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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Make Cranberry, Sage and Chestnut Stuffing using whatever bread you have on hand, such as challah, hamburger buns, or hot dog buns, cut into one-inch cubes. The stuffing combines sautéed celery and onion with dried cranberries, chestnuts, dried sage, and dried parsley, moistened with chicken stock and baked until crusty on top. The host notes it works well for Thanksgiving or Sukkot, though she says she would happily eat it any time of year.
Key Points
- The bread is flexible: the host uses stale, day-old, or freezer bread, and crusts can stay on.
- Dried sage and dried parsley are used in this recipe; the host jokes about being asked whether to use fresh or dried.
- The stuffing is baked covered first, then uncovered to brown and crisp the top.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Cut about 8 cups of bread into roughly one-inch cubes; leave the crusts on.
- Heat a little more than a tablespoon of extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil in a hot pan.
- Add four or five stalks of chopped celery and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes with the onions.
- Add the dried cranberries for about 2 minutes, then add the chestnuts, dried sage, and dried parsley and warm for about 2 minutes.
- Add about 2 cups of chicken stock, salt, and black pepper, then add the bread and mix with your hands.
- Cover and bake at 400°F for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake 10 more minutes until brown and crunchy.
- The host asks if they are at eight cups of bread, after starting with one cup, but does not specify an exact final total.
- The host says the recipe is intentionally flexible; she likens it to a bread pudding or kugel.
Bottom Line
This is an adaptable, cozy stuffing that uses up leftover bread and gains texture and sweetness from cranberries and chestnuts, and it can be made any time of year.
