It’s cool that you can now deep-fry a turkey, but you can’t deep-fry stuffing. So, my question is, “What’s a good way to make out-of-bird stuffing?”
And, yes, we bought a range-free organic-fed turkey, and not one of those antibiotic infested birds that is too fat to reproduce naturally.
I have never made stuffing in the bird. Too unsafe.
Mix up the stuffing. I use a mix of bread, onion, sage, sometimes turkey sausage, and whole cranberries. You can add celery if you wish. Of course eggs as a binder. Place it in oven pans and bake for about an hour covered. Makes very nice stuffing, and there are no safety issues like there sometimes are with in-bird.
I must be the only person in the western hemisphere that doesn’t like stuffing.
I don’t like stuffing that sucks. I do like stuffing that doesn’t suck.
Key question on the stuffing – crunchy on top or soft?
Are you saying you bought an organic bird for big bucks and now you’re gonna deep fry it? Wow — seems kinda like buying $100 tequila to use for baked alaska.
Actually, I have a lot of thanksgivings to go to (one already down). No, I’m not deep frying our bird but that’s because I don’t have a deep-fryer. The taste of the deep-fried bird is just as good and a lot of people like the skin better.
If it’s a big bird requiring a long fry time, won’t the skin be too well done to eat? The skin on large ones I’ve seen fried are pretty toasted. Or maybe they just didn’t know what the hell they were doing??
I guess it’s buzzkill to think about cost when it comes to holiday excess, but I’ve never understood the economics of turkey deepfry. It has to take at least 2 gallons of decent oil, which would cost as much as an organic turkey. Do you save the deteriorated oil to use later for tatertots and twinkies, or just toss it? I guess you could try running your diesel engine with it.
The cost of the oil probably seems cheap after the cost of the FR OG bird.
Just sayin’. 🙂
for dinner, but the clamor for TURKEY has lead my brother in law & my nephew to commit to frying up FOUR turkeys, for various family units that are coming.
So, reusing that oil seems “green” hah!
You can filter it and re-use it. It’s pretty easy (unless you don’t have anyone to lend an extra hand or two). But yeah, it can be a big cost up front, especially if you buy good oil.
LOL, I think the health benefits of buying an organic turkey would be instantly eradicated by eating deep-fried skin. But maybe that’s just me….
Aha! The southernization of Second Nature is still not complete yet…
Nevah….
Well, you know, last week you were saying some stuff that had me concerned that you might be getting assimilated by the southern borg…glad that’s not the case. 🙂
Are all the kids in town and coming to your place for the holiday?
As far as the climate goes, I guess I’m getting southernized, but that’s the only thing I’ll admit to. 🙂
Yep, just me and all the kiddoes.
Amen to that, Dave! I think deep fried turkey is waaaay overrated. Nothing can compare to a properly prepared and seasoned turkey, roasted in the oven.
It is magnifico!
Smoked turkey is better by far, IMHO!
Give us a break!
“yes, we bought a range-free organic-fed turkey.” Really?
Did the turkey die an organic, i.e., a natural death? Those turkeys Sarah Palin was pumping up in Alaska, I suspect, were also organic turkeys, even the one whose head we saw pushed into the rotating blades of death. Maybe Sarah will give you a stuffing recipe for murdered turkey or maybe for wolf stew. Write.
Let the meat-veg fight begin!
I must have missed them. But yes, let the fight begin. I’m really for humane treatment of animals that we eat as well as animals in general. So the fight is really about humanism toward living things or cruelty.
Amen. Watch the Palin clip and eat your turkey if you can. If it doesn’t bother you, I can’t make it bother you. It either does or it doesn’t.
hey, I’d eat Palin’s turkey, or her mooseburgers for that matter.
Traitor!
For some reason this gives me a very disturbing visualization.
Please make it go away.
I’m trying, I’m trying. Have to get back to you. Self hypnosis doesn’t project very well. I’m thinking carrots. Get into them.
BooMan nibbling on Palin’s giblets or savoring her mooseburgers is just too much for my brain to take.
Ok, you’re grossing me out here.
I’m guessing it was nibbling on her giblets that did it…
I think it’s time to put this thread to bed and move on to the cranberry one.
We would be much better served to forget what we’ve seen on this one.
Ahem?
Eww.
Dirty, dirty minds.
…the best kind
Mmm.. Murdered Turkey… Glllhhhhhhhhrghhhh…
That’s just an appetizer for the scrumptous Wolf Stew.
This is the first time I’ve been moved to make an account so I can comment. And it’s because of stuffing. Oh well.
Easy recipes for two of my favs- Apple and Sausage Stuffing and Oyster Dressing.
Those look good.
This one is my favorite, though.
LOL! I remember that recipe. In fact, thanks to you, I made it last year and it was excellent! I made it out of the bird, but used the bird juices to keep it moist. Two thumbs up.
