Sage Sausage, Apple and Craisin Dressing

"This is a recipe I use every year for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. I usually double this recipe for the amount of people we have over. It is wonderful as left-overs, also. The nice thing about this is that it can be prepped the day before, so on the day your cooking, you just pop it into the oven (less dirty dishes and more free time that morning). I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as our family does."
 
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photo by Elmotoo photo by Elmotoo
photo by Elmotoo
photo by Elmotoo photo by Elmotoo
Ready In:
1hr 25mins
Ingredients:
11
Serves:
8
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ingredients

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directions

  • Pre-heat oven to 325*F. Butter a 3 quart casserole dish. Place stuffing cubes in a large bowl.
  • Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat and add sage sausage (breaking up with a wooden spoon). Cook until almost all the pink is gone, but not so much that it gets dry (about 5 minutes). Pour cooked sausage AND all the drippings over the top of the stuffing cubes (Do Not mix in yet).
  • Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter in the same pan and add onion, apple, celery and the salt. Cook (stirring often) until veggies start to soften (about 5 minutes). Add the chicken broth and parsley to the pan and bring to just boiling.
  • Once boiling, pour broth and veggie mixture over the stuffing cubes and sausage.Gently toss everything until evenly moistened (if it seems that it needs more moisture, add 1 tablespoon of water). Now add in Craisins and the beaten egg. Mix well.
  • "Loosely" pack the dressing into the prepared casserole dish. (At this point you can "tightly" cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate it over night to bake the next day, just remove the wrap, gently stir in about 1 tablespoon of water, "lightly "pack again and let it rest on the counter about a 1/2 hour before placing in the oven).
  • Bake the dressing, UNCOVERED, until the top starts forming a crust (about 40 minutes). While it's baking, melt an additional 2 tablespoons of butter (unless you prefer to use 2 tablespoons turkey drippings). Once the 40 minutes are up, drizzle the butter (or turkey drippings) over the top of the dressing and return to the oven for an additional 20 minutes. Serve warm.
  • (If your turkey is already roasting at the same temperature, you could add the dressing during the last hour. If your oven temp is different, you may need to adjust baking time). Enjoy!

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Reviews

  1. I keep the dressing outside the turkey, and so compensate with extra broth. Make sure to spray your pan and keep it covered with foil! I?ve found that stirring it after it?s baked for 30 minutes or so, helps it bake more evenly. The only other changes I make are to throw in a little chardonnay for flavor and to add an egg for a little extra hold. I've also found that sage pork sausage is much more flavorful (make sure to drain it after cooking however). I have a habit of not measuring, so more cranberries and herbs always find their way in. And I cannot emphasize the difference FRESH herbs make. Experiment with different kinds of bread as well! Sourdough and potato bread have yielded delicious results. I've had a few flavor variations, but every result was just as tasty as the last. This is one of my favorite recipe from this site at this time.....Thank you Rosie!!! For getting me Inspired to play with my food !! Happy Cooking to y'all!......PRMR 2013....Grpa I can do the happy food dance Now!
     
  2. Noticing this in the list of approved recipes in Culinary Quest 2014 started a mad craving! I use bulk Italian sweet sausage instead of Jimmy Dean so I added a fistful of fresh sage leaves (minced) from the garden. I wish I had added more but I kept hearing my mom saying, "be careful with sage, it can get overpowering fast." I could have used more. ;) I baked this in a 9x13 pan, uncovered, for more surface area/crust. YUM! Turns out 1dd doesn't like stuffing/dressing but the other dd & I ate HALF of it for dinner. It *is* a complete meal! Made for CQ2014/CCQ.
     
  3. This dressing was a very nice change of pace for us. Forgive me though because I Texanized it a bit. I used both cornbread and herb stuffing mix (no cubes for us as I think of that as stuffing not dressing), I increased the chicken stock and added an additional egg. I also used green onions vs. regular and regular sausage vs. sage. DH enjoyed it and so did I -- it went great with our other veggies that utilized dried cranberries as well. Made for PRMR, November, 2013.
     
