Savory Cornbread Stuffing

• 3 boxes of Jiffy Corn Muffin mix, and the ingredients that are required to make it (I think 1 egg and 1/3 cup milk for each)
• About 40oz (5 cups) of chicken stock (preferably unsalted). I use Kitchen Basics unsalted chicken stock because I like to control how much salt is in my stuff.
• 5 links of Italian Sausage (since we have kids, I use mild sausage, but you could use spicy if you want a little more punch to it)
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 3 large stocks of celery
• 2 smallish-medium red bell peppers
• 3/4 cup Italian-seasoned bread crumbs
• 1-2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 6 leaves fresh sage
• 2 sprigs fresh oregano
• 10 or so leaves of parsley (I used flat leaf)
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 1 pinch cinnamon

salt and pepper to taste

1. With this stuffing, make the cornbread the morning of the day before you’ll eat it, then go about your day and come back that night to finish putting everything together (except the stock – we wait to add that just before baking). Putting it all together the night before keeps dishes and anxiety to a minimum the day of, and you only need to toss it in the oven for an hour or so before dinner.
2. First thing to prep is the cornbread. Make each pack of cornbread, following the directions on the box. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool, uncovered. I make the cornbread the morning of the day before because it needs time to sit and kinda dry out. Once it has cooled, cut it out of the pan – doesn’t need to be pretty, since we’ll be breaking it all up anyway – and put it in a big bowl. Just loosely lay a sheet of plastic wrap over top and set the bowl on your counter. Don’t make it airtight, and don’t put it in the fridge. The plastic wrap just keeps bugs and stuff out of it, in case you have those flying around your house like the rest of the world.
3. After the cornbread has hung out on your counter in a bowl all day, then you finish the rest of your prep. I start by grilling the Italian sausage; dicing my onions, red peppers and celery; and chopping the herbs. For the thyme, pull the leaves from the stem. Chop up the sage and then rub it all in your hands a bit. Remove the rosemary leaves from the stems and chop those, and do the same with the oregano and parsley.
4. Preheat a sauté pan on the stove top on medium-low heat. If you used a grill pan for your sausage like I did, then you can just pour a bit of the leftover grease into your sauté pan and then add the vegetables (celery, peppers, onions). If not, just add a tablespoon or so of extra virgin olive oil (yes, extra virgin. since we’re sweating the vegetables on a fairly low heat, it won’t burn). If you used olive oil instead of leftover sausage grease, add a couple pinches of salt to the vegetables and lightly sauté for maybe 5 minutes.
5. While the vegetables are sautéing, get your cornbread and crumble it all up in the bowl it’s been sitting in. A lot of cornbread stuffings use both cornbread and cubed white bread, and they have you try to keep the cornbread in chunks. I actually don’t prefer it this way. I crumble mine up almost entirely because it makes it more fluffy, almost like couscous. It also allows me to mix the rest of the flavors in more evenly. After crumbling, slice the sausages into pieces about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Just leave them on your cutting board, because any juices that come out of the sausage will be added back into the stuffing.
6. Once the vegetables have sautéed, add them directly to your cornbread, along with any oil left in the pan. Also add your sausage and any juices that accumulated on the cutting board, the herbs, bread crumbs, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper, and 1-2 more teaspoons of salt if using unsalted stock. Mix everything together (besides the stock!) well until ingredients are evenly distributed, put the stuffing into your baking dishes, cover and refrigerate until ready to cook.
7. 90 minutes before dinner, preheat your oven to 400. Add your chicken stock 1 cup at a time, tossing the stuffing around to make sure everything gets moisture. You may not need all of the stock, so just use some discretion. You don’t want the stuffing swimming in liquid, but everything should be kinda wet and there shouldn’t be liquid pooling in the bottom of the pan. Bake the stuffing at 400 for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 until done, about 45-50 more minutes.
8. Though some ingredients are fairly Italian, all the fresh herbs (especially the sage) round it out and create a dish that is very much Thanksgiving, while still being unique. It’s great by itself, topped with gravy, or even a little cranberry sauce (worry not, I’ll share my awesome recipes for both).
9. So give it a try, or make it your own! Is there something you’d add or take out? Feel free to let me know and I’ll be back tomorrow with my rocking’ green bean casserole, made with asparagus instead of green beans. Trust me, it’s awesome.