Cooking with love for Thanksgiving
As promised last week, I will be featuring some must-have recipes for fall, and the Thanksgiving season. This week, I have decided to teach you how to make a delicious stuffing that works with chicken or turkey. I am also going to touch a bit on how to prepare your bird for roasting to ensure it turns out as mouth watering as it should! I want to warn you that this will take a bit longer to prepare than most of the recipes I write, but I assure you that the hard work will pay off! You will need to pick up some hearty ingredients for this recipe (which, as always will be included in the shopping list below), so grab your reusable bag and venture out to a local food market or grocery store and stock up.
First, use bread that is a few days old, or fresh bread, cut into one-by-two inch strips for your stuffing. If you want to use fresh bread (as I did a couple of weeks ago), simply bake the strips in the oven for 20 minutes in an oven preheated to 220 degrees. The reason for using dryer bread rather than soft, moist bread is so the bread will be able to absorb the juices and flavours of the rest of the stuffing mixture without being soggy. Make sure to get this done ahead of time so when you are ready to add the bread into the stuffing mixture, it is ready for you.
Once this has been done, you can begin to prepare the tasty part of the stuffing. Get out a large cutting-board and a good knife. First, chop up a medium-sized cooking onion, and a full bulb of garlic. Then, chop up three stocks of celery, three cremini mushrooms, and some oyster mushrooms. In a large pot, add ¼ cup of butter, a drizzle of olive oil, and allow these to melt together. Next, add in the onions, garlic, celery, and mushrooms to the butter and oil. Allow all of the ingredients to begin cooking down and softening up. Next, add in freshly chopped sage, thyme, and rosemary and continue stirring. For more moisture, add in a cup-and-a-half of chicken stock, and some salt and pepper to taste.
Believe me, by now, your kitchen and entire house is going to smell absolutely delicious. Keep the mixture on low heat, stirring continually for a few minutes. Now, you are ready to add in the bread. Slowly add in the strips of bread and continue stirring – you want all of the bread to be evenly coated and somewhat moist. Once you have completed this, it is time to set the stuffing aside, and prepare your bird to be stuffed. Be sure to clean out the inside of your bird (many do come pre-cleaned, but check to be sure!) Then, it is time for you to begin stuffing. To stuff your bird, I recommend using a tablespoon to spoon and pack in the stuffing mixture. I also added in an extra full clove of garlic and half an onion into the opening so that the stuffing does not fall out during the roasting.
Have some butchers’ string, or any kind of string on hand, and get some one to give you a hand. You want to place your bird in a roasting pan, breast side up, and tie its legs together. Then, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, rub the bird down with butter, and sprinkle it with fresh black pepper, and a little bit of salt, and some chopped thyme. Remember to baste your bird often to achieve that golden, crispy skin. To ensure crispy skin, don’t cover the bird! Allow your bird to roast in the oven uncovered for the entire time.
Shopping list:
– Whole turkey or chicken
– Cooking onions
– Fresh garlic
– Celery
– Cremini and oyster mushrooms
– Chicken stock
– Bread
– Butter
– Olive oil
– Salt
– Pepper