Nana's Sausage and Sage Stuffing

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This family recipe is offered to us by Kristen Stephens, Kidventure’s Office Manager for Austin. It comes from Kristen’s Nana.

I can’t remember a Thanksgiving without my Nana’s stuffing. To be clear, she made her recipe outside of the ‘inside’ of the turkey. I have adopted her perfectly moist and amazingly tasty recipe which calls for sausage and sage. It remains a staple on our dinner table during the holidays (and a few days during the regular year)!

A Little Bit About My Nana

This recipe brings great memories of Thanksgivings spent with my Grandmother (aka Nana) at our family ranch. It’s funny because this recipe is so delicious and she always feeds us well, but she doesn’t actually enjoy cooking all that much. She enjoys that it brings the family together and even if she doesn’t love it, she definitely has a knack for it! My Grandmother now lives in Austin and has discovered the amazing food delivery app, Favor, which she uses regularly (can you blame her? Its awesome!). But with cooking and food aside, my grandmother is an amazing, loving lady that has taught me how to be resilient, grateful and kind. Whether we are eating her famous stuffing this Thanksgiving or ordering in Texas Honey Ham, I’m so thankful to have my Nana in my life.

Ingredients

Prep Time 10 mins | Cook Time 45 mins | Total Time 55 mins | Servings: 10-12 Servings

▢ 1 large loaf whole-grain bread (cubed & set out to dry overnight – yields roughly 9 cups loosely packed cubes) *Note: you can sub store bought dried bread cubes, I do this a lot to save time
▢ 1 lb ground sausage
▢ 3 Tbsp olive oil or butter
▢ 1/2 cup white onions (diced)
▢ 3/4 cup celery (diced)
▢ 3 – 3 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
▢ 1 egg
▢ 1 1/2 tsp fresh sage or 3/4 tsp dried sage
▢ Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

1. The night before, cube your bread and set it in a large bowl to dry out – you want it to be dry but not rock hard. (skip this step if using pre packed bread cubes)

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F spray a 9×13 pan with nonstick spray or line with foil.

3. Cook sausage in a skillet over med-medium high heat until browned and cooked through. Pour sausage into a bowl and set aside.

4. Sauté onion and celery in the olive oil or butter and season with a bit of salt and pepper. Cook until fragrant and translucent – about 5 minutes. Add the cooked sausage back into the skillet w/ the veggies and set aside.

5. To the bowl of bread, pour in half to 3/4ths of the broth to start, then add the remaining ingredients (chopped sage, cooked veggies/sausage, and the egg) and mix with a spatula. The key is to make sure it is about the consistency of a meatloaf. If it’s too dry, add more broth and mix again. If it’s gotten too wet, add more bread.

6. Transfer to the baking pan and cover with foil. Bake for 45 minutes. Then remove the top layer of foil so the top can brown. Increase heat to 400 degrees F and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the top is well browned and crisp.

Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before serving.