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Tweaks

  1. Noticing this in the list of approved recipes in Culinary Quest 2014 started a mad craving! I use bulk Italian sweet sausage instead of Jimmy Dean so I added a fistful of fresh sage leaves (minced) from the garden. I wish I had added more but I kept hearing my mom saying, "be careful with sage, it can get overpowering fast." I could have used more. ;) I baked this in a 9x13 pan, uncovered, for more surface area/crust. YUM! Turns out 1dd doesn't like stuffing/dressing but the other dd and I ate HALF of it for dinner. It *is* a complete meal! Made for CQ2014/CCQ.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>&nbsp;</p> <p>(FYI Update: 06/03/14)... My About Me page is correct. I joined as a member on March 19, 2012 (2+ years ago). But if you click on my public recipes, it states that I joined on Dec 29, 2112. It's way off... but I'm sure the staff will take care of this issue soon. (I will remove this when this error has been corrected).</p> <p>Anyway...</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Hi fellow chefs. Looking to expand here. Everyone on here has been a pleasure to meet &amp; share recipes with.</p> <p>My hubby and I live in Northern Illinois USA, just NW of Chicago. I'm a very proud mom of 2 kids (my daughter in college &amp; my son in highschool). I also have 4 semi step-children, from which we are now proud grandparents of a 4th grandchild (June 2013).</p> <p>I love to cook and experiment (using my family &amp; friends as guinea pigs). If I had the time and $$$, I would spend all of it on creating dishes to feed people. I try to have family and neighbors over whenever possible to feed them. I've cooked many large meals (at home) to take to our county's women/children's shelter, and also to the homeless men that spend 1 night, (once a week), in the local church basement. It's the right thing to do (when you can afford to do it).</p> <p>I love to throw a party, even when it isn't a holiday. Cookouts in the summer or a bring a dish to pass type of get together or an appetizer only event, or even a fondue party. But my favorite... a rolling dinner party ... that's when each of our neighbors who participate pick a dish, and we walk to their home to have cocktails at house #1, then on to house #2 for appetizers, then house # 3 for soup &amp; salad, house # 4 is the entree, and finally house # 5 is dessert! Now keep in mind, we take house #1's cocktails with us when we go on to the next few houses! LOL It's alot of fun. Try it sometime. We usually do it the weekend before Christmas and then go caroling the neighborhood. It's hilarious... grown adults, with full bellys, withstanding temps in the single digits, singing to the community!</p> <p>Sorry folks, I tend to ramble. Anyway, in any spare time, I love to garden. Flowers, veggies and herbs. Always planting in the spring/summer when I can. My bucket list includes making a Moon Garden. Not the kind that some farmers use as a planting chart, but a garden containing flowers, herbs and veggies that are white or somewhat white in color, and they glow beautifully under the moonlight!&nbsp;</p> <p>Hubby and I are caretakers for a little cabin, up north of us, in Wisconsin. It is truely a thing to see. Located on 40 acres (formerly a paper mill plantation). Huge pine trees abound and so very peaceful. The downside is... NO electricity and NO running water. That's correct... we literally have an outhouse (like a skinny, wooden shed with a hole beneath it and a crescent moon cut in the door). Ewww. Sorry.&nbsp;We use propane to grill with, and have a oil burning stove in the little 2 room cabin. We also use a charcoal grill or our wood smoker, on which we make a brisket every time we go up there. Another favorite thing to make are Pudgie Pies using cast iron pie irons over the open firepit!... Google them... they are fun and tasty! We also have a trailer set up for the youngsters that has a propane stovetop and oven. And when we go in the summer, there is a farm stand just 15 minutes away that we can get fresh produce from. It's great! And luckily, the public lake (2nd largest in Wisconsin) is only 20 minutes away. They have a beach with restrooms and showers. It's a blast going there. We take the kids and grandkids with on occasion and have a great time! We love to ATV around the trails on those 40 acres of heaven.</p> <p>Okay, on we go...I have been working independently as an owner/operator of a pet grooming salon for 20 plus years, which is why I now have a Chinese Crested dog, (pretty much hairless, so basically, no real grooming involved). We also have a cat, 4 ducks &amp; drakes, and 2 chickens. Oh... and a $0.15 cent goldfish that I bought from the pet store, because he was too cute to be in the stores feeder fish tank. The old one lived 3 yrs and had passed, and grand-babies missed seeing him. I got a new one. The new one with us still doesn't have a name.&nbsp;</p> <p>So, there you&nbsp; have it... thats me.</p> <p>-Rosie</p> <p>My rating/review system is as follows:</p> <p>5 stars - Excellent, as is. Would not change a thing.</p> <p>4 stars - Very good, liked by most.</p> <p>3 stars - Good, but needs to be altered on some things.</p> <p>2 stars -&nbsp; It could have potential, but not for me.</p> <p>1 star - Will not attempt again.</p> <p>0 stars - I only post a reply without stars to comment, as I do not want to mess up someone's rating.</p>
 
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