Methods of cooking Thanksgiving stuffing
While we don’t know the exact details about the origins of stuffing, we do know there are certain preferences among people in different regions of the United States. Southern states prefer to call this Thanksgiving classic “dressing” and tend to use a cornmeal based recipe. Northern states still call it stuffing and will often stick to the classic recipe which uses day old bread and vegetables. Today we will discuss stuffing and give you different cooking methods you can use this Thanksgiving holiday.
The Stovetop stuffing brand has been around since the 1970s. Although this is an easy way to make stuffing, it isn’t always the most flavorful option. If you want to do a traditional stuffing and cook it inside your turkey, this will require additional cooking time. The good news is when using this method you don’t have to cook the turkey and stuffing separately. Cooking it all at once saves space in the oven and is a valid method that has been used for many years. However, the downside to this method is the stuffing will stay very moist with no crunchy crust on top. If you don’t mind a soft texture you can certainly stick with this method.
If you aren’t cooking a whole turkey, an easy method to use this Thanksgiving is stuffing a turkey breast with vegetables. This is a simple way to infuse flavor and add a nice color to your turkey breasts. The picture below uses tomatoes and peppers, but you can be as creative as you want with your stuffing. Some turkey breast stuffing ideas include spinach and feta, apple and herb, cornmeal and cranberry, sausage and garlic, leek and mushroom, and kale and sweet potatoes. This method is great for those that are cooking a smaller Thanksgiving meal. Adding stuffing inside the breast will help the meat stay moist.
Let’s talk about the basic ingredients for stuffing. You will want to use good quality bread and cube it up into 1-inch pieces. Allow it to sit overnight so that the bread cubes dry out. Since the stuffing uses a lot of wet ingredients, it is really important to let the bread dry out. If you skip this step, your stuffing may end up too soggy and your bread pieces will turn to mush or possibly start to disintegrate. Once you’re getting ready to cook on Thanksgiving, spray a deep dish and dump in your bread.
Next, add the vegetables. Cook chopped onions and celery in some melted butter for about 10 minutes until they soften up and pour it evenly on top of the bread. Sprinkle in seasonings such as salt, black pepper, sage, rosemary, parsley, and thyme along with chicken broth and toss everything together. Whisk together some more chicken broth and a couple of eggs and add that to the stuffing as well. Cover your dish with foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Uncover it and cook it some more to get the crispy brown crust on top for another 40 minutes. This is one of the simplest stuffing recipes but you can add in things like crab meat, or even spicy Italian sausage slices to add flavor and texture. If you have a double oven or a large toaster oven, this is a good method to cook your stuffing on Thanksgiving.
Stuffing uses ingredients that give you a blank canvas to work with. What makes stuffing taste great ultimately comes down to the seasonings and flavors you decide to add to it. Whether you want to cook the stuffing inside or outside of your turkey, either method works well. It all depends on the resulting texture that you want.