What's the best part of Thanksgiving? The turkey? No way. It's the stuffing. And to think there was a time when I thought stuffing could only be made from a box! Don't get me wrong—boxed stuffing is good, but premade packages of stuffing are a real damper in the creativity department. (Not to mention they're loaded with sodium and other not-so-wholesome ingredients in the form of preservatives.)
Homemade stuffing is ridiculously easy to make, but there are a few things you can do that would ruin a perfectly good stuffing. Here are a few mistakes to avoid when you're making stuffing from scratch and tips to fix your stuffing.
Mistake to Avoid No. 1: Cooking Your Stuffing in the Turkey
OK, so this tip really applies to any stuffing, but it's worth mentioning because it could destroy the potential to ever allow stuffing to cross your lips again. Don't cook the stuffing in the turkey! What about those iconic images of a turkey brimming with stuffing, you ask? Forget about them. You are looking at either (a) a turkey that has been cooked to oblivion or (b) stuffing that's basted in raw turkey juices, a real food-safety hazard.
Here's why: In the time it takes a stuffed turkey to get up to 165°F in the center of the cavity (the "safe" temperature for poultry), the breast meat and possibly everything else will be overcooked. Even if the stuffing is fully cooked beforehand, if you take the turkey out of the oven with the stuffing just "warmed," you'll run the risk of eating stuffing contaminated with raw turkey juices. Everything, even the stuffing, has to reach the recommended 165°F if it's in the bird, so cook it in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish instead.
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When you're creating your own stuffing, the sky is the limit when it comes to ingredients. You can add dried fruit, fresh fruit, vegetables, sausage, nuts, grains, whatever. But you want to make sure there is an element that keeps it all loosely sticking together. That's called a "binder," and bread is really great at this. To work its magic, the bread needs a little liquid. (How much? See below.) Bread that's slightly dry sucks up moisture like a sponge and once it's tossed with other ingredients it starts to break down slightly and acts like the glue for everything else. Any kind of bread will work—wheat bread, sourdough, rye—even cornbread and gluten-free bread. Experiment with different flavors to find the one you like best.
Healthy Stuffing Recipes
Mistake to Avoid No. 3: Soggy or Dry Stuffing
How to make dry stuffing moist? Stuffing needs moisture to prevent it from drying out, but knowing how much liquid to add can be tricky. You want your stuffing moist but not soggy and certainly not dry. The bread in the stuffing absorbs moisture, but if it's dry (as it should be, see above), it takes some time for the liquid to settle in. I suggest adding a little at a time, say 1 cup of broth for every 4 cups of dry mix. Give it a good stir, then let it sit for a minute. The stuffing should be moist but not wet. If there is a puddle of broth at the bottom of the bowl, you've added too much. Add more bread to soak up the excess moisture. If the mix is still dry and crumbly, add more liquid and toss gently until it starts to clump together.
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Pictured Recipe: Vegan Cornbread Stuffing
Mistake to Avoid No. 4: Too Much Salt
One of the pitfalls of packaged stuffing is copious amounts of sodium. When you make stuffing from scratch, you can control how much salt you add—to a degree. Unfortunately, common stuffing ingredients like bread, sausage and broth have a good amount of sodium in them. Manage sodium levels by being judicious with "extras" like sausage (just a little goes a long way) and choosing low- or reduced-sodium broth. And you don't necessarily need to add salt to stuffing. Taste it before you bake it (as long as there isn't raw meat involved) to see if you really need to add extra salt.
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Any attempts to make stuffing with soft, fresh baked bread will result in a bread soup with a soggy texture. Follow this tip: Stale, dried-out bread makes the best stuffing.
Any attempts to make stuffing with soft, fresh baked bread will result in a bread soup with a soggy texture. Follow this tip: Stale, dried-out bread makes the best stuffing.
If the stuffing came out too wet and soggy (aka bread soup!) try not to over mix it, otherwise it'll turn into mush. Curtis Stone says to pour it on a large sheet tray and spread it out. Bake it on high heat to crisp it up, but make sure it doesn't burn.
We recommend adding stock a little at a time--1/2 cup to 1 cup, depending on how much stuffing you're making--and waiting for the bread to absorb the liquid before adding more. Once the bread is moist but not sitting in a pool of stock, it's ready.
Broth: Chicken broth keeps the stuffing moist without making it soggy. Eggs: Two lightly beaten eggs help hold the dressing together and add moisture. Water: You can add a few tablespoons of water, if you'd like, to achieve your desired consistency.
You want your stuffing moist but not soggy and certainly not dry. The bread in the stuffing absorbs moisture, but if it's dry (as it should be, see above), it takes some time for the liquid to settle in. I suggest adding a little at a time, say 1 cup of broth for every 4 cups of dry mix.
There's nothing better than soft, fresh bread—except for when it comes to stuffing. If you want your stuffing to hold up and not end up a soupy, soggy mess, make sure your bread is dried out or staled for a few days.
Heat the oven to 350°F and transfer the stuffing to an oven-safe dish (or, you can keep it in the dish that it was originally cooked in). If it seems dry, you'll want to add a splash of broth. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes, then remove foil and bake again until crisp, 15–20 minutes.
If your stuffing is too wet and gummy, turn it out onto a baking pan or cookie sheet.Break it up and spread it in an even layer.Then bake until dried to the desired level.
Cook until the center of the stuffing reaches 165 °F as measured with a food thermometer. If these guidelines have not been followed, discard the stuffing.
After preparation, immediately place into an oven no lower than 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a food thermometer to ensure that the stuffing reaches the safe minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees, whether it is baked separately or inside a bird.
You need a thermometer. Since you've used the term “stuffing,” we'll assume you're talking about the bread casserole baked inside of a turkey at Thanksgiving in the United States. Since it's cooked inside the turkey, you know that it's done when the internal temperature of the stuffing is 165° F.
Here's the thing about using a pan, a little butter, and some broth to reheat stuffing: it makes it taste even better than it did the day it was made. The bread gets crisped by the hot pan and the broth helps soften the stuffing that has otherwise absorbed a lot of its original moisture.
But as stuffing bakes, moisture can also start to disappear, leading to a parched dressing. This is where broth comes in. According to EatingWell, you can fix dry stuffing by adding 1 cup of broth for every 4 cups of stuffing mix, tossing gently to help the mix rehydrate.
He uses the hot broth on stuffing, too, rather than putting the stuffing in the oven to heat it up (and risking drying it out). "I make indentations in the trays of stuffing with a spoon," he says, "I put the hot chicken stock in it and it keeps it warm."
Introduction: My name is Stevie Stamm, I am a colorful, sparkling, splendid, vast, open, hilarious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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