Category:
Side Dish
Notes:
Dr. Scrase - NM Dept of Health
Ingredients:
1 pound sliced, firm white, French, or Italian bread including crusts
½ to 1 cup pinion nuts
1 pound spicy pork sausage
½ to 1 stick unsalted butter
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup finely chopped celery
2 4-ounce cans of hot green chile; or frozen or fresh diced
1/4 to 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1 tsp dried sage or 1 TBS minced fresh
1 tsp dried thyme or 1 TBS minced fresh
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp freshly grated or ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 large eggs (optional)
½ to 1 cup chicken stock
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees; toast bread until golden brown and cut into ½ inch cubes or cube and allow to dry overnight. Place into the largest bowl you can find or borrow. (Trust me)
Toast ½ to 1 cup pinion nuts until lightly browned. Set aside.
In a large skillet over medium high heat, fully cook 1 pound pork sausage. Remove sausage to another bowl and keep drippings in the skillet.
Heat butter in skillet with sausage drippings over medium high heat until foaming subsides. Add onions, celery, green chile, and cook, stirring until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in parsley, sage, thyme, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cloves.
Stir this mixture into the bread cubes and toss until well combined. Depending on how much butter was used, and how moist you like your stuffing, stir in a little more at a time until the stuffing is lightly moist but not packed together.
Add two large eggs well beaten. (Optional, see notes)
Add 1/3 to 1 cup chicken stock if not cooking stuffing in turkey. No stock needed if cooking stuffing in turkey. If cooking in separate dish in the oven, add enough stock to make the stuffing moist but not wet.
Once bread, vegetables, and seasoning are well mixed, add sausage and pinion nuts. Adjust seasoning to taste.
To use as turkey stuffing, reheat just before spooning it into the bird. Moisten with stock and/or egg as required.
To cook outside the bird, turn into a large shallow buttered baking dish. Cover with foil, and bake in 350 degree oven until stuffing is heated through, 25 to 40 minutes. Remove foil for the last ten minutes to let the stuffing brown and form a crust.
Notes:
Can use milder versions of sausage and green chile if you like as long as you are not worried that some will see you as an inauthentic New Mexican!
Recipe yields stuffing for a 14 – 17 pound turkey. To stuff an oven roaster or 6 – 8 Cornish Rock hens, halve the recipe. For a larger turkey, increase all ingredients by half.
The eggs make the stuffing firm. If you prefer the bread to be moist, skip the toasting step.