Cornbread and Oyster Stuffing
TIME/SERVINGS
Total: 1 hr 15 mins
Active: 45 mins
Makes: 8 servings
By Charlie Palmer
It’s stuffing, and though there’s no need to put it in the bird, it’s imperative for a real Thanksgiving meal. This recipe from Chef Charlie Palmer is a favorite here at CHOW.
What to buy: The oysters must be fresh from the shell. If your shucking skills are not adequate, check out our tutorial or have your fishmonger open them for you, and be sure to reserve their liquid (a.k.a. liquor). Choose oysters that are heavy for their size and smell like the sea. Here’s a few you should know, but do your best to buy whatever’s local. (If you don’t like oysters, mild Italian sausage is a great substitute.)
Use good-quality cornbread made with stone-ground meal. (You can make it yourself ahead of time and freeze it.) If you don’t want to make your own, buy a pan of cornbread at a good bakery or specialty-foods store.
Special equipment: An oyster knife has a broad, thin, but sturdy and rigid blade. Some have a small hook at the tip to help wedge open the shell. An oyster knife shouldn’t be sharp. The... read more
- 2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter
- 2 cups finely chopped celery
- 1 cup peeled, finely chopped celery root, also known as celeriac
- 3/4 cup minced red onion
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon celery seed, crushed
- 2 1/2 pounds good-quality toasted cornbread crumbs (see note below)
- 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 12 oysters, shucked and liquid reserved
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
- Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Melt 2 sticks of the butter in a large sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add celery, celery root, and onion, season with salt, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.
- Add thyme and celery seed, and cook, stirring gently, until fragrant, about 10 minutes. Season well with salt and pepper, transfer to a large bowl, and mix in toasted cornbread crumbs.
- Return pan to high heat, pour in broth, and bring to a boil. Drizzle hot broth over cornbread mixture and stir until liquid is completely incorporated. Fold in oysters and their liquid, beaten eggs, and parsley, and season with salt and pepper.
- Spoon stuffing into the baking dish, dot with small pieces of remaining 1/2 stick butter, cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake until golden brown on top, about another 10 minutes.
Note: To prepare the cornbread, loosely crumble it, leaving large chunks. Spread the crumbled bread on a baking sheet and toast it in a 275°F oven for 15 minutes. Leave the bread in the pan overnight, uncovered, to dry out completely.
COMMENTS | ADD YOUR OWN
I think you could double or triple the number of oysters in this recipe with no harm done.
Since oysters are so expensive, and we have a lot of Italian groceries nearby, I usually use sweet Italian sausage in my stuffings. (I'd like to use hot, but everyone else is a wimp..) My answer to undercooked stuffing in the bird is to saute the sausage with the celery and onion until it's no longer pink, and then mix it with the seasonings and whatever bread you're using, before stuffing the bird. Whenever the bird is done, the stuffing is ready as well. I usually use a big wok to stir fry the sausage, celery, and onion, and then mix in the bread to ensure that all the oils from the sausage are soaked up.
I also find that there's usually enough stuffing left over to fill a small casserole. I oil the sides, fill it with the leftover stuffing, cover, and heat in a 325 degree oven. This results in a drier stuffing than what cooks in the bird. In my family, some like the "dry", some like the "wet", and some like a bit of both.
And, in the rare event that you have any "wet" stuffing left over, it makes a great sandwich with mayo and cranberry jelly the next day, as strange as that may sound.
For ingredients, I normally use an entire loaf of a whole grain bread (usually 7 or 12 grain bread, although I have used cornbread as well), left out to dry for at least two days, and two to three pounds of sausage, depending on how many you need to feed. One big onion (Spanish, Bermuda or Vidalia - it's up to you!), and the equivalent amount of chopped celery. My spices are quite different: oregano, tarragon, cumin, and most important, sage. Can't give exact amounts, as I've made this so many times, I just eyeball it now. I've made this for over 20 years, on three continents, and no one has ever gotten sick, so if you have concerns about undercooked stuffing, I recommend this technique.
I'm going to throw myself on the butcher block here and say -- this is a great use for not in the shell oysters. Yup...those oysters that come in plastic tubs in their 'liguor'. Having lived on the Chesapeake in Annapoplis and now here in the PNW, I feel qualified to say that this is a great use for those tubs of oysters. And I like to use about 75 percent oysters and 25 percent sausage (cooked to a level of doneness not otherwise imaginable before you put it in the stuffing). I once went to a Tday dinner put on by those docents at Mt Veron. Did you know that oyster stuffing was a GW (not the shrub) favorite? And I went into the kitchen and got into a really great discussion with those ladies about food. They said that if Geo Washington had had access to those oysters in the tubs, he'd of thought them brilliant. Save the fresh ones for half shell snacks and don't let those tubbed oysters go to waste. Put em in the bird.
I have used oyters in the tub for over 30 yrs. they work. If by some strange twist of fate you have leftover dressing. Add green onions corn, 1 egg.roll into balls and fry as you would fritters a great snack.