Two weeks ago I shared my experience of wishing mom was still here so I could ask her how she made her Thanksgiving dressing.
(In case you missed it, read it here.)
I had so many of you ask how mine turned out that I knew I needed to do a follow-up post.
I admit, I was afraid. We were spending Thanksgiving with some sweet friends and I was responsible for the dressing. I kept thinking, What if I screw it up? What would Thanksgiving dinner be without dressing? AGH!
I searched the Internet for recipes that sounded easy enough to try. Most of them required dried out day old bread or strange things like oysters, or giblets.
Somewhere in the middle of my search I remembered that my friend only had one oven. Hmmm, I wonder if I could make dressing in my slow cooker so it would free up her oven space?
I changed my search.
Sure enough, there were several recipes for slow cooker stuffing. The one that most people seemed to be using was a passed-down version from a 1980’s Crockpot cookbook. It called for mushrooms (which not everyone likes) and lots of broth, which I worried would make my dressing soggy. So I read the reviews, ad libed a bit, and ended up with this.
I think it turned out great. Maybe not exactly like my mom’s but good enough to want seconds.
Slow-Cooker Sausage Dressing (or stuffing)
Ingredients:
10 Tbs. unsalted butter (Because anything with this much butter has to be good!) 2 cups chopped onion 2 cups chopped celery 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 lb. sage-flavored breakfast sausage 1 and ½ bags of Pepperidge Farms Herb Seasoned Cubed Stuffing (about 18 oz.) 3 Tbs. of poultry seasoning 3 cups of chicken broth (Note: you will probably not use all of this but have it handy just in case.) 1 can of Cream of Mushroom Soup (I like Amy’s because it is organic and doesn’t have all the fillers in it.) 2 eggs, beaten Salt and pepper to tasteDirections:
Spray a 5-quart (or larger) slow cooker with olive oil or cooking spray.
Melt 2 T of butter with a bit of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onion and celery in the butter mixture, stirring often. Add garlic to the mixture the last two minutes.
Spoon the vegetables over the cubed stuffing. (Use the largest bowl you have…this makes a bunch.) Season with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Mix in soup and eggs. Then add just enough…I repeat…just enough broth to moisten the mixture. (I used about 1 ½ cups.) If you use the entire box it will be too much.
Transfer mixture to the slow cooker, top with the remaining butter.
Cover and cook on high for 1 hour, and then reduce heat to low and cook for 3 – 6 hours until done to your liking.
You will need to watch it. Unlike a normal slow cooker recipe where it is best not to open the lid, this one needs to be checked about every few hours. About half way through I stirred it and added just a bit more broth. We like ours a bit dry so toward the end I allowed the sides to get a bit crispy.
I think you could probably bake this in the oven if you don’t have a slow cooker. I’d put it in a 350 oven, shorten the cooking time to about an hour and watch it closely. It might need a little more or less time than that.
If you get it too moist, just take the lid off, turn it on high and let it cook off the broth the last hour to 30 minutes.
Serve it from the slow cooker or dish it up into a pretty bowl. Next time, add your own spices and extras (like cranberries, cornbread, raisins, apples or even chopped up giblets – UGH!) It’s very forgiving as long as you watch the moisture content.
Guess what I’m having for dinner?
And just for fun – Larry says that I should do a video of me cooking. A dropped can here, a cluttered countertop there, a floor filled with bits and pieces of cut up vegetables that I dropped on the way to the skillet. I’ve always heard that a good cook is a messy cook…I’m trying to be a great one. Ha!
He also threatened to take a photo of my outfit…I was cooking with a sweatshirt pulled over my nightgown. (He knows better.)
Hope your smiling…and hope you enjoy the dressing.
