This Rescued Recipe is so special to me, and I hope you love it as much as I do! It’s my Dad’s amazingly moist and flavorful Thanksgiving turkey stuffing, the memories of which are as savory and sweet as the recipe itself. I was always Dad’s little kitchen buddy, especially at Thanksgiving. He was famous in our house for his sausage, walnut and apple stuffing and I was his official apple-chopper. I never really like peeling, coring and dicing that gigantic bowl full of apples, but I loved being around my Dad. I would have happily peeled and chopped ten truckloads of apples if it meant chumming around with him in the kitchen. This was “our” day. Get in our way and you’d more than likely get caught up in the frenetic wake of our chop-sauté, chop-sauté. There was never a better place to be and not a spot on earth that was more aromatic than our kitchen at 6am on Thanksgiving morning. That’s when our restaurant-sized skillet came to life with the dance of the sautéed onions, carrots and celery, all waiting for the official apple chopper to focus on her task at hand. Finally (ten billion apples later) the magical mixture came together. The sausage got added to the onions, the onion mixture got tossed with the apples and then everything went into a massive bowl where the cornbread stuffing was waiting to be happily drenched in that savory goodness. Being Dad’s kitchen pal came with huge rewards. It always got me to the head of the Thanksgiving meal line where I would “test and approve” spoonfuls and spoonfuls and spoonfuls of stuffing right out of the hot bird. So today, just a few days away from that family feeding frenzy we call The Thanksgiving Feast, I proudly share my own treasured Rescued Recipe with you. I’m so very thankful that, in all those years, Dad never once let me know how much I really just got in his way.
| Servings |
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound hot Italian sausage (or breakfast sausage)
- 1 large onion, chopped fine
- 2 large carrots, diced
- 2-3 stalks celery, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
- 1-2 cups chicken broth
- 1 package seasoned stuffing
- 1 package corn bread stuffing
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 apples, peeled, cored and cubed (any red apple will work)
- 1 cup walnuts
Ingredients
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- In a large sauté pan, cook garlic, onion, celery and carrots until tender, about 10 minutes. Add sausage and cook until done, breaking up large chunks of sausage. Cool down. In a very large bowl, place seasoned stuffing, corn bread stuffing, walnuts and apples. Mix in the sausage and sautéed vegetables. Add pepper and salt, and slowly pour chicken broth into mix, a little at a time until stuffing is moist but not soggy. Dress turkey and place remainder of the stuffing in a casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.
