- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
So a few weeks ago,
when I asked you what would be most helpful
for Thanksgiving, I got a lot of requests for stuffing.
So if you need a new stuffing recipe for this year,
I've got a great one for you.
I'm gonna show you how to make
a delicious cornbread stuffing
that's loaded with sausage, vegetables, and fresh herbs.
Now you can get fresh cornbread at your grocery store,
by all means, save yourself a step,
but if you can't and you want it to make it from scratch,
here's my go-to recipe.
So we're gonna add one and three quarters cup
of all purpose flour.
And then we're also gonna add one and three quarters cup
of the corn meal.
Now one tip with the cornmeal is see if you can find
what's known as medium grind corn meal,
and I will leave you a link in the description
to the brand that I'm using.
What I like about the medium grind is that it holds up
a little bit better to the weight of a stuffing
because we're gonna be mixing it with some other things.
And then I'm also gonna add half a cup of sugar.
And then you're also gonna add one and a half teaspoons
of salt, two teaspoons of baking powder.
And then you can just whisk this right up.
What I love about this recipe is everything
is just gonna go in this bowl.
So it's a bowl and a whisk kind of recipe,
which are my favorites, especially around Thanksgiving
when you have a ton of other things to do,
and then we're gonna add one and a half cups of milk,
then we are going to add three eggs.
Then we're also gonna add three quarters cup of butter
that's been melted and slightly cooled.
And we're just gonna whisk this all up.
Now I will say this, you could make the corn bread
two days before Thanksgiving and then assemble
and bake the actual stuffing
the day before Thanksgiving, it's actually better
the longer the corn bread sits on your counter
to kind of dry out a bit.
But if you don't have two days before,
I'm going to show you a trick
for how to dry out your cornbread.
All right, so I have a nine by nine brownie pan here.
I like to use the square pans because it's gonna help us
cut nice, little cubes once it's baked,
and spray it well with some baking spray.
And then we are just going to pour our batter in.
Then you're gonna bake your cornbread
at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25 to 30 minutes,
just until the toothpick comes out clean.
And then once your cornbread is done,
you can go ahead and cut it into these little squares.
I think about a two inch by two inch square is perfect.
And basically what we wanna do is put it on a baking sheet
because we want to dry the corn bread out a little bit.
I know, it sounds a little counterintuitive
because it's so moist and delicious,
and don't do this project when your kids are at home,
because they'll just swing by and grab
all these little cubes and pop them in their mouth.
They're so good, but we do wanna pop it
in the oven to dry it out a little bit,
just so that when it hits the egg and the heavy cream
and creates kind of like a moist interior,
they don't become totally soggy.
So it does help to do this, then for our cubes,
these are gonna go in at 375 for about 15 minutes,
just until they're nice and golden brown and toasty.
While our cornbread is toasting,
we can get on with our sausage here.
So I've got five links of just sweet Italian sausage.
If you like things with a bit of a kick,
you absolutely could use the hot sausage.
That would actually be pretty good
against the sweetness of the corn bread.
I'm just gonna remove them from their casing.
So for any of you newcomers out there,
because I know that Thanksgiving does attract
a lot of first-time cooks, which I love.
This is why I love Thanksgiving.
It'll turn you into a cook for life.
So just pierce your knife just along the edge there.
And that should loosen the casing, there you go.
I know, don't be squeamish, that's a bit of a slimy job,
but someone's gotta do it, right.
Now sometimes this time of year,
you can buy lump Italian sausage.
So if you're squeamish about removing the casings,
you could do that.
Thanksgiving and New Cooks reminds me
of my little five-year-old daughter,
who one year we were all celebrating Father's Day
and we had the cards and the presence, and my dad was there.
My husband was there and she says to me in the kitchen,
mom, is father's day the day that all the dads were born?
And in so many ways, she's kind of right,
but it was so funny in her little mind,
she just thought that that was like sort of a birthday
for all the dads.
And I think that Thanksgiving
is a lot like that for all the new cooks.
Thanksgiving is the day where all the cooks are born.
So if you're just starting out, not to worry,
I will take you through every step of way.
And I've got some beginner Thanksgiving menus
that would be right up your alley
if you're feeling a little overwhelmed,
I will link to those below.
