T-Day with The83K: Dressing/Stuffing — the undisputed champ of Thanksgiving side dishes | Recipe roundup
Also – maybe consider shopping for Thanksgiving groceries on Friday. No later than Sunday. Ooof. I went shopping the day before Thanksgiving once. NEVER AGAIN.
I’m convinced almost all folks who don’t like stuffing have simply been deprived of a decent version of the dish. Often, it’s the variety of textures, or the presence of any texture at all, that puts people off. Others find a single ingredient reason enough to eschew the entire dish without tasting it — and while it’s one thing if you’re gluten intolerant or have an allium sensitivity — it’s another to say “I just don’t like celery, I know I’m going to hate this.”
Friends: I’m not saying that the stuffing that’s being served at your usual feast is going to be good, or even palatable. But I do know this: more often than not, stuffing is, simply, the best part of Thanksgiving [I mean, spending time with most of your family is okay but even the ones you hate would taste TERRIBLE no matter how you cooked them.] If you’re not serving or being served a superlative stuffing dish this holiday, maybe this is the year to start.
One tip that I would impress upon you, no matter what recipe you go with — DO NOT COOK THIS STUFF INSIDE THE BIRD UNLESS YOU REALLY, REALLY HAVE TO. All you’ll get is muddily-flavored mush. I realize you’re supposed to call it dressing if you’re doing it that way — I don’t give a fork what you call it. Just don’t put it inside the turkey.
And now, a word from Joe Bethersonton:
Familiar flavors, shuffled up and tasty AF:
Cornbread Stuffing With Sausage and Corn Nuts. CORN NUTS, people! CORN NUTS. Crunchy, salty corn nut powder to augment the toasted corn flavors already present. Suggestion – maybe get some extra corn nuts, pulse those EVER so briefly in a food processor or just pound them with a meat mallet so you get small yet shatteringly crunchy pieces in addition to the toasted bread, and top your stuffing at the end with that and some pomegranate arils.
Also: add some halved or whole garlic cloves to the initial mixture before baking, or, even better, some whole cloves poached in salted broth to the final dish.
From Bon Appetit:
For the vegetarians:
The Best Vegetarian Stuffing. It’s hard to deliver the savoriness of traditional sausage stuffing without ingredients that really deliver on umami; thankfully, vegetarians have two of the most powerful umami bombs in existence at their disposal; mushrooms and miso paste. Augment this recipe with some dried shiitake mushroom powder (you can find relatively inexpensive bags of dried shiitakes at many Asian groceries, especially Korean grocery stores – simply chop up or pulse to make your own) and, near the end of preparation, work in a tablespoon or two of miso paste, keeping in mind this stuff is super salty, so adjust your seasoning throughout accordingly.
For the gluten-free (or folks who just want some wild rice stuffing):
Gluten-Free Wild Rice Stuffing. You don’t need to be GF to enjoy this stuff — maybe you don’t want to go through all the rigamarole of baking off cornbread or drying out a loaf, but still want the delicious, vegetal, salty delight of a good stuffing. This one delivers, and includes prosciutto, and, as far as I can tell, has one of the simpler builds of the many stuffing recipes I’ve seen. If you wanna pivot and add some soy sauce for salty umami, make sure to use gluten-free Tamari.
The Hahn Family Favorites:
Thanksgiving Stuffing with Sausage and Cornbread. This is an updated version of a classic, straightforward sausage and cornbread stuffing, with the addition of torn pieces from a crusty, rustic loaf. The key to getting that perfect mix of crusty, crunchy tops and warm, cooked-through veg is using a big enough dish. Also: if your oven has a fan/convection setting, CRANK IT UP. Also also: MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN CORNBREAD, IT’S NOT THAT HARD. Also also also: add MOAR GARLIC and a handful of cranberries (or craisins, if you want additional sweetness.)
White Castle Stuffing. Now, before you go calling the FBI on me, let me tell you a story: years ago, my late Grandmother — a gracious but notoriously careful and picky Thanksgiving guest — sat down to try the new stuffing recipe I’d made — aromatic, light, well-seasoned and satisfying, it’s the first and only dish I’d ever seen my Grandmother eat two helpings of at any Thanksgiving. Did we ever, ever tell my fast-food-despising Grandma that the stuffing she enjoyed was made primarily with White Castle sliders? No. No, we did not.
What I can tell you is that, like many classic stuffing recipes of its ilk, separating the bread and toasting/drying it out well beforehand yields benefits. Also: feel free to leave out some of the buns or some the meat harvested from the sliders, depending on your preference. Sliced fennel root, a small quantity of small-diced potatoes or sweet potatoes, or even roasted parsnips are good additions here — though you’ll want to increase the beef and salt in proportion. They’ll all lean into the inimitable flavor of steamed onions, which makes this stuffing surprisingly crave-worthy.
It’s really quite tasty, once you doctor it up a bit.
More Thanksgiving posts to come, friends.
— Theo.
The83K Guide to Thanksgiving:
Why you should consider a non-oven roasted turkey at Thanksgiving
Side Dishes, Pt. 1 — veggies that can stand up to stuffing and pie
Mashed potatoes, three ways
You can do ALL OF THE THINGS — a Thanksgiving how-to round-up
Side Dishes, Pt. 2 — crowd pleasers and weird stuff your guests will love.
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