there's always a hot take on thanksgiving food
My Thanksgiving hot take is that I hate traditional stuffing. It’s usually super dry and kind of flavorless. I don’t like big chunks of bread, and I definitely don’t like anything that comes out of a box. However, there’s one type of stuffing that I look forward to all year round and could make over and over. And that’s my grandmother’s stuffing. It has everything good in it–butter, eggs, onion. It includes stuffing cubes soaked in broth to give it a softer texture, and chicken livers give it punch of extra flavor. I also highly recommend stuffing the actual turkey–it sounds intimidating, but it’s actually pretty fun, AND this will ensure your turkey (nor your stuffing) dries out in the oven.
⟶ the recipe
thanksgiving stuffing
ingredients
8 cups toasted unseasoned stuffing cubes
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
6 eggs, separated 1 at a time
4 chicken livers
1 stick of softened butter
2-3 onions, chopped and sautéed
1 stick celery, chopped
1-3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1-2 cups of Panko
Prep time
1 hour
Cook time
45 minutes
Total time
1 hour 45 minutes
12 servings
instructions
Place the stuffing cubes in a large bowl. Pour the chicken broth over the cubes and let soak. Add more as needed, then squeeze out extra liquid.
In a mixer, beat butter and egg yolks. Add onion, celery, livers, and parsley. Transfer to a large bowl.
Beat egg whites to soft peaks.
Mix together bread crumbs and egg mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
Fold in egg whites. Add Panko as needed.
Stuff turkey through the neck, and fill both breasts. Cut off any extra skin around the neck and sew it up tight. If not stuffing turkey, transfer to a buttered baking dish, cover tightly with foil, and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes. Remove foil and cook for about 10 more minutes or until surface is golden brown and crisp.
⟶ recipe notes
- For the stuffing cubes, if you can find chicken flavored cubes, you can add 2 cups of those and 6 cups of plain cubes to the bowl. Then you only need water for soaking instead of the chicken broth
- It’s super important to separate the eggs perfectly. You don’t want any yolk in the whites or else they won’t get fluffy when beating. A method my grandma showed me was to separate each egg at a time, pouring the egg white into a glass measuring cup before adding it to the bowl with the other egg whites. That way, if any yolk gets in, you can just discard that egg
