Here’s my bagel stuffing recipe.

5-6 large bagels from your best local bagel store (Ess a bagel, if you are in Manhattan) … mix egg, plain, wheat, rye.

I’m not a big measurer as I cook. Learned to cook in a restaurant kitchen that was a pretty free flowing environment … the portioning got done on the front end. I’ve done my best to capture the rough measurements here, but I fully advocate tweaking this to meet your druthers.

Ingredients

Cut into roughly 1/2 inch cubes (I like to vary the size a little bit, mixes up the texture.

1 cup chopped celery 1/4 inch dice

1 cup chopped carrot

1 large onion, medium dice

3/4 cup Craisins

3 tablespoons bells seasoning

1 Granny Smith Apple, diced

1/2 package jimmy dean original sausage (roughly 1 cup)

Chicken stock

tsp Salt

tsp Pepper

1/2 tsp Garlic powder

Butter

Brown and crumble sausage and set aside.

Drain most of the leftover fat, leave a tablespoon or two in the pan.

Lightly sauté carrots , celery and onions, add garlic power and bells seasoning late.

Add apple craisins and 1-2 cups chicken stock as needed to reconstitute craisins.

Add salt and pepper, roughly 1 teaspoon each.

Butter a 9×13 baking pan, combine bagels with the sauté, until all bagels are moist (damp but not sopping wet) , add additional chicken stock as necessary.

Bake @325 (along with your turkey) covered in foil for 1 hour.

Last 10 minutes remove foil, add some crumbled butter pats on top to crisp top if preferred.

I’m not a big fan of cranberry sauce. I grew up in a household where the cranberry sauce came straight from the can, stood in a perfect can shape in a dish. I can’t stand most things with that Jell-o texture, so I add the cranberries right to the stuffing. I’ve had a couple of borderline arguments whether the cranberries belong in the stuffing, but for me it’s the right move.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!