recipes:
The Basics
The Basics: How to Make Apple and Sage Stuffing
Fresh flavors, no box for Thanksgiving
From the store to the kitchen to the table: We outline the steps that get you from raw ingredients to your dinner tonight, free of measurements and complicated techniques. It’s a method you’ll remember and whip out whenever you like. It is the most basic way to make the thing you’re making.
- WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- - a three-quart baking dish
- - a large heatproof bowl
- - a large saucepan
- - half a stick of butter, plus more to coat the baking dish
- - a one-pound loaf of day-old bread
- - two onions
- - two apples
- - three celery stalks
- - fresh sage leaves
- - fresh thyme
- - chicken stock or broth
- - salt and pepper
WHAT YOU’LL DO:
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1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (it will take at least 20 minutes to warm up) and coat the baking dish with butter.
2. Slice the crust off the bread, cut the loaf into bite-sized cubes, and place the cubes in the bowl. Chop the onions, apples, and celery stalks into medium-size pieces. Chop a generous handful of sage and the leaves from about eight sprigs of thyme.
3. Melt the half stick of butter in the saucepan over medium-high heat until foaming. Add the onions and cook until they’re just starting to brown. Add the apples, celery, and herbs and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender and easily pierced with a knife.
4. Add about a cup of stock or broth and bring the mixture to a simmer.
5. Turn the heat off and add the vegetable-apple mixture to the bread cubes. Season with two or three generous pinches of salt and a generous pinch of pepper, and mix well.
6. Dump the bread mixture into the baking dish and bake until the top of the stuffing just starts to brown, about 30 to 40 minutes. See more Thanksgiving Basics.
Illustrations by Bill Russell
This is extremely similar to my stuffing recipe (exact same ingredients, except this one has broth), which has been an absolute favourite in my family for about 15 years now. Every Thanksgiving or Christmas, no matter how much I increase the recipe, it is the one dish that is guaranteed not to make it to the end of the night for leftovers. My only criticism of this recipe is that the amount of butter seems very low to me; I would probably put at least a whole stick of butter and more likely two.
adding toasted walnuts and craisins is the way I make it! (I like mine with as much veggies & fruit as bread!!)
@Vorpal 2-sticks?!?!?! no thanks! (unless you're my grandma who eats a slab of butter on each bite of anything)