The most perfect, classic Thanksgiving stuffing, and I'm going to show you how to make it without
any packaged breadcrumbs. You are going to love this recipe, this is my favorite stuffing of all
time. We have not made stuffing together in about four years, I think the last stuffing that we made
was when I did the family style which was the whole theme for the 2019 Thanksgiving series.
This is that, but scaled back slightly, so if you're not hosting 20 people this is perfect,
it is my favorite stuffing, it is using really good quality,
delicious bread I used sourdough that I have in the oven right now drying up at 325F,
which we'll talk about in just a minute. I fill my stuffing with lots of sausage,
celery, today I am using leeks, which I've done the last couple years and it is just insanely
good. If you don't want to use leaks you can just use regular onions and it will work just fine.
Lots of fresh herbs, chicken stock and butter, and olive oil,
and it's just the most most delicious thing you will ever have. There is no better stuffing,
in my opinion. You can use one of those bagged little bread cubes,
or I call them bread crumbs, because by the time you are all set and done they like fall apart,
like I don't know how to describe it, but they don't hold any texture and that's just
not the vibe for me because I'm a texture person and I like things to be outstanding.
Now the sausage I'm using is one pound of Italian sausage, half of it, well more than half is sweet
and some spicy, you can do all spicy, all sweet, doesn't matter, this combination is delicious,
it gives you a little bit of heat, but not too much. I took it out of the casing,
but if you can get bulk sausage, just go ahead and use that. I have a really nice large skillet
with just a tiny little bit of olive oil, we will be adding more fat, don't you worry,
but this is not the time just yet. I'm going to add my sausage, it's not going to sizzle just yet,
but it'll get there, and then you're going to just start breaking this up.
It's not going to do you much good until the sausage really starts cooking before
breaking it up gets easier and easier, the temperature is increasing I can hear it,
I'm not terribly concerned that it's not sizzling right now,
actually you hear it's hot, it's just not excited yet, but it will be, okay.
While that happens let's talk leeks, leeks are delicious,
but I think one of the things that really puts people off about leaks is how messy
they are and you do have to clean them properly. So what I do when I'm getting ready to use them,
you can actually do this step ahead of time, I take the whole leek to the sink
and I start peeling the first few layers because so much dirt and sand is encrusted
on the outside of the leek, I don't want it to go anywhere near my cutting board.
So once I get to where I want, I discard the first few layers,
this is still not ready yet it still needs lots of cleaning, but what I do is,
at this point I just use a different board. I don't want to use the same cutting board
that I'm cutting the rest of my veggies on because I don't want it to get all sandy.
I'm going to go ahead, look at this, that is what's inside each layer of the leeks,
I'm doing two leeks, I'm going to discard that leaf, that, anyway I'm doing two leeks because I
find these to be quite on the small side, and I want - see all the dirt? Nobody wants all that,
and I don't want a little bit, I want a good amount of leeks, that's why I'm using two. And
I kind of go all the way to the light part, but then, let me show you, these very few I'll discard
because they're kind of tough, the greens are kind of tough, but the lighter greens I'll keep.
And I'm just going to chop pretty much all the way up until I get to about, right there I'm going to
do the same thing with the other one I'm going to add all of this sliced leeks in a large bowl,
then I'll take everything to the sink and give everything a really good wash.
Sausage is - oh flying all over the kitchen, apparently - sausage is done. I'm not going to
let that piece go to waste. I'm actually going to take it out of the pan I am not draining any
juices because here's the thing, okay, what makes stuffing so delicious, is that it's basically
a bunch of bread cooked in a fatty broth, beautiful, delicious outstanding broth, and it is
spectacular, okay? You're going to need a nap for a few days after you eat it, but it's so worth it,
you add butter, a little olive oil, the olive oil gives it flavor but also stops the butter from
burning. The leeks are clean, and you would not believe the amount of dirt that came off of them.
And I also went ahead and diced up some celery, I went ahead and did three whole stalks of celery,
don't be afraid, celery is so underrated in my opinion, it gives you such beautiful flavor.
I'm going to go ahead and add all of that in there. I'm going to give
it a nice season of some salt, pepper, get that off my hands,
and you're going to let these cook on medium heat for a good 15 minutes or so.
I really want them to develop lots of beautiful flavor, lots of color, it just does magical,
wonderful things when you give them time to really blossom, and again, do really beautiful things.
