oven baked dressing recipe?

I'm catering the family Thanksgiving in about two weeks.. ack!.. and I am doing everything ahead at my house and transporting it to my 81 year old mother in law's house and I am in search of a good, tried and true oven baked dressing (stuffing) recipe that I can serve with the turkey.

Do any of you have a good recipe that you'd be willing to share? Also any tips on doing this would be much appreciated too. I make what is basically a savoury bread pudding for my own oven baked dressing but I am cooking for a bunch of fusspots who are pretty "new" when it comes to food so I know they will look at what I normally make and say.. wtf is THAT?... and pass it by. (the only stuffing/dressing they know comes from a box!)

Thanks in advance!!

Stuffing IS a savory bread pudding, though usually drier/less liquid.

There's a lot of worthwhile versions out there. I pretty much make mine by eye so I can't really give you a recipe for it.

I start mine with fresh turkey necks/wings and make stock.

Reduce the stock until it is intensely flavored.

While that is reducing pull the meat from the necks/wings and chop it.

Take dry bread cubes (I buy from a local bakery) and break them down into fine and coarse crumbs.

Add a small chopped onion, a rib of celery chopped, the chopped meat, poultry seasoning to taste(I take a small bit of the stuffing once it is mixed ad microwave it), a beaten egg per bag of bread cubes(rough guess is 8 cups of bread cubes), sage to taste (go easy, sage can be overpowering), and black pepper.

Slowly add the turkey stock and mix it in.

You want the mixture to just start to hold together when squeezed in a hand. Basically add until the bread mix has no dry crumbs left. You can add a bit of stock as it cooks if it looks to dry. Bake at 350 until the center reaches 165 degrees f.

Sorry I can't give exact measurements but I make it by look/feel/flavor and never measure :lol:

Thanks, Mary and phatch! I just have to make the dressing/stuffing a little on the drier side and that can easily be done on rewarming I am sure.

I agree with Mary B here - homemade turkey stock makes a BIG difference in outside the bird stuffing. Roasting the necks, wings, legs or whatever parts you use before making the stock can add a nice touch.

And I like to make generous use of mushrooms in my stuffing, usually browned first.

mjb.

This is the stuffing I've used for years. It transports well and is very popular. The only thing that's kind of tricky is getting the right amount of poutry seasoning as this is very much about personal taste. For my family I use 3 teaspoons but the original recipe called for 2 so I'd say to start with 2 then taste the mix before you add the raw eggs. If it's not strong enough, mix the last teaspoon of poultry seasoning into the egg before you pour it over the bread. Good luck!

1 cup butter
2 cups diced celery
1 1/2 cups diced onion
1/4 cup parsley finely chopped
2 teaspoons salt
2 - 3 teaspoons poultry seasoning (I use Bell's)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

16 cups (about 1 large loaf) fresh bread cubes, lightly packed
3 eggs beaten

Put the bread cubes in a really large bowl and set aside.

Melt the butter, add the onions and celery and saute until soft. Add salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning and mix well. Pour over the bread cubes and stir to mix. Let cool for about 5 minutes and add the eggs. Mix well (you have to do this with your hands) and either stuff your bird or place in a greased baking dish. Cover and bake for 30 - 35minutes in a 350 degree oven. I always take the cover off for the last 10 minutes because my family likes a bit of a crust on top, but this is not required.

Leeniek, if you need the dressing dry, as you say, you might try making it in muffin tins. This not only provides dryer, individual sized servings, it gives plenty of crust---the part everyone likes.

Almost any dressing recipe will work that way.

Start saving all the ends of bread, crackers, dinner rolls and any other old bread product you have around now, dry it out and then you wont have to buy bread cubes or stuffing mix for the holiday season. Also by baking in the muffin pans like stated above also helps you with How much do I have to make? If you have 12 people. you need at least 12 stuffing muffins.:chef:

One muffin per person? That wouldn't cut it in my family :lol: they eat more stuffing than turkey!

I don't eat potatoes (hate the texture of them!) so I usually take extra stuffing instead so that would be two muffins for me! I'll likely make extra anyway... most of them go back for seconds and some do thirds so it will go. (and if not, I'll bring it back home and eat it myself!)