First thing you need to do is make a batch of cornbread. You can make this the night before—even a couple of nights before.
Here’s the cornbread recipe. (You can also scroll down to the second post on PW Cook today.)
Cut the cornbread into strips, then into cubes.
Grab a loaf of artisan or sourdough bread (you want it to be really crusty and tough) and a loaf of regular French bread. Cut them into cubes, too, and lay all of the cubed bread on a large cookie sheet (or two) and let it sit out several hours or overnight. The bread needs to dry a bit.
Here’s the sourdough…
The cornbread…
And the French, which, in this case, is essentially white bread.
When you’re ready to make the dressing, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Hot!
Grab 32 ounces of mushrooms. I was able to get some crimini mushrooms (sometimes called “Baby Bellas”) but you can use regular white mushrooms if you want. Both are delicious!
Rinse the mushrooms thoroughly under cool water…
Then pat them dry with a paper towel.
Cut them in half and throw them into a big bowl…
Then drizzle in a bunch of canola oil.
Sprinkle in a little kosher salt, give ’em a good toss, then split the mushrooms between two sheet pans and roast them in the top half of the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes.
Give them a stir/shake halfway through the roasting process.
Then remove them from the oven when they’re nice and deep in color. Just let them stay on the pan until you need them.
Next up: Italian sausage! I love the stuff that’s not in the casing.
Throw it into a heavy skillet…
Break it up with a spoon…
And cook it over medium-high heat until it’s nice and brown.
Remove it from the skillet and keep it on a plate until later.
Next, dice up some onions. Keep the chunks pretty big.
Throw them into the same skillet you used to cook the sausage. Flavor, baby!
Stir the onions and cook them until they get nice and golden, around five minutes or so.
While the onions are cooking, dice up a few Granny Smith apples. I just slice the apples around the core into four pieces each.
Lay them all on a cutting board cut side down…
Cut them into slices, then turn them in the other direction to dice them.
Crank the heat up to high, then throw them right into the skillet with the onions.
Take a moment. Inhale.
I want the onions to caramelize in a short amount of time, so I’m hastening the process with some brown sugar. It counteracts the tartness of the Granny Smiths, too.
Flatten the apples and onions in the pan (so that as much surface area as possible is touching the bottom of the pan) and cook them on high heat for three to five minutes.
Hello, gorgeous apples. I love you and I want you in my life.
After they’re nice and browned, turn down the heat and pour in a good cup of white wine. This’ll deglaze the pan and help create a yummy sauce that’ll add a lot of flavor to the dressing.
Let it bubble and cook for a couple of minutes.
Poifect. Yum.
Pour the apples and onions onto a bowl and set it aside for a bit.
And remember that liquid I told you about? Right there ’tis, my darling.
Next, return the skillet to the stove and pour in the chicken broth.
Add ground thyme…
And some beautiful, wonderful turmeric.
I don’t want to live in a world without turmeric, so if some kind of blight destroys the plant from which it’s derived, just put me out of my misery.
For turmeric is good. Turmeric is so, so good.
Next up: Rosemary, otherwise known as the only thing left in my herb garden.
A little goes a long, long way, so go easy.
Add a little salt and pepper, stir it up, and set it aside.
Now it’s time to assemble! Throw the bread cubes into a big bowl…
Followed by the sausage…
Apples and onions, along with the yummy juice…
And shrooms.
Next, drizzle in some of the broth mixture. You’ll want to add in about half at first, tossing the dressing around to coat evenly, then add in more gradually until it reaches the moisture content you like.
I wound up using about 3/4 of the broth mixture. You can use all of it or even more. Make it your own! And be sure to taste the dressing and add in a little salt and pepper.
Finally, chop up some parsley and throw it in.
I decided to bake mine in the iron skillet to avoid dirtying another dish…and because I love the look of things baked in iron skillets.
Iron skillets should be sainted. Seriously.
They’re so wonderful.
Just bake the dressing in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes or so, or until the top gets nice and golden.
And just look at the color! We have turmeric to thank for that.
Turmeric should be sainted, too.
You’ll notice the bread cubes on top do tend to dry while baking and become a little on the crisp side. I love this, though, because the cubes underneath retain their moisture and you wind up having a nice mix of textures.
You can use this dressing/stuffing to stuff your bird, of course, if that’s your preference. It’s delicious baked in the turkey and winds up being much more moist than if you bake it in a separate pan. Just remember when you do stuff your bird, you need to check the temperature of the stuffing before removing the bird from the oven. It needs to reach an adequate temperature in order to be safe to eat, which can sometimes be tricky since you don’t want the turkey to dry out, which is precisely why so many people prefer not to stuff their turkeys.
(But that’s another story for another time.)
Enjoy, guys! I’ll share more stuffing/dressing recipes in the coming weeks.
Here’s the handy printable:
