Simple Gluten Free Stuffing that won't make you sad

Thanksgiving stuffing is as important to our thanksgiving meal as any other dish. Nearly all recipes state that baking stuffing inside the bird exposes you to the possibility of Salmonella, so stuff the turkey at your own risk. whether you cook your stuffing inside or outside the bird, this thanksgiving Stuffing is a combined recipe from several generations. It is our absolute favorite Thanksgiving stuffing, and we hope it will be yours too.

Ingredients

1 12 ounce box of Trader Joe's Gluten free Savory Stuffing

1 pound ground sausage of your choice

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup celery

2-4 cloves of garlic, to taste, I like a lot

2 eggs, warmed to room temperature

1/2 cup of butter aka 1 stick, melted ( I use Smart Balance for health reasons)

2 cups of chicken, turkey or vegetable stock

Tools

9×13 baking pans (can be glass, metal or disposable)

One bowl large enough to hold all of the ingredients

A frying pan or saute pan large enough to cook the sausage and the celery and onions

Optional – food processor to give the sausage a finer grind

Optional – alligator chopper to quickly chop onions and celery

Sharp knife to chop sausage, garlic, onions and celery if not using the optional equipment

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.  Chop the celery and then the onions.  In a frying pan, sauté the garlic, onions and celery in one stick of butter and the olive oil.  Put in the mixing bowl to cool.  Fry up the sausage. drain and add to the mixing bowl to cool as well.  You can add a few tablespoons of the sausage drippings to the mixture for extra sausage flavor.

 Deglaze the pan with some chicken stock if you didn't use a non stick pan.  To deglaze, heat up the pan and add ½ to one cup of the chicken or turkey stock.  You don’t need to measure, just use enough to cover the bottom of the pan about a quarter of an inch deep.  Use a whisk to get any browned bits off the bottom of the pan.  You can add the deglazed mixture to the stuffing or it to make gravy later .  If you decide to make gravy, let the pan sit while you assemble the stuffing.

To assemble the stuffing, add the bag of stuffing to the onions, celery and sausage in the mixing bowl.  if you’ve refrigerated them overnight, you’ll want to warm them up a bit, which you can do at 30 second intervals in the microwave or by mixing in additional melted butter or warmed stock.  Once all the ingredients, except the eggs are in the bowl, mix well.  Add eggs and mix well again.  Keep adding melted butter and/or stock until the mixture has a bit of stock in the bottom of the bowl even after stirring. 

Bake covered with foil for 30-40 minutes.  Remove the foil and cook for 10-15 minutes to get to desired crispness.

Notes

Saute the onions and celery the night before and store in the refrigerator to save time on Thanksgiving Day.  Cook the sausage ahead to save time too.  That also makes cleanup easier on Thanksgiving Day.