If you don't think turkey stuffing is the best part of Thanksgiving dinner, it's because you've never had it made this way.
My mom has been making this bread stuffing for 50 years, and now she's passed it along to me. This stuffing is so tasty and savory that we always wish there was more—My theory is that you can never ever have enough stuffing, so we will often triple it or even quadruple it, just to be sure.
Turkey Stuffing Recipe for Thanksgiving:
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup minced onion
- 1.5 cups chopped celery (stalks and leaves)
- 1 cup stick margarine
- 9 cups soft bread cubes (white bread)
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1.5 tsp. crushed sage leaves
- 1 tsp. thyme leaves
- 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper (regular table pepper)
Instructions:
- The night before: Prepare your bread cubes ahead of time. Tear apart the bread into small pieces, measure it, and dump into a large bowl (think: oversized popcorn bowls), then cover it with plastic wrap overnight so it's ready for the Thursday morning rush. Cutting your onion and celery ahead of time and storing it in the fridge overnight will make your Thanksgiving morning less rushed, as well.
- On Thanksgiving morning: In a large skillet, cook and stir onion and celery in margarine until the onion is tender. Stir in one-third of the bread cubes. Turn that buttery bread mixture into the deep bowl where the remaining two-thirds of the bread cubes is. Add remaining ingredients and toss.
- Stuff turkey just before roasting. Fill the wishbone area with stuffing first, fastening the neck to the back with a skewer. Then, fold the turkey's wings across the back with tips touching. Fill the body cavity with stuffing.
- If there is leftover stuffing that won't fit inside the turkey, place the excess in a pan and bake in the oven along with the turkey for the last hour or so of the turkey's roasting time, but keep an eye on it so that it doesn't burn.
- When the turkey is done, also stick a meat thermometer into the stuffing to make sure it temps at 165 degrees.
- Remove every bit of the stuffing from the turkey body cavity before carving it, and scoop into a serving bowl.
Note: This recipe above will make about 9 cups of stuffing, which is enough for a 12-pound turkey. But, we've also quadrupled this stuffing recipe for a 22-pound turkey and had just enough to fill the turkey and leave a little on the sides of the pan. I'm telling you; you can never have enough turkey stuffing!
