^{Hands down the best stuffing! So good it will be hard to allow any other stuffing at holiday dinners.}

This is the only stuffing I really have ever enjoyed. I’m not a stuffing fan. Something about mushy bread bits that just don’t jive with me. Luckily it was also something I could pass on at Thanksgiving (which left more room for turkey and sweet potatoes!). About 20 years ago my mom attempted making stuffing this way – and I became a changed person.

I think I’ve said it before, sausage is one of my favorite things to eat. So adding ground sausage made it so much better. On top of that, the tart dried cranberries made it into a savory sweet side that was perfect! I also appreciated the fact that my mom never overly drenched the bread with stock, which made the bread moist but also crispy.

It’s the perfect side to any holiday dinner. I’m also not counting this has a super healthy recipe but I lowered the fat and made some of the ingredients a little more lean. I swapped regular sausage for turkey sausage. I added dried cranberries with no added sugar. I also skipped any suggestions of topping the stuffing with melted butter. It’s so simple so enjoy it for these special occasions. It certainly deserves a spot at the table for those indulgent meals.

Oh, and if you’re more of a Thanksgiving leftover fan, this is perfect because the longer the sausage sits with the bread, the better the flavor, in my opinion.

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Sausage & Cranberry Stuffing

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Hands down the best stuffing! So good it will be hard to allow any other stuffing at holiday dinners.

Prep Time:10

Cook Time:1 5

Total Time:1 15

Ingredients

1 pound turkey sausage
1 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
1 small onion chopped
2 medium celery stalks diced
½ teaspoon sage dried
¼ teaspoon thyme
¼ teaspoon rosemary finely chopped
1 tablespoon garlic minced
3-4 cups chicken stock (Use 3 cups, reserve additional stock if needed)
1 (12 oz.) bag dried bread stuffing mix
⅓ whole wheat or multigrain baguette cubed, dried

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°
Heat a shallow skillet or a large sauce pan to medium-high heat and spray with non stick cooking spray. After the pan has heated for about a minute, add turkey sausage. Cook for about 7-9 minutes until it becomes brown and break apart with a spatula while it cooks. Stir occasionally. If it starts to brown too fast, turn down the heat. Remove from pan.
In the same pan as the sausage was cooked, add one tablespoon of olive oil (if needed). As the oil heats, add onion, celery, sage, thyme, rosemary and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until the onions become translucent and then add stock.
Allow stock to come to a simmer and then add all the bread. Mix it all together gently until the broth is soaked into the bread. You may want to move this to a larger bowl.
Add sausage and dried cranberries to the stuffing. Gently fold all the ingredients together and then spread evenly in a greased baking dish. Cover with foil or dish lid and cook for 20-25 minutes. Remove covering and then cook for an additional 15-20 minutes. **Keep additional stock on hand incase the stuffing becomes dry.
Let cool before serving.

Notes

Ingredients & Technique:

Easy hack – start this recipe with a bag of dried stuffing mix. Look for wheat breads (they balance the flavor more). Then…follow the instructions on the back (omit butter). When it says to add butter, add about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil instead if needed.

I added part of a leftover grainy baguette. Make sure that it is dried out (you can easily add the cubed pieces to the oven for a few minutes on 250 to dry it out). What’s great about this step is a different texture to the stuffing and it adds more bulk to the recipe. That’s also why you will add more stock than usual.

I like to cook the sausage first thing, that way once I remove it from the pan, I can cook the vegetables in the sausage drippings so no flavor goes to waste. Add olive oil if there isn’t enough turkey sausage drippings to cook vegetables (you will need about a tablespoon).

I cooked this in a cast iron skillet for the most recent time I made this recipe, however, it browns up faster on the bottom. Use a greased casserole dish for best results.

How long does in last and where?

I ate this over 4-5 days. Because it is cooked, it doesn’t get too mushy over time.

Can you freeze it?

No.

Substitutions?

You absolutely can use regular dried cranberries and pork sausage. I just swapped the other versions to feel better about the recipe.

Feel free to use turkey or vegetable stock instead of chicken. They all will do the part.

What to serve with it?

Any and all holiday foods!

Nutrition

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American, Holiday

Keyword: Bread, Turkey

Servings:

Calories: 340kcal

Author: Michelle Cerutti

Sausage & Cranberry Stuffing

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Nutrition

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