This quick and easy stuffing is perfect for the holidays.
When I was a kid, my mom made the same stuffing every year. It wasn’t that great, but it wasn’t that good either, and believe me, I wasn’t alone in that opinion. Whenever extended family came over for the holidays, you could count on there being two dishes of stuffing. My mom’s, which was a gooey, soggy vegetable-filled mess and a more traditional stuffing without all the added moisture.
Now that it’s my turn to make the dressing for the holidays, I want to hold on to some of the traditions of my mom’s stuffing, like the vegetable-y goodness, but want to leave all the sogginess in the past. To keep my stuffing nice and fluffy, yet still full of vegetables, I pick vegetables that have lower water content and that are full of flavor.
For this dish, I used apples, my single favorite dressing ingredient, and fennel. For the apples, I chose the Fuji variety. They are a crisp, sweet apple that cooks up really well. Before adding the apple and fennel to the dressing, I first sautéed them in butter until they were tender-crisp. This helps remove a little of the moisture too, and makes them tender.
Then I added the sautéed vegetables, stuffing and stock to a large bowl along with some poultry seasoning. I tossed it well and baked it at 350° in an 8 x 8 casserole dish. If you’re looking for a new recipe for stuffing, I hope you give this one a try.