Happy Day After Thanksgiving, everyone! I know some people call today Black Friday or think of it as the first official day of the Christmas season, but here at the Garlic, My Soul headquarters we’re still basking in our Thanksgiving glow. (Although, I’ll be honest, we’ve already started listening to the James Taylor Christmas album)
Yesterday, we made the latest version of our holiday favorite: Gluten Free Cornbread Sausage stuffing.
We made this last year and it was incredible. However, with our typical reckless abandon, we did not take sufficient notes on what we did, and were forced to recreate it from memory this year. What we came up with was not an exact recreation. We may never remember what magical thing we did last year, but this new (and well-documented) recipe is still fantastic and we think you’ll really like it.
Start by caramelizing your onions. No recipe that starts with caramelized onions could ever be bad, in my opinion.
Next, you’re going to add some chopped chicken sausage. This year we used a combination of Trader Joe’s Sweet Apple and Smoked Apple Chardonnay Chicken Sausage. If memory serves, we used TJ’s Sundried Tomato flavor last year and it made the dish a little extra savory, so make your sausage selection with that information in mind.
Add your celery and let it all cook together for a few minutes. One note: We were working in a relatively small pan and I think it would have benefited the overall flavor if we’d browned the sausage separately before adding it to the mix.
It will start to look like this, and you’ll have difficulty not eating it right out of the pan as it is. Jennie and I did our fair share of this.
At one point yesterday, a friend saw me eat a fingerful of mashed potatoes right out of the mixing bowl and said “I’ve been wanting to do that all day but I was afraid I’d get yelled at!” I told her, “Oh no. In our kitchen we may yell at you to get out of the way at crucial moments, but we do not get angry if you just can’t help sneaking a taste.”
Next, add some white wine to de-glaze the pan before adding your apples and chopped rosemary and sage. Turn up the heat and cook for 5 – 10 minutes to soften the apples.
When the mood strikes you, add the cornbread. and mix as much as possible in your tiny tiny skillet.
You may not be able to fit all the cornbread in your skillet. That’s okay. I think we put out a small bowl of cornbread cubes and encouraged our grazing friends to eat it along with holiday chex mix.
Add your chicken broth and stir. Now is a good time to salt this to taste (a step we forgot in yesterday’s madness).
Spoon it into your casserole dish and add any remaining chicken broth until you reach your desired level of moisture.
Let it bake on 375 for about 20 minutes, or just pop it in the oven at whatever temperature it happens to be set for other dishes and cook until warmed through. Things got pretty hectic at the warming stage, and I think the stuffing actually only baked for like 15 minutes on 350. Whatever works.
See recipe here.
[addtoany]
These are the Indian-spiced Brussels sprouts we made – don’t worry, recipe to come!
Deglazing the pan with some white wine? Yes please.
Of course, the turkey was done early this year, again.
Our good friend George was the designated carver.
And here, in the extra room, we have the tofurky baking in a toaster oven.
Our stuffing – an adaptation of last year’s that was quite delicious.
There is the gravy. Need I say more?
