Sausage Herb Dressing with dried cranberries

Thanksgiving dinner just isn’t complete without dressing to go with the turkey.  While some prefer to stuff it in the cavity while the bird cooks, hence the name stuffing, I prefer to cook it separately.  I find the turkey cooks more evenly and the dressing crisps up on the top yet remains moist inside.

Now I know many people will be grabbing boxes of Mrs. Cubbison’s and doctoring it up, but really – how hard is it to cube bread and toast it a little.  The difference in flavor is night and day; one tastes like cardboard (not that I’m an afficianado of cardboard) and the other like bread.  This dressing gets it’s amazing flavor from sausage, fresh sage and thyme, cranberries and some port wine.  It’s a family favorite and hopefully will be yours too.  Enjoy!

I started by dicing up 1 1/2 large onions, 4 ribs of celery and mincing 6 garlic cloves.

I chopped up 1 tablespoon of thyme and 3 tablespoons of sage and set them aside.  I also peeled and diced 1 granny smith apple and cut a loaf of day old Sheepherders bread into 1 inch cubes(any sturdy white bread will do).  I toasted the bread cubes on 2 sheet pans in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes to dry them out.

While the bread was toasting, I added a little olive oil to a large fry pan over medium high heat and cooked 16 ounces of sage breakfast sausage (Jimmy Dean) until browned about 8 minutes, breaking it up with the back of a spoon, then removed it and let it drain on paper towels.

I added 2 tablespoons butter to the same pan over medium heat then dumped in the onion, celery and garlic- cooking for about 8 minutes until softened.  I added the apple along with the sage and thyme letting it cook for another 2 minutes then removed it from the heat and let it cool some.

In a large bowl I added the toasted bread cubes, cooked sausage and cooked vegetables along with 3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley, 1/2 teaspoon cracked red pepper flakes and 1/2 cup dried cranberries, then tossed to combine.  I stirred in 1/3 cup melted butter, then mixed together 1 1/2 cups chicken stock, 1/4 cup tawny port wine and 1 beaten egg and stirred that into the mix.  I finished by seasoning with salt and pepper.  I greased a 4 qt baking dish with butter (my pan was 9 3/4″ x 12″ x 2 1/2″) then spooned the mixture into the pan.  I covered it with foil and baked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes then removed the foil and baked another 20 minutes.

And this is was the result.  This is seriously good stuff!  Enjoy!