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!
