Crock Pot Stuffing

I think around here, people call this “stuffing.” That’s what I’ve called it my whole life….of course, I’ve always called it “pop” instead of “soda” too and I’ve been told that’s a Yankee thing. You can be certain that NO ONE will ever mistake me for a Yankee. *All the Yankees out there are nodding their heads* In other places, this might be referred to as “dressing.” But that seems odd to me, because dressing is what you put on your salad. I most certainly do not want a big side of salad dressing with my Thanksgiving turkey. Give me a big ole plate of this and I’m tickled pink. Actually, stuffing is my favorite Thanksgiving dish. I created this recipe to be cooked in the crock pot so that it would save some oven space on the big day. It’s not your traditional stuffing – meaning, if you were wanting Stove Top, this would not fit the bill. This is more of an old fashioned stuffing – nice and moist and all stuck together – not individual pieces of cubed bread. And man oh man, is it AWESOME! (PS – Sorry for the weird colored photo. I hate using my flash, so you might see a lot of yellow photos this winter.)

Normally when we want to eat a piece of cornbread, I make Pioneer Woman’s (see my tutorial). But since this was going to be crumbled up, I couldn’t bear to do that to Ree’s cornbread…..so, I used my other stand-by recipe from my Aunt Betty. I’ll put that at the bottom for you. It’s in my favorite cookbook of all time – from my Mamaw. When I don’t know what else to make, I grab that cookbook. It’s magical.

You’re going to need to season this puppy up. No one likes bland dressing. It makes babies cry and adults run from the table. Bad things. I used poultry seasoning, salt, black pepper, sage, and celery salt. These are all spices you can find easily at an Amish bulk food store – and you should be buying your spices there anyway because they are cheaper – and that’s my job…..to tell you were it’s cheap.

I started out in my ugly brown mixing bowl, but then I quickly realized I wouldn’t have much room to stir……and I’m a messy stirrer. Crumble up your whole pan of cornbread. It’s actually pretty fun – I was glad Annie was busy. I didn’t want her to see Mama “playing with her food.” Along with that, you need to cube 5 pieces of day old bread – mine was more like a week old….I think “day old” just means don’t use fresh bread. Yeah, let’s go with that. I used some of my loaf of Honey Oat Bread.

Here comes the fun part! We get to mix in some fun stuff….and make a gigantic mess (I do realize that it is most likely only me making the big mess). Add 4 beaten eggs, ½ cup chopped onion, the equivalent of two cans of cream of chicken (try the homemade version), 3 cups of chicken broth, and all your seasonings. Give it a good stir. Yes, I know it looks really wet….but no one wants dry stuffing. Crying children, remember?

Please, please, please grease your crock pot. This is going to be really hard to get off – I know……I greased mine and it still was difficult to clean. This might be a good time to purchase a crock pot liner. I’m not normally one to purchase throw-away things – but it really would make this particular dish easier. Pour your bread mixture into the crock pot. I know, it looks really wet. I was super nervous…..I thought I had added too much liquid. BUT, I was wrong…..it happens on a regular basis.

Cover and cook on High. The exact timing will depend on the size of crock pot you use. You want it to be at least 160 in the middle of the stuffing. I cooked mine for 2 ½ hours and I used a 5 quart crock.

After two hours, begin checking with your thermometer. I wanted mine hotter than 160. After 2 ½ hours, mine was at 180 degrees. Perfect!

Yum! Moist and delicious! This was so good we didn’t need a bit of gravy to go with it. Most of the time people need to load up on gravy because the stuffing is so dry it would choke a horse. We didn’t need gravy, but we did need…….

BUTTER! Woohoo baby! Everything is better with butter. I sliced up three tablespoons of butter and laid it on top of the stuffing.Then I put the lid back on and let it melt – I had the crock pot off. The butter was a great addition. You could barely taste it but the flavor was really nice. This is definitely going into my regular holiday rotation. Enjoy!Crock on!