Poultry Dressing (a little late)

A little late for Thanksgiving, but our family also does turkey & dressing for Christmas dinner, so dressing is still on my mind. This year everyone said the dressing was the best ever, and to never ever change it. Since I do it a little bit different every year, I decided to finally write down exactly what I did so they can count on the same results every year. Most folks have a time-tested recipe that they have stroked through the years, so I consider dressing a signature dish. If you have not arrived at that place, I thought I would share mine for you to try.

First of all, let me say that the cooking of our dressing is probably different than most of yours. I fill one standard size muffin tin (1 doz.) with some of the dressing and (2) mini-muffin tins. We call them stuffin' muffins, and that is my favorite way of serving/eating dressing because it gives you a lot of surface to interior ratio, and the surface (crispy) is my fave part of the dressing. Then I also fill a large casserole (or small roasting pan) fairly deep. I cook the muffins at 375 until well browned. The casserole is also cooked at 375, but I take it out and stir it when the top browns. I keep doing this--turning the surface under and browning the new top--until there is no more mushy interior. This could take 2 hours or more. We don't like mushy--we like browned and well done throughout. Start with a fairly juicy mix of broth and bread ingredients for the casserole--not so juicy for the muffins, just well moistened.

The following recipe makes enough dressing for all the muffins plus a large casserole. We like to have plenty for leftovers and also enough to freeze some.

18-20 C dried breadcrumbs
I use...
2 recipes cornbread (well done and dried out)
1 pkg commercially prepared dried cornbread stuffing
2 boxes onion-garlic flavored croutons
6-8 large biscuits (well done and dried out)
4 C diced celery
2-3 C diced white onion
1 C chopped green onion (with some of the green part)
3 tsp poultry seasoning or more to taste
sugar to taste (1/4 C or more)
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 dashes cayenne pepper (not for heat--just for depth)
granulated garlic to taste (easy on this--you've got garlic in the croutons also)
finely chopped parsley (optional)
homemade broth (recipe follows)

Place cornbread and biscuits in a large zip-lock bag and crumble with a rolling pin. Place all bread ingredients in a huge bowl. Saute celery and onions in butter (about 1 1/2 sticks)--probably need to do in 2 batches--until just barely soft. Add butter and vegetables to bread ingredients; add seasonings. Moisten with stock and taste to correct seasonings. Homemade stock makes all the difference in how your dressing will taste. Pour some of the turkey drippings over the top of the casserole and muffins if you like, but this dressing is great without doing that and not so greasy. NOTE that we do not use boiled eggs/giblets....adds nothing to the taste as far as I'm concerned.

Turkey Stock

6 large turkey legs
2 large onions
carrots and celery (I use a lot)
2 T kosher salt
handful of peppercorns
1/2 handful whole cloves
sugar to taste (1/4 C or more)
Water

Place all in a large stock pot with water to cover plus an inch or so. When turkey is fully cooked, taste and correct seasonings. Then cook until turkey is falling off the bone. Remove turkey bones and meat and large pieces of vegetables. Strain stock into Gladware-type containers (I use the soup/salad size), let cool completely, cover and freeze. Put in fridge to thaw the day before your turkey dinner. When thawed, skim off excess fat. If not thoroughly thawed when you are ready to prepare your dressing, finish in microwave. Do not thaw at room temp. Be sure to put some aside for making gravy--which will be YUMMY using this stock. You should have 7-9 containers using the soup/salad size Gladware (or other brand).

Gravy

Makes 4 C (I increase this recipe by 50% to make 6 C--plenty for leftovers)
A house guest this year said he could drink this

1 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 C Wondra flour (you won't have any lumps if you use Wondra)
4 C homemade turkey stock
poultry seasoning to taste
granulated garlic to taste
salt & pepper to taste (taste first--if your stock is well seasoned, you might not want to add any salt but I usually add pepper rather generously)
KITCHEN BOUQUET

Melt butter and whisk in flour. Bring to a bubbly boil and continue cooking for about 5 minutes. Gradually whisk in *cold stock. Continue whisking until bubbly. Add seasonings. Add Kitchen Bouquet a little at a time until desired color is reached. It is very important to color up your gravy using this important ingredient to make your gravy look as rich as it tastes. Add some turkey drippings if available but add more Wondra if it doesn't completely emulsify into the gravy. Continue cooking about 8 minutes after mixture comes to a boil. I think this gravy is even better if made ahead of time and reheated just before serving. Keep some canned stock on hand to thin your gravy as necessary when reheating if you don't have any homemade stock left (or thin with water). It will thicken when cooled and reheated.

*It is IMPORTANT to add cold stock to the hot butter/flour roux. Gravy seems to need the shock of cold/hot to thicken properly. Also, avoid adding much flour after the addition of stock. The flour cooks rather quickly at the roux stage but very slowly after adding liquid and will tend to have an undesirable flour-y taste.

If you feel your gravy does not taste rich enough, add some commercial chicken bouillon, but be very careful with this as it adds a lot of salt. I keep a large container of (Tones) turkey gravy mix (in the fridge) to use for thickening the gravy if needed--much better than adding flour. I think many cooks disparage their results by adding flour to gravies after adding liquid.

My apologies to the experienced cooks among you if I have over-explained. I write all my recipes for my kids and assume that they don't know all that much yet.

Well, this is how we do dressing and gravy, and I would love to hear how your family does it. Like I say, dressing is a signature dish, and I bet none of us do it the same way.

--Pen












This message was edited Dec 6, 2008 10:54 AM