Roasted Garlic and Sage Stuffing
Is it stuffing? Or is it dressing? I’m not really sure. My grandma always said its dressing if its not stuffed inside your turkey. And my argument was; “Well, dressing is what you put on your salad.” I’ve always called it stuffing. Personally, I think it just comes down to when and where you were raised. Let me know down below what you call it and where you’re from!
Stuffing is one of the dishes I look forward to most during the holidays. When done right, stuffing is soft on the inside with a slightly crisp top, packed with comforting, hearty flavors that complement the Thanksgiving meal. What’s great about it is that there are so many variations of it that you can make. You can just do a traditional herb stuffing, you can add sausage to it, nuts and dried fruits, or maybe a nice cornbread stuffing, with andouille sausage.
For Thanksgiving I don’t like to stray to far from the traditional path. My recipe follows the guidelines of many traditional recipes. The major difference being the addition of roasted garlic. When garlic is roasted, it gets a nice pungent, sweet flavor and takes out a lot of the natural acidity. That sweetness helps balance out all the savory flavors in stuffing. It definitely doesn’t make it sweet, more of it just rounds everything out.
If you’re not drying your own bread for your stuffing… you really should be. Its cheaper than store bought dried bread, and gives you more control over the sizing. That’ll help you achieve a better texture, and not let your stuffing get gummy and mushy. Most supermarkets have day old loaves of Italian or French bread that you can purchase for like a dollar. Purchase a couple of them, cut into about 1 inch cubes and allow to air dry for a couple days. It’ll make a huge difference, and you’ll never buy pre made mixes again.
When it comes to the holidays, id rather be spending time with my family than stuck doing dishes at the end. I know you want everything to be presentable, but after a long day of cooking, you’ll be happy when you decided to use some foil pans. I like these ones off amazon. They’re fairly sturdy, and you get a lot for the price. Its kind of a win win!
Roasted Garlic and Sage Stuffing
Equipment
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Bread Knife
- 1 2 QT Sauce Pan
- 1 6 QT or larger wide bottom pan You need a lot of surface area to add your bread to
- 1 9×13 Foil or similar size baking dish
Ingredients
- 20 Oz Italian bread completely dried out 1 x 1 inch cubes
- 1 Quart Unsalted Chicken Stock
- 1 Tbsp Chicken Base
- 2 Heads Roasted Garlic Smushed to a rough paste
- 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter 4 tbsp for cooking, 2 for buttering your pan
- 1 Large Yellow Onion ½ x ½ dice
- 2 Ribs Celery ½ x ½ dice
- 1 Tbsp Dried Thyme
- 1 Tbsp Dried Sage
- 1 Tsp Poultry Seasoning
- 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 Tsp Onion Powder
- 6-8 Leaves Fresh Sage Chopped
- To Taste Kosher Salt
- To Taste Fresh Black Pepper
Instructions
If Making Day Of
- Preheat oven to 350℉
- Add your chicken stock, chicken base and roasted garlic to your 2 Qt sauce pan and bring to a light simmer
- In your 6 Qt pot, add 4 Tbsp of your butter, your celery and your onions and place over medium heat. Add a hefty pinch of salt and sweat until tender and your onions are translucent.
- Add in your dried spices and toast lightly until nice and fragrant.
- Start adding your bread to your pot. You will probably have to do this in two batches, which is fine. After you've added about half your bread, mix around to coat in the butter and spices. Add about a ladle or so worth of stock and mix gently until you have enough room for the rest of the bread. Add the rest and continue to add in your stock and mix gently so you don't over work it and make it gummy.
- This should take all of the stock, but you don't want to make this to wet. Your stuffing will be fully hydrated when you can eat a cube or two and its no longer dry in the center, and if you shake your pot it'll kind of jiggle like pudding.
- At this point you can add in your chopped sage, check your salt and pepper and remove from heat.
- Rub your baking dish with the remaining 2 Tbsp of butter and transfer the stuffing from your pan to the baking dish.
- Bake at 350℉ for about 30 minutes. Rotating halfway through.
- Your stuffing will be ready when its nice and golden brown on top.
If Making Ahead of Time
- Follow the exact recipe above except; do not preheat your oven as your first step. and do not bake.
- After you've added your chopped sage and checked for seasoning, transfer to your buttered baking dish, spread out evenly and cool completely.
To Reheat
- Preheat oven to 350℉
- To reheat, add a couple thin slices of butter, and about 2 oz of stock to the top of your stuffing. Wrap tightly with foil and place in oven.
- Continue to bake, covered until hot all the way through. Time will vary depending on your baking dish and how much is in your oven, but I'd give yourself about an hour.
- Once your stuffing is nice and hot, remove the foil lid and bake until nice and golden brown on top.