Thanksgiving is my favorite American holiday, and this side dish has been a mainstay of my Thanksgiving table for probably 20 yrs. I make enough of this stuffing so that some of it goes in the turkey, and some of it is served on the side.
serves: 12-15 difficulty: easy prep time: 3 hr
Ingredients
- 2 loaves of white or whole wheat bread (but not dark bread or sourdough)
- 5 cups of milk
- 1.5 lbs mild sausage
- 3 tbs canola or vegetable oil
- 1 lbs prepared chestnuts
- 2 medium yellow onions
- 8 stalks of celery
- 1 bunch of thyme
- 1 bunch of parsley
Preparation
First carefully cut out the crust of the bread on all sides.
Then dice the bread into 1/2″ cubes, and place in a large baking pan.
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees, and place the bread cubes in the oven. Stir every 10-15 min to make sure that the cubes on the top don’t burn.
Bake until golden brown and the bread cubes are as hard as crouton. Let the bread cubes cool.
Once they are cool, pour the milk in the pan. Stir every 5 min or so to make sure that the milk is absorbed evenly.
While the bread cubes are soaking in the milk, dice the onions and the celery.
Heat a very large sauce pan, add the oil, and then add the bulk sausage. Tear the sausage with a fork in small pieces as it is frying. Once cooked through, take the sausage out of the pan, and let it cool. Then chop it up finely with a knife.
In the same pan where you cooked the sausage, saute the chopped onions and celery together. Add some salt and pepper. Saute until the onions are translucent.
Mince the thyme and parsley. Chop the chestnuts
Add the sausage, onions, celery, chestnuts, thyme and parsley to the soaked bread cubes, and mix well.
Put in the oven, and bake for about 1.5 hrs until golden brown. Stir every 15min to make sure that is cooks evenly.
I typically make this stuffing the day before Thanksgiving because on Thanksgiving day my only oven is occupied with the turkey. It is a core part of my Thanksgiving menu.
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