Stuffing

16 cups
3 cups
4 cups
1½ sticks
½ head
1 cup
1 t
1 t
2 t
1 T
2 T
1 T

bread cubes from 2 loaves of hearty white sandwich bread
celery
onion
butter
roasted garlic
flat leaf parsley
dried oregano
dried basil
black pepper
fresh thyme (1 t dried)
fresh sage (2 t dried)
fresh rosemary (1 t dried)

• Roast garlic in oven or quick roast in oil

• Chop bread into ½" cubes, spread out on sheet pans and dry in the oven at 225 for 20 to 40 minutes.  The cubes should be dry and crumbly.
• Chop onion and celery fairly fine and fry with the butter on low heat until soft. Add all but bread cubes and mix to distribute spices. Fold in bread cubes.
• To stuff the turkey, insert a single or double layer of cheesecloth into the main cavity and gently fill it with stuffing.  Don't press it in too much.  Repeat with the smaller side (you can skip cheesecloth on the smaller side if you want).  The cheesecloth will make it quick and easy to remove the cooked stuffing.  You probably won't get more than 1/3 of this recipe in a large turkey.
• When the turkey comes out of the oven remove the stuffing and mix with the uncooked left over stuffing. Squeeze all the juices from the empty cheesecloth into the stuffing. Transfer everything to a ungreased 9"x13" baking pan, and bake the mixture at 400 for about 20 minutes.  Internal temp of the stuffing needs to get to at least 165 degrees to be safe to eat.  I tend to bake this uncovered because I like the dry crispy parts that form on the top.  Cover it if you like a soft moist stuffing.
• Yield: 14
• Source: Dad
• Calories:  2520/recipe and 180/serving when cooked outside the bird.
• Advanced Prep:  Mix/cook everything but don't mix in the bread cubes.  When ready to stuff the turkey, reheat the wet mix and mix everything together.
• Notes: I make one batch of this for Thanksgiving with 10 to 12 adults.  With large multi day events you may need to make a second batch later. The nice thing about this method is that the whole large batch of stuffing gets turkey juices. Also, it recognizes that the turkey meat hits 165 before the stuffing does and re-baking the bird stuffing to at least 165 makes it safe to eat. You can speed things up a bit by having the non-bird stuffing on the counter for an hour before the turkey comes out. You can also toss the raw stuffing in the oven right away when the bird comes out so that it starts heating up while you mess with getting the cooked stuffing out of the turkey. Then pull the oven stuffing out, mix in a large bowl, and return to the oven until the mixture is 165.
  
  

Category:  Thanksgiving, American                                                                                                                     Modified 1/19/21