper towels on a plate, then just empty the sausage (and grease) onto the paper towels. Then when I'm ready to use the sausage, I scoop it off, leaving the grease in the paper towels, which I can just throw away.

Cut up the onion and several stalks of celery into smallish pieces.

Melt 1 stick of butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook for about 5 mins, stirring occasionally. Add the craisins and cook for another 2 mins. Remove from the hot burner.

Dump the stuffing mix into a large bowl. Add the amount of water the directions call for (use the boiling water you heated in the first step). Stir until all the dry mix is wet. Stir in the sausage and the onion/celery/craisin mix.

If you are baking it inside a turkey or chicken, spoon it into the bird right before cooking. If you are cooking it on it's own, put in a casserole dish, cover (if the dish doesn't have a cover, tin foil works), and bake at 350* for 20 mins.


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