Christmas Dinner Coming, My BEST Stuffing Recipe

However you DO your Turkey, TurChicken, etc. you simply MUST have a decent stuffing to go with it, be it IN the bird or in a separate bowl. A Christmas dinner without stuffing is simply incomplete. No more dry stuffing or an overly wet one either, balamced use of the ingrediants will give you a rich, flavorful and delicious stuffing every time. It's all about the bread. Yes, the bread is the key, however much liquid is required is what is required to make the bread soft and moist BEFORE it is stuffed into a bird or (current trend) done separately in a covered dish.

So how much bread do you need or want? How many people are there? Figure 1/2 cup of cubed, dry bread for each serving. I know it doesn't seem to be a lot but by the time ALL of the ingrediants are mixed in it will be enough. 1/4 cup of liquid is needed for each service as well. Some of the ingredients will cook out their own juices to add to this so don't worry at this stage it will be very close to perfect.

Ingredients to serve 4 persons:

Into a large bowl place the following:

2 cups favorite bread; with crust left on DICE 1/2" X 1/2" cubes then measure.
Saute the bread in 2 tablespoons butter, melt first in pan then add cubed bread.
Cook until slightly browned on all sides. 10 - 15 minutes

1 cup water, chicken, vegetable or veal stock, or white wine.

1 Medium onion, small dice 1/4". Sauted til transparent (about 7 - 10 minutes)

4 Strips smoked bacon, diced and slowly sauted til brown (not crisp) 7 -10 min.

2 Italian sausages or Bratwurst, skin removed, broken up into small pieces, then sauted until browned on all sides.

1 large stalk celery, sliced lengthwise and cut to 1/4" pieces.

1/2 cup walnuts, pecans, or your choice, sauted in 1 Tablespoon butter 5 min.
Allow to cool and then break into small pieces.

1 Teaspoon Dried Marjoram or Oregano.

1 Teaspoon Dried Thyme.

1 Teaspoon ground Sage.

1 Tablespoon salt (careful here!).

1 Teaspoon ground pepper.

Fold gently together. Place in covered bowl or stuff into bird loosely (it will expand)
Cook bird as normal, to 170 internal temp. in stuffing.

In coverred pot; test with thermometer for 170 degrees in middle of stuffing before removing it from heat.

Enjoy!

Turkey Deboning with Julia and Jacques and Me!

http://video.pbs.org/video/1333042208/ is the video of these two Master Chef's having at the process of deboning a chicken and then a turkey. It is spectacular and while Audrey and Kelly and I tackled the job ourselves your favorite chef lost control and tried for a suicide instead. I really DID it this time and while I did NOT go to the emergency ward in Vallejo on a Saturday night to have the aforementioned injury sewn up properly I did have Nurse Kelly and Nurse Audrey and Head Nurse Furry wiping up sufficient blood to prove I probably should have. Now there's a sentence! That was 2 and a half weeks ago and it has not completely healed YET. But soon. Here's MY video...oops!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSw2_IYh9n4

My way...early on I did the deed I previously wrote about.