Thanksgiving Dressing

Or is it Thanksgiving stuffing?

If you’ve ever been to our house for Thanksgiving, you have been served this Thanksgiving dressing.

It’s called Thanksgiving dressing because we bake it in a baking dish in the oven. Stuffing is cooked inside the cavity of the turkey where the juices of the bird add moisture and flavor. However, we don’t recommend stuffing, as it can cause the turkey to cook unevenly. Also, the stuffing may not get fully cooked on the in there. If would also need to reach 165 degrees in the middle of the stuffing, which is the temperature to kill bacteria. So, to reduce the risk of foodborne illness, we always bake our Thanksgiving dressing in a baking dish in the oven.

This recipe has all of the traditional ingredients like sausage, cornbread, onions, celery and sage. We like to kick up the savoriness and umami even more by adding roasted red bell peppers and mushrooms. The twist at the end that pulls it all together? A healthy splash of port wine.

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Thanksgiving Dressing

This recipe makes a lot of dressing because we serve it to a large table of family and friends. And of course, you want a little extra for leftovers! Bake in an baking dish, and not in the turkey to reduce risk of foodborne illness.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cornbread, dressing, sausage, side dish, stuffing, Thanksgiving, turkey

Servings: 8

Equipment

• 2 baking sheets
• 1 Large cast iron skillet
• 1 Instant-read thermometer
• 1 10" x 14" oven-proof baking dish

Mise en place

• 1 ea cornbread Pre-made. Use a savory cornbread, nothing too sweet. About 2 1/2 pounds.
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter plus a little more for buttering the baking dish
• 2 packages Jimmy Dean sausage one regular, one hot
• 3 ea red bell peppers
• 1 ea onion diced
• 4 stalks celery sliced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tbsp fresh sage finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves only, finely chopped
• 1 C crimini mushrooms sliced
• 3 C chicken stock
• 3 ea eggs
• 1/4 C parsley, flat leaf leaves and tender stems, chopped
• 1/2 C port wine
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Preheat oven to 425.
• Butter the baking dish, set aside.
• Slice the cornbread into 3/4" dice. Spread evenly over two rimmed baking sheets and bake 10 minutes until toasty. Let cool. Add cooled croutons to the large bowl.
• Char the red bell peppers on an open burner on your stove until black all over. Place the charred peppers into a paper bag or a bowl covered with plastic wrap for about 10 minutes to steam the skins off. Remove the charred skins and seeds. Chop and set aside.
• In cast iron skillet over medium heat, add the evoo, then both packages of sausage. Mash with a spoon until broken up and fine, and no longer pink. You can pour off some of the fat if you want, but leave at least a few tablespoons in the pan.
• Add the onions and celery to the skillet and sauté 4-5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and sauté 2 minutes more.
• Add the red peppers, garlic, sage and thyme to the skillet, and sauté another minute.
• Add one cup of the chicken stock to the skillet. Stir well to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings. Turn off the heat.
• In a blender, blend the other two cups of stock, the eggs and parsley until well emulsified. Add the mixture to the skillet and stir well to combine.
• Pour the contents of the skillet into the bowl of croutons.
• Add port wine all over the dressing and fold in gently – you don't want to the cornbread cubes to disintegrate.
• Transfer the dressing into the buttered baking dish.
• Bake in 425 oven until an instant read thermometer reads 150F (66C) degrees when inserted into the center of the dish, and the dressing crisped on top, about 45 minutes.
• Sprinkle with a little more chopped parsley and serve.

Notes

You can omit things you might not eat, like the sausage, chicken stock (substitute veggie stock), eggs or wine.