Okay, now for our sausage.
So I'm gonna add two tablespoons of olive oil,
just in the bottom of our pan here.
Then you can go ahead and place in the sausage.
(sizzling)
And then once your sausage starts to get going,
you can take a wooden spoon
and just cut it into bite-sized pieces.
And the smaller you can cut these pieces, the better,
because then you're just gonna get more caramelization
on all sides of the sausage,
which will just add more flavor.
Okay, now look at the bottom of my pan here.
You see all of that is delicious flavor in there,
and you don't have to worry
about getting a Brillo pad to get that off.
We are going to actually deglaze it with some white wine
and it'll come right off, and at the same time,
we're gonna be picking up all of those brown bits
and adding delicious flavor into our sausage here.
So you just wanna cook this until the wine evaporates
by about half, all right,
then you can transfer all of your sausage.
What's left of the wine, all the drippings go in this bowl
while we saw take up the veggies.
So I have two tablespoons of butter
that is melting in this pan.
And then once it's nice and foamy,
you can add in the vegetables.
So we're going to add three quarters cup of minced shallots,
half a cup of dice carrots,
and a half a cup of celery, there.
And then you can just saute this up
until everything is tender and fragrant.
Then you wanna season with a little salt
and some freshly cracked pepper.
Now might look like there's a lot to this recipe,
but it's a great one to do with a friend or a pal
because somebody can be chopping all the vegetables,
sauteing up the sausage,
you can be making the corn bread or vice versa,
and it'll go by a lot quicker that way.
And hopefully around Thanksgiving,
you've got family and friends around to help,
but this is also a great dish for a potluck
because it's very sturdy and you can make it ahead.
And all you have to do is have your host or hostess
just heat it up and serve it.
So we can set the veggies aside.
And now we're gonna work on our egg and cream mixture,
which is going to prevent our cornbread
from getting dried out.
And it's also what makes the stuffing
so moist and delicious.
All right, we're gonna use six eggs.
I know that's a lot of eggs,
but it's a lot of corn bread and I just find
you really need this amount of eggs in order to cover
all that corn bread, so six eggs going in.
All right, and then we're also gonna add
one cup of heavy cream and one cup of chicken broth.
If you wanted to cut it and use half
and half instead, you could,
I just find you get a slightly better texture
with the heavy cream, but it's up to you.
All right, so I have my toasty cornbread here,
which is all cooled and ready to go.
So we're gonna put that in first,
just that it has a chance to get nice and submerged
in the batter, then you can toss this gently,
just making sure that your cornbread
is getting coated with this batter.
We are going to flip this upside down
and put it in our gratin dish.
So if some of it's not covered,
it's not the end of the world.
It will happen in the flipping.
And then we're gonna add our veggies, in they go,
and then our sausage, in that goes, and then lastly,
we wanna add some fresh herbs.
So I like to do fresh sage and fresh chives,
two tablespoons of each, if you're not a fan of sage,
you could swap it out for rosemary,
or you could do thyme or parsley.
I like the sage 'cause I think it's a really great
flavor combination with the sausage.
Then I have a prepared gratin pan.
This one is 11 by 14 and I've greased it with some butter.
And now I am just going to transfer
our gorgeous mixture here into this pan.
Okay, and now the finishing touch,
or should I say the coup gras?
And I get any more calories into this dish.
Well, that's what Thanksgiving's for, right,
is some Gruyere cheese.
I do like to add at least quarter cup
of Gruyere cheese, just on the top,
just so that it gets kind of gooey
and crispy on top, also because anytime
I pull out this pan, my husband's like,
where's the Gruyere cheese?
Okay, so this is gonna go in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven
for just about 45 to 50 minutes,
just until the topping is nice and bubbly and crispy.
And the center has been cooked through.
And when this comes out of the oven,
you will be the first one to dive right into it.
It's so good.
You've got that crispy topping with that moist center,
the sausage, the flavorful caramelized vegetables.
And of course, all of those fresh herbs.
I hope you give this one a try and let me know
what you think and not to worry,
for all of you requesting healthy vegetable side dishes,
low carb, got you covered.
We'll do that next week, until then, bye.