Let's talk bread for a second, because I do feel like your stuffing is only as good as your bread,
this is - can I be more ridiculous today, dropping stuff? This is sourdough bread, I've mentioned to
you before that I don't like cutting my bread into tiny little pieces because tiny little
pieces mean lots of mush, not enough texture and that's just not the vibe. I like texture,
so I went ahead - I go ahead and just tear my bread into these irregular pieces that
are going to give you the best texture. What you should do is you should rip apart your bread the
night before, put it on a baking sheet, and just let it dry out overnight, however if you forget,
like I did, or do most of the time, you can just tear it all up put it on a baking sheet
and throw it in a 325F oven. The pepper, I can smell it, it like went right up my nose,
uh 325F in like 20 minutes or so, and it will dry it out, and do beautiful things. Set this
aside. The only thing I'm going to work on right now is having these cook, so I'll babysit that,
I'm going to go ahead and chop up lots of parsley, rosemary, and thyme so that
those are ready. I've got some beer or wine, totally optional, if you don't want to add it,
don't. I've got my chicken stock I've got my eggs, I got everything moving and grooving.
Do these look gorgeous, or do they look gorgeous?
I wanted to tell you that I added the thyme and
rosemary to the leeks a few minutes ago because they're harder herbs,
so they do need a few minutes of cooking time just to break them down a bit. Now I'm going
to go back in with my cooked sausage and any of the drippings because it is Thanksgiving.
Look how gorgeous, look how beautiful. It already smells unbelievably delicious,
I cannot even begin to tell you. I could eat this by itself, but soak it all with some bread and
let me just tell you, perfection. Add a little bit of beer or wine, typically I would add wine,
but a light lager works well, you don't have to add any at all if you don't want to. You know,
it does give you ample delicious flavor, so not going to turn that down, okay?
I have the bread in a nice large bowl, let's talk baking dish, okay, I've said how many
times have I told you I'm a texture person? The smaller your roasting pan or your baking dish,
the more mushy your stuffing, so I find that using a pan a little bit bigger than you think
works perfectly. This is sort of the equivalent to a 9 by 13 and for this amount of stuffing,
it's going to be absolutely perfect. I'm just waiting for this to cook for like a minute,
I don't want to reduce all of it because I want some of those juices, that beer,
wine juice to kind of get into the flavoring of the bread.
Lots of parsley, is so important all those herbs just bring everything to life and honestly, there
just no comparing this to anything pre-seasoned because it's just spectacular. Turn that off,
I told you that the oven is preheated to 375F, I'm going to take all of this carefully, well
as careful as I can manage, and I'm going to pour it all over the bread. Does that now look gorgeous
already? My pan's been buttered by the way, I'm going to take every last bit of this goodness,
pouring that in there, I'm going to grab a big spoon for this. Now, to this you're
going to add chicken stock and you're going to add some eggs. A lot of people go without eggs,
but for me the egg is the binder. For me, the egg is what gives you that interior sort of
souffle like texture, and it is indeed very important. These are our fresh eggs, look at
the color of that of that shell, beautiful. Whisk - I'm not adding any additional salt,
because it's all already really well salted. Add your stock and then just a little at a time,
come in here and give it a good whisk, and the reason why I do a little stock
at a time is just to make it easier on myself. Add a little bit more.
Beautiful.
See, when I say it's like the perfect size, it's not too deep, and I don't like to compact
it all in there, I like to basically just let it fall where it wants to fall because the more you
compact it, the less the texture. Perfect, then you just take a little bit more butter
and I just do that over the top, maybe like a couple tablespoons total, in little pieces.
I'm going to cover this and I'm going to let it cook covered for about 25 minutes
and then uncovered for another 20 and I'll show you what it looks like when it's done.
Stuffing is done, it baked covered for 25 minutes, uncovered for 25, and listen, I know stuffing is
not the most beautiful thing to photograph, it is not certainly something that you put on the
table and you think 'oh that is so beautiful', but trust me, it is one of the most delicious,
and to a foodie like me, all I can see are crusty bits around the edges, and that crispy sausage on
top. I can just see all the goodness, and that to me, is like the perfect stuffing. Let me explain
to you why, you see, it's got crispiness, remember I was telling you texture, and why I love to tear
my bread into big chunks, because you get crispy bits, but then at the center you get that soaked
sort of fluffy, almost souffle like texture, it's just sublime. That, to me, there is no
better stuffing. There is no better stuffing. It just has everything going for it, it's got
texture it has flavor, it has bits of those fresh herbs that just, mhm, take this over the edge.
All I need is some gravy, mashed potato, some turkey, sweet potato casserole,
and we are in business. Mmm. You hear the crunch? It's the best.
I'm sorry, but it is. No better stuffing. Go to LauraintheKitchen.com for the written
recipe. I hope you enjoyed spending time with me and I will see you in the next one!
Bye-bye!
m