For the make ahead turkey giblet gravy, see the recipe here.
Sage sausage stuffing
This stuffing elevates the form with sourdough bread and sage sausage
Servings 6 people
Ingredients
Sage sausage (if making from scratch)
- 1 lb ground pork or beef or other ground meat(s)
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander seeds
- 1 tsp salt
- 2-3 tsp dried, rubbed sage
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Sage sausage stuffing
- 1 lb sage sausage Add dried, rubbed sage to regular sausage before cooking if sage sausage is too expensive
- 8 cups sourdough bread cubes, dime to quarter sized pieces (about 1 1/2 pounds) Rye or whole wheat also make for good stuffing
- 1 cup chopped bok choy or other vegetable of one’s choosing, such as celery
- 2 chopped medium onions
- 1-2 cups minced parsley
Instructions
Sage sausage
- If drying fresh sage, put sage leaves on a cooking sheet lined with parchment paper for 1-2 hours at 150-180 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix the meat and spices, possibly by hand, until well combined.
- Refrigerate overnight or cook immediately.
- Option 2: Add dried sage to breakfast sausage before cooking
Sage sausage stuffing
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees if any of the stuffing is to be baked.
- In a large skillet (12 inches), cook the sausage, separating it into quarter-sized pieces. Once it is almost done cooking, remove the sausage into a bowl.
- Brown the onions and bok choy (or other vegetables as desired).
- Add the sausage back into the skillet, as well as the cubed bread. Mix and continue to cook over medium-high to medium heat, until the bread begins to heat through.
- Stuff the turkey with the stuffing or put the stuffing into baking dishes.
- If baking the stuffing alone, bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 40 minutes with a tinfoil covering.
- Remove the tinfoil covering and continue to bake for 20 minutes.
Notes
If you can't find or afford sage sausage, and don't want to make sausage from scratch, you can instead add the dried sage (see instructions) to regular pork sausage (or breakfast sausage) and it'll taste about the same, and it's what I do now.
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- Sage getting prepped for oven drying.
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- Laying un-dried sage on parchment paper on baking sheet.
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- Dried sage.
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- All the ingredients that go into the sausage on top of the ground meat. It now must be mixed.
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- Onion, before it has been chopped.
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- Chopped onion in skillet to brown.
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- Pre-chopping parsley.
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- Chopped parsley.
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- Bread before it has been cubed.
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- Cutting the bread to cube it.
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- Cubed bread.
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- Stuffing before it goes into a pan to be baked, after it has been combined with the bread, onions, sausage, parsley.
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- Stuffing before it has been covered in tinfoil and baked. Glass is better than metal because it will not, so easily, burn the underside.
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- Stuffing before being placed in the oven. Although cast iron is great for baking, it tends to burn the bottom of the stuffing. Glass is preferred.
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- Stuffing covered in tin foil before being baked in the oven. The tin foil is taken off during the last few minutes of baking so the top will crisp.
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- Stuffing after being baked. The tin foil covering was taken off during the last few minutes so the top would brown.