Pages

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Cornbread-Sausage Dressing



What Thanksgiving meal is complete without some sort of stuffing/dressing? This is the dressing recipe that accompanied the Honey-Roasted Turkey recipe I tried out on chicken recently. The only change I made to the recipe was substituting home-made chicken stock for the low-sodium chicken broth.

Cornbread-Sausage Dressing
adapted from Cooking Club
click to print

2 tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, finely chopped
1 lb. bulk mild Italian sausage
1 tsp ground sage
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
Pinch crushed red pepper
1 1/2 c chicken stock
1 1/4 lb. cornbread, coarsely crumbled (8 cups)
2 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

Heat oven to 325°F.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium heat.


Stir in onion and celery. Cover; cook 5 minutes or until vegetables begin to soften, stirring occasionally.

My onion and pepper was cooked about 10 minutes before I moved on with the recipe.

Add sausage, sage, thyme, rosemary and crushed red pepper. Cook 4 to 6 minutes or until sausage is thoroughly cooked and no longer pink in center, stirring frequently.

After four minutes my sausage wasn't thoroughly cooked so I let it keep on going. It went another four minutes...

Add broth; bring to a boil over medium-high heat.


Remove from heat; stir in all remaining dressing ingredients.


Coat 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass or ceramic baking pan with cooking spray; spoon in dressing. (Dressing can be made 12 hours ahead; cover and refrigerate. Increase baking time 5 to 10 minutes.)


Bake dressing 40 to 45 minutes or until hot.



Tasty, but a little dry and salty. I'd cut the coarse sea salt at the end and give yourself the freedom to add more at the table if necessary. I'm a little surprised this dish turned out dry since I think I used a little less than the quantity of cornbread called for. But my cornbread has been sitting in the microwave uncovered since I made it. The edges were bone dry. That lack of moisture might have contributed.

I'd consider doing this again to use up some cornbread if I had extra. The other stuff is inexpensive; with the exception of the sausage, usually have everything else. Overall, it was alright but not one I'd consider stellar. Most exciting to me is that there's a recipe in the line-up which calls for leftovers of this particular dressing.

Cost:
  • butter: $0.10
  • onion: $0.31
  • celery: $0.19
  • bulk mild Italian sausage: $3.20
  • chicken stock: $0.24
  • cornbread: $1.17
  • Italian parsley: $0.49
Total: $5.70 or about $0.71 for each of 8 servings

0 comments: