It honestly isn’t a holiday at our house without this incredible holiday apple sausage stuffing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Thanksgiving or Christmas. If you’re planning to serve turkey – you’ve gotta try this!
The week before Thanksgiving my daughter always says, “You’re going to make your stuffing again this year… right Mom?” Well, I don’t know. Hmmm…of course;) My family knows this recipe is a little time consuming and holidays are always hectic, so they make sure to tell me how much they love it every year so I won’t leave it off the menu. (I think they love it so much one of them would probably learn to make it if I didn’t.)
This recipe is actually very simple. It’s honestly just making the corn bread the day before, (I use a “Honey Corn Bread” mix by Krusteaz so it’s super easy) and chopping up the breads and vegetables that takes a little extra time. The way the apples, sausage, herbs and butter flavor the breads in this recipe is nothing short of amazing! I hope you’ll give it a try and let me know what you think.
- 16 Tablespoons butter - (2 sticks)
- 2 Large Yellow Onions - peeled and diced small
- 2 Green Apples - cored and chopped into 1 inch cubes
- 2 Honey Crisp Apples - cored and chopped into 1 inch cubes
- 1 1lb of Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage
- 3 cups of wheat bread - cut into ½-1 inch cubes
- 3 cups of French bread - cut into ½-1 inch cubes
- 3 cups of Honey Corn Bread - cut into ½-1 inch cubes
- 2 teaspoons of Herbs de Provence
- 2 teaspoons dried rubbed sage
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 Cup of chicken broth
- ½ cup of chopped italian parsley for serving
- Make one box of Krusteze Honey Corn Bread the day before and let it cool.
- Cut up the corn bread, wheat bread and French bread the night before you plan to make the stuffing and leave it in a bowl uncovered. (You can also do this in the morning if you will be making it at night.)
- Chop up onions and apples as indicated above and put in separate bowls.
- Melt 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) of butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Add onions to skillet and stir. Put cover on and cook for 15-20 minutes. Stirring every few minutes. Do not brown onions, just cook them until they are translucent, and butter is absorbed. Transfer the onions back to their bowl.
- Melt the second 8 Tablespoons of butter into the same skillet. Place apples in skillet and cook for approximately 5 minutes. Do not over cook apples. They will become mushy. Transfer apples back to their bowl.
- Put the Jimmy Dean Sage sausage into skillet and cook over medium heat. Mashing and stirring with a potato masher makes it easy to cook the sausage into small crumbles - which is what you want. Once the sausage is cooked turn off the heat.
- Put the cooked onions and butter, the cooked apples and butter and the cooked sausage into a large serving dish that is oven safe. Toss them together until they are well combined.
- Now put the French bread cubes, the whole wheat bread cubes and the corn bread cubes into the large dish with the onions, apples and sausage. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, 2 teaspoons of dried rubbed sage and 2 teaspoons of herbs de provence.
- Combine all ingredients by tossing gently - you want some of the corn bread to stay in chunks. Don't worry if it starts to crumble. That's supposed to happen.
- Slowly drizzle 1 cup of chicken or turkey broth over the stuffing, making sure to get a little over all evenly. It should not be very wet. The broth will provide moisture so that when you put it in the oven it will steam just a bit.
- Cover with oven safe dish with all the stuffing with tin foil and place in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.