I make it out of the bird too. I can hardly wait till Friday (we’re going elsewhere on Thursday) to make it.
My sister was telling me about idea she saw on one of the cooking shows for stuffing. Making individual portions by using muffin pan and putting stuffing in each muffin space. Sounded like an interesting idea.
Thanks for the recipes!
welcome, paddy. That oyster recipe looks good.
Grassy ass BooMan. I have
stolenerm, borrowed from you regularly though. (with attribution natch)* 30 slices bread, lightly toasted – let sit overnight to get hard
* 2-8 tablespoons butter – depends on how yummy you think butter is
* 1 large onion, finely chopped
* 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
* 2 eggs, lightly beaten
* 2 cups chicken broth
* 2 teaspoons rubbed sage
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* salt and pepper to taste
Optional: 1 cup cranberries, chopped pecans, mushrooms
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F . Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking dish.
2. Crumble the bread. Place the crumbs in a large bowl.
3. Melt the butter. Stir in the onion and celery and slowly cook until soft. Remove from heat
4. Mix the eggs and chicken broth into the bread crumbs. The mixture should be moist, but not mushy. Use water, if necessary, to attain desired consistency. Mix in the onion, celery, rubbed sage, garlic powder, salt and pepper, optional ingredients
5. Press the mixture into the baking dish. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until the top is brown and crisp.
I haven’t seen one mention of raisins yet in stuffing. If it doesn’t have raisins in it it isn’t stuffing to me. My grandparents were Polish and Bohemian so I’m guessing that is where the raisins in stuffing comes from. If oven baking turkey be sure and put some of juice from turkey into the baked stuffing.
Raisins are yummy too
I think so but a lot of people look at me like I’m crazy when I mention raisins…
for a few years now at work and at home.
You just have to use some cornbread based stuffing mix and some extra eggs to make it hold together better. We deep fry the dressing (mold it into balls about 2x the size of hush puppies) in the oil after the turkey so we get the seasonings from the oil.
It’s a serious hit here at work. More popular than the turkey itself with some people.
That’s really an interesting idea. I’m going to save back a little of the traditional stuffing and try a small batch. It sounds like something the kids would like, too. Anything that’s crunchy is an easier sell to a 10 year old.
hush turkeys
Much better than “turkey puppies”. Deep frying puppies sounds so Sarah Palinish.
we first did it at work when we figured it would be a waste to boil 5 gallons of peanut oil just for a turkey. Being ever vigilant about re-using things, we had to deep fry something else and someone jokingly mentioned stuffing, and everyone just kind of froze and went “cool!”
Can’t share my proprietary stuffing recipe, but any reasonably moist recipe should work well.
You get a nice crisp crust and the inside is warm and moist as ever.
We inject the turkeys with some cajun seasonings and oils, and I think that the seasonings leach into the oil and make it that much better for the dressing balls.
We’re not planning on frying a turkey, but I’ll certainly try it on the side. I’ve got a ton of good dressing concoctions, so that shouldn’t be a problem. It sounds like it would be a really tasty little side dish.
Does a turkey deep fryer come with its own defibrillator?
I always use the crockpot to cook the stuffing. It does a great job, keeps it moist, and saves oven space for other stuff.
I’m a veg, so I make it with vegetable stock, and it tastes great. (If I do say so myself.
Really? How is the texture when you do it in the crockpot? Is it wet, or crunchy?
Wet.
One reason I like doing it there.
Thanks for that suggestion Siusaidh. Sounds like a good idea, saves oven space as you said and with it in the crockpot you can put it in there and let it cook itself. One less thing to worry about while trying to get dinner on the table and all done at one time.
I’m a stuffing snob and here’s the secret recipe:
Pepperidge Farm brand cubed stuffing (they cook the herbs inside the bread.) Excellent stuff. Mrs. Cubbison’s is a close second.
Make the stuffing according to directions, using the celery and onions (chopped fine) option (and don’t fear using more celery and/or onions than they specify. And make sure to use chicken broth (and use a little extra) instead of water and real salted butter. If you like cranberry, throw in some dried, sweetened cranberries into the broth/vegetable/butter mixture while cooking in the pot.
Wild Rice Option (HIGHLY Recommended!): The night before, steep wild rice in a bowl with boiling water on top. Three or four times, draining the water off each time once it turns warm should do. The rice grains expand and puff out like little flowers or popcorn. Set this aside and mix into the finished stuffing before putting into the oven.
Put into a covered casserole dish and bake at 325 for about 1/2 hour.
Delicious stuff.
Why is it cool to take a healthy low-fat, low cholestrol protein source and submerge it in oil? Yuck! Might as well eat lard.
Lard’s great. Whenever I have a lean piece of meat, I usually lard it prior to deep frying.
Seriously! That makes exactly the same sense as deep fried turkey. Might as well just inject the fat intravenously.