Thanksgiving is truly one of my all time favorite holidays! It's like Christmas, without the grand pressure of gift giving and expectations from your kids... Just great food, family and fun! What could possibly be better than gathering around a table with your closest friends and family to enjoy a thoughtful meal and contemplate your bounteous blessings? Not a whole lot. That's what...
To top it off, all the foods are the ultimate in comfort foods, and there is usually pumpkin pie. I live for a good slice of pumpkin pie!! In the past I was never a huge fan of stuffing. A lot of my experiences with it were quite mushy-squishy and bland. It seemed like just a bunch of soggy bread.
Because of this fact I decided to set out to up-grade this somewhat silly side dish, and make it into something far more desirable. It's been a few years not, and I feel like I have conquered the task. Now, when Thanksgiving rolls around guess what food I crave the most??? My Loaded Artisan Stuffing with Spicy Sausage, Apples and Roasted Mushrooms. :) It really steals the show on your plate. I haven't served this to anyone who hasn't said so.
So, if you are looking to dress up your Thanksgiving side dish into something memorable (even crave worthy), then come along with me and let's get cooking!
First you need your dried stuffing bread. I don't like your average white bread cubes that you can get at the grocery store, so I go for fresh artisan bread. I used a mixture of French bread, sourdough and garlic rosemary bread. I cube it up and set it out to dry overnight, or in the oven at 250 degrees for about 40 minutes (stirring occasionally).
Next preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
While your oven is preheating, wash, pat dry, remove stems and slice your mushrooms.
I used a mixture of button mushrooms and baby Bella mushrooms.
Next in a large skillet, brown the spicy Italian sausage. Remove it from the skillet when done and set aside the meat. (Do not clean out the skillet!)
Now we are going to roast our mushrooms. Line a baking sheet and place mushrooms on the sheet. Drizzle with vegetable oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast the mushrooms on the center rack in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Set aside mushrooms. Reduce the heat of your oven to 375 degrees.
*Do not skip the step of roasting the mushrooms. It highly enhances the rich flavor of the stuffing.
Wash and dice your apples. I used honey crisp apples because of the simple fact that they are the most freaking delicious, sweet and juicy apples on this earth... :)
Dice the red onions into medium sized chunks.
Now, in the skillet you browned the Italian sausage in, place the onions. Heat over medium-high heat. Saute for 5 minutes. Increase the heat to high and add the apples, brown sugar and kosher salt. Saute for an additional 3-5 minutes.
Decrease heat to medium and add the sherry wine, thyme, turmeric, rosemary, kosher salt and black pepper. Stir and cook to reduce liquid by half, about 3-5 minutes.
Pour apple and onion mixture in a large bowl and set aside.
Add dried bread cubes, cooked sausage, roasted mushrooms and craisins to the large bowl with the apple and onions mixture. Add chicken broth to the large bowl while tossing the mixture gently. Add the fresh parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Toss well.
Pour everything into a large 9x11 baking dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until deep golden brown on top!
Voila! Oh my, this stuffing smells soooo delicious! It fills your house with the essence of fall on a platter. It is heavenly. Serve this loaded artisan stuffing with the meat of your choice (I served it with roasted chicken and chicken gravy), golden whipped potatoes and roasted asparagus and you have a meal that dreams are made of! Hooray for fall cooking and Thanksgiving inspired meals!
*If you are serving this stuffing to a very large group of people, you may want to double the recipe and make two pans worth. (Then you get to enjoy some leftovers as well!)
You now have my permission to chow down upon this goodness like a pack of ravenous wolves... (Or maybe a polite bunch of animals), whichever suits you best. :)
Happy cooking!
CLICK ON THE FULL RECIPE TO VIEW A PRINTABLE JPG
CLICK ON THE FULL RECIPE TO VIEW A PRINTABLE JPG
XOXO
Laura Muir
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