Every year, someone in my family asks for my cornbread stuffing recipe. I’ve posted online a few times, but here it is again.
Cornbread Stuffing and Cooking the Bird Without Tears
There are those of you out there who will be reading a dozen recipes on how to make cornbread stuffing. Most of them will be generated by a company that has an interest in your buying their product.
Having said that, there are two ways to go with the base of your stuffing. You can go the easy way, which I do – and buy TWO bags of Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing mix, or you can use a recipe for plain cornbread. Do not use Jiffy mix, it’s too sweet. You want one made without sugar.
Ingredients:
- 2 bags of Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing mix.
- 4 chicken bouillon cubes or equivalent crystals or 2 cans chicken boullion, or 2 cups homemade chicken bouillon.
- 4-5 stalks celery, washed well, then sliced no bigger than 1/4 inch wide.
- 1/2 cup diced sweet onion – Vidalia or Texas sweet. If you aren’t sure, ask someone.
- 3 large UNPEELED Granny Smith apples, washed and diced. If you use any other kind, the dressing will suck.
- 1 cup raisins.
- 1 tsp poultry seasoning, whichever you have on hand. Poultry seasoning contains sage, rosemary, and thyme.
- 1 stick REAL butter. Don’t insult your dressing with margarine or other substitutes. One day of indulgence isn’t going to kill your cholesterol levels.
Fill a LARGE pot (the one you use for spaghetti noodles and such) to the halfway point with water and the bouillon cubes. If you’re using canned or homemade, add water until the pot is half full.
Toss in everything EXCEPT the cornbread, bring it to a boil, then drop the burner down to simmer. What you’re looking for is a temperature just below a boil. Let it simmer for until the raisins plump up fat and the celery and onions begin to look transparent – about twenty minutes.
What you need now is a BIG bowl, stainless or glass is best, but plastic will work if you must. If you don’t have a giant bowl, do you have a punch bowl? That will work.
Dump the cornbread mix into the big bowl, then, using a slotted spoon, place half the ingredients of your pot into the stuffing. Use a big spoon to make sure all of the apples, raisins, celery, and onion go into the bowl, leaving half the liquid in the pot.
Stir the contents of the bowl.
Does it look dry anywhere? Add more liquid from the pot. You don’t want it soupy, but you DO want it to be moist. Once it looks wet everywhere, pour any leftover into a smaller pot, you can add it to the gravy later.
Stuff the Bird
Everyone has opinions on stuffing the bird, or not, depending on how freaked out you get about television show warnings about salmonella. If you pay attention to kitchen safety issues, you don’t need to worry. Follow these directions:
Wash your bird in a CLEAN sink, letting the water run into the cavity, both the big one at the front, and the one at the rear under the flap. Take those plastic bags you’ll find in the cavities and toss them in the trash or boil them up for your dog – or the neighbor’s dog.
People will tell you that you need to put the “giblets” in your dressing. You don’t – for two reasons – it will ruin the taste and it increases the possibility of salmonella. Ditto with the eggs some people think are necessary. Don’t let eggs anywhere near your dressing.
Don’t use soap to wash your turkey, by the way. Lots of water will do the trick.
Once you’ve washed the bird, put it in your roasting pan. If you’re using a turkey that came with strings in a plastic pouch, this is the lifter and it needs to go in the pan under the turkey. You’ll figure it out.
Stuff the large cavity first. I pack mine in tight, although they say you shouldn’t. I don’t much care what “they” say. Lift the flap at the back and stuff that area, too. You should have leftover stuffing at this point. Put it in a GLASS pan, cover it, and put it in the refrigerator. If you’re having a large crowd, you’ll need to bake it when you do the yams or whatever else will fit in the oven at the same time. If not, you’ll want it when you eat leftovers.
The tricky part is juggling the legs so they fit back under that little flap on the turkey before you put your bird in the oven If you can’t manage it, you have a couple of options. Use turkey skewers (bought in the store with the rest of the useless cooking bits and bobs you’ll use once a year) – or you can try one of the shifts I’ve used in the past.
You can roll up some tin foil and use it as a sort of rope to lasso the legs. You can use cotton kitchen string – the same kind as on that turkey lifter that came with your bird. Or, you can pull the turkey lifter out from beneath the thing, cut off a length and use that.
Cover your bird tightly with tin foil. If you forgot to buy extra wide, use two sheets of the regular. It’s going to take longer than anyone admits to cook that thing. I hope you have a meat thermometer. If you don’t you’ll need to do the leg test. More about that later.
Kitchen Safety – Avoiding Salmonella
As soon as your bird is in the oven, wash everything you’ve used with hot soapy water and a quarter cup of bleach. Rinse the sink and fill it again, with more hot soapy water and another quarter cup of bleach. Wash down the counters, the stove top, the other sink if you have you have a double, the refrigerator door, and don’t forget your cutting board., the paper towel holder, and the lid to the trash can. In other words, wash down anything you’ve touched.
Toss your dishrags, sponge, and dish towels into the laundry and get fresh ones. If you follow the cleaning method, you’ll be fine.
Is it Done yet?
If you remembered to buy a meat thermometer, you’re good to go. Don’t trust those buttons some of the turkeys have to tell you they’re done. Follow the meat thermometer. It will have a poultry setting – 180 degrees means it’s done.
About an hour before you THINK it’s done, take the bird out of the oven and remove the tin foil cover. Baste the bird with the juices that have gathered in the bottom of the pan. If you don’t have any juices, something is wrong. Don’t panic, just use some of that leftover boullion or make more and use that.
Basting means pouring liquid over every inch of the bird, paying special attention to the dressing popping out of the cavity at this point. If you have a basting bulb, that works best. If you don’t use a big spoon.
Stick the meat thermometer in the fat part of the bird – push it deep – but don’t hit bone. If it’s reading at least 160, you’re good. Stick the UNCOVERED bird back in the oven and let it cook until it’s browned and the meat thermometer reads 180. Baste it every 15 minutes until that happens – usually about forty minutes to an hour.
If you don’t have a meat thermometer, you’ll need to do the leg test. Pull one leg free and give it a yank when you think the bird looks done. It should pull loose from the main body of the bird. If it doesn’t, or you aren’t sure, there’s the knife test.
Using a sharp knife, cut into the fattest part of the bird and LOOK. If it’s pink anywhere, it isn’t done. If this happens, turn the oven down to 275, recover the bird with tin foil and slide it back into the oven for another 30 minutes.
What Time is Dinner?
Add at least an hour to whatever the turkey packaging says. In general, a 12 – 14 pound turkey takes 4-5 hours to cook. When you get closer to 17-20 pounds, you’re looking at 6-7 hours.
As soon as you’re sure it’s done, scoop all of the stuffing into a large bowl and lift your turkey onto the serving platter. You’ll need a few minutes to brown the rolls and the marshmallows atop the candied yams, put ice in the glasses, find the serving spoons, etc.
Enjoy!
