Stuffing Muffins

The stuffing muffins are by far my favorite holiday dish to make. I love my stuffing recipe. It’s my favorite thing to eat – in part due to all the herbs I add, but the freshly dried sourdough, savory sauteed onions and celery, Jimmy Dean sausage, Green Hatch Chilies, chanterelle and morel mushrooms sauteed in garlic, and shallots, which are now a permanent addition to the dish.

It’s like a bite of Thanksgiving in your hand. These are great for any festive occasion, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, The Super Bowl, or your favorite person’s birthday. You name it! Make them once, and they will be in your rotation from now on. Also fantastic to bring to a party.

Stuffing/Dressing

4 Round loaves of sourdough bread

6 yellow onions chopped

2 celery stalks chopped

1 bunch broad leaf parsley chopped

6 – 8 eggs

4 – 6 packages of Jimmy Dean sage-flavored sausage

2 – 4 sticks of butter

6 quarts/boxes of chicken stock

8 small cans of diced hot hatch green chilis

Sage, rosemary, thyme chopped

Poultry seasoning, celery salt, salt, and pepper

Herb Chopping

I use broad-leaf parsley, rosemary, thyme, and sage for the stuffing and also sage exclusively for stuffing the turkey breast. Finely chop.

Onions, celery, leeks, fennel, shallots…

Mushrooms, Shallots, and Garlic

Prepped and ready to go!

Preparation

Add in the chopped onion and celery with copious amounts of butter. Start to sautee and cook down the mixture. Add in all of the chopped herbs and broad-leaf parsley. The mixture will release a lot of moisture and reduce down in size. You want the mix to be slightly golden brown, pay attention so you do not overcook it – these savory bits will be very tasty in the dressing. The photos at the bottom of the collage are where you want the desired doneness.

Mushroom Mixture…

Sautee the morels, chanterelles. shallots, garlic in butter until cooked down as shown, ideally until the shallots are translucent and the bits of mushroom are still distinguishable.

The making of the stuffing and dressing…

Place the dried sourdough into large bowls. Add in the onion-celery mixture, mushroom mix, sausage, and three eggs per large bowl and mix by hand. Season well with salt and pepper. I suggest wearing cooking/grilling black gloves as the food may be hot to the touch. Knead the mixture thoroughly, ensuring you break down the bread and saturate the liquid into the whole mix. The dressing should be able to clump together – add in chicken stock as needed if more liquid is needed. In this iteration, I added the broad-leaf parsley to the dressing prior to cooking.