A decade after Victoria Granoff launched this traditional stuffing recipe, it stays a employees and fan favourite. Cooking a complete Thanksgiving dinner is time-intensive sufficient, so this moderately conventional stuffing will get proper to the purpose, maximizing taste and texture. As former BA check kitchen director Carla Lalli Music says, it’s “every part you need about stuffing—straight down the center.” (Catch her making it right here.)
You’ve observed we’re referring to this recipe as Thanksgiving stuffing. However because it’s cooked outdoors the chicken in a casserole dish—not contained in the cavity of a turkey—it’s technically extra of a dressing. This technique is essential to attaining the crispy, golden brown crust and buttery, custardy heart the Thanksgiving aspect dish is thought for. (It additionally lets you cook dinner your turkey as you would like, with out concern of the bread stuffing soaking in turkey juices that by no means attain a secure temperature.)
The recipe eschews tidy little dried bread cubes in favor of ragged chunks of torn crusty white bread. These irregular crags make for a extra fascinating texture than uniform squares and provides the completed stuffing an interesting rustic look. Italian or French bread, like a pane Pugliese, boule, or miche, work nicely. You might additionally select sourdough bread equivalent to ache de champagne. Simply keep away from packaged sandwich bread, which isn’t sturdy sufficient to face as much as the stuffing therapy.
We advocate making rooster inventory (or turkey inventory) forward of time, if doable; in case you’re quick on time, store-bought rooster broth is ok (go low-sodium to maintain the salt in examine). However we gained’t concede on the contemporary herbs: Recent parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (sing it with us) make this traditional stuffing stand out greater than their dried counterparts ever might—they usually’re useful to have readily available for different vacation classics.
If you wish to combine it up with other forms of bread (we see you, brioche and cornbread!) or with none bread in any respect, we’ve acquired a lot extra selfmade stuffing recipes to select from.