World’s Best Thanksgiving Stuffing

World’s Best Thanksgiving Stuffing

The World’s Best Stuffing recipe is the perfect texture and has a delicious savory flavor profile. The recipe is made with breakfast sausage, onions, celery and mushrooms. You can omit the mushrooms if you choose. The beauty of this recipe is that it can be made the day before and baked or re-heated when ready to serve. I have even made it two days in advance.

In the real world it is really early to be thinking about Thanksgiving stuffing. But in recipe blogger world, in order for me to have google show this recipe when people search for Thanksgiving recipes come November, I have to post this now. So please bear with me. I live in Chicago but just came home from a long stay at my Mom’s home in Michigan where it was in the low 40’s and high 30’s some nights. I was in a Fall frame of mind when I was there and made this stuffing. If you have followed me for some time you may or may not know that I worked as a brand ambassador for a local Chicago company called Chateau Foods, I no longer work for them but this delicious recipe I created lives on.

What Are Chateau Bread Dumplings?

Chateau is a 92 year old family owned company that makes Czech inspired bread dumplings. Czech bread dumplings are slices of bread that are thicker, more absorbent and slightly spongy than regular bread. They are traditionally served as a base for pork roasts, beef roasts or stews and are meant to absorb the meat juices and gravies for you to eat and without getting soggy. They are steamed before serving and they are absolutely delicious.

Another Delicious Dumpling Recipe

You can read about a traditional recipe using these bread dumplings here. It was my job to think up new ways to use the dumplings and one day last year I was thinking about the dumplings and also stuffing and I had a light bulb moment. What if I use the bread dumplings to make stuffing? It made total sense in my head, the dumplings are designed to absorb broth and gravies without getting soggy.

I already knew they make great french toast because of those reasons, so why not stuffing? I went ahead and tried it with my traditional stuffing recipe but replaced the white bread with the bread dumplings and it was then and there that the World’s Best Thanksgiving Stuffing was born! The greatest thing about using these bread dumplings is that you don’t have to dry them out before using them for this recipe for the World’s Best Thanksgiving Stuffing. You simply thaw, cube them and carry on with the rest of the recipe.

What Else Can I Use Bread Dumplings For?

The other good news is that the bread dumplings can be used to make any stuffing recipe. As a home cook I know that stuffing is very personal to every family. I had twelve of my recipe blogging friends try the bread dumplings in place of the bread or croutons in their own personal recipes and the overall consensus was that the dumplings were PERFECT for their recipes and better than the bread they normally use. If you don’t yet have your own personal Thanksgiving stuffing recipe, I encourage you to try this recipe for this World’s Best Thanksgiving Stuffing recipe and it may just become your new holiday tradition.

I have been working on an EASY recipe to make bread dumplings at home that I will be posting soon.

Where To Find Bread Dumplings Near You

In order to make this World’s Best Thanksgiving Stuffing you will need to get your hands on the bread dumplings. They are available all over Chicago in the frozen food section of most grocery stores. You can also CLICK HERE to enter your zip code to see if they are available where you live.

If you cannot find these bread dumplings at a store near you, you can substitute 6 to 8 cups of french bread cubes. I use the Turano Bread French Rolls for this recipe as well. You can click the link to see what those look like. Any French rolls will do. You need a chewy roll that doesn’t have a super dense crust on it. I also make a stuffing with the Turano rolls called Butter Stuffing which is also delicious.Butter Stuffing

Tipsy Tip – I do not include measurements for the spices. Everyone has different taste buds and therefore I do not like to give measurements. Personally I prefer a lot of black pepper in my stuffing while some may not like. I encourage you to start with a couple teaspoons of  each spice and adjust after tasting the stuffing. Original Tipsy (my Mom) likes to add celery seed or celery salt to her stuffing and that is also delicious. You can also add sage if you like. This is just how I personally make this stuffing but you should add what you like and the amount you like.

Yield: 12 to 15 servings as a side dish

World's Best Stuffing

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One of the best stuffing recipes you will ever make. This recipe calls for crumbled breakfast sausage that adds a hint of sage, mushrooms, celery and onions. When you make this, your friends and family will be begging for the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 16 ounce package of pork breakfast sausage
• 2 C of diced celery
• 2 C of diced onion
• 2 c of diced mushrooms
• 1 stick of butter
• 2 boxes of bread dumplings, thawed and cubed or 6 to 8 cups of french rolls cubed
• 1 32oz carton of chicken or turkey broth
• 1 C of milk
• 2 eggs
• poultry seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper

Instructions

1. In a large skillet crumble your pork sausage and brown it. When it’s halfway through cooking, add the butter, celery, mushroom and onions.
2. Saute everything until its cooked well but the veggies still have some crunch to them. *if you see liquid in the pan, continue cooking until it evaporates out. The veggies have a high water content so you want to make sure you sauté them long enough to evaporate out this liquid, especially if you wash your mushrooms under water.
3. Season the sausage and veggies with your salt, pepper, garlic powder and poultry seasoning. You should season this to your preference. We use about 2 T of poultry seasoning, 1 T of garlic powder and a couple of teaspoons of salt and pepper.
4. Add your cubed bread dumplings or French rolls to a casserole dish, there is no need to dry out or toast the dumplings, they are perfect just thawed and cubed.
5. Add the meat and veggie mixture to the cubed dumplings and toss to combine well.
6. Pour the chicken broth over the mixture, it will look quite soggy. Stir to combine well.
7. Whisk your eggs with the milk and add that to the mixture as well. This will all look very soggy, no cause for concern. We add a sprinkle of poultry seasoning, garlic powder and salt and pepper to the top before baking.
8. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes. You will know when its done when the center is firm and the top is browned. If the top is getting too brown and the center isn’t set yet, you can loosely cover with foil.
9. I also sometimes add melted butter to the top before baking to make it extra crispy.

This stuffing is perfect for the holidays, but it also makes a great Sunday dinner to accompany a roast chicken, pork roast or any protein really. It can even be a complete meal because it has the veggies and the sausage in the stuffing. I have served this stuffing with some pan fried pork chops and even stuffed chicken breasts with it. You will see that this stuffing is super moist, not soggy and has a unique light and airy texture.

As I mentioned before, you can make this particular recipe if you choose, but you can also use your own recipe for stuffing and swap out your usual bread base for the dumplings. Once you give the dumplings a try they are going to be your new holiday specialty ingredient just like how french fried onions and Campbells soup is to the green bean casserole and how the Jiffy corn muffin mix is to the corn casserole. I served this stuffing at a grocery store opening as a demo and many of the customers were asking if they could buy the stuffing already made. It’s that good. I hope you give this recipe a try and love it as much as we do. As always, thank you for reading and happy eating!