A stuffing recipe in February? WHY????? #laziness Yeah, that’s pretty much the only reason. Although, a good stuffing recipe is always useful! Use it with my 45 minute green onion roast chicken and you’ll have a surprisingly posh dinner on your hands. To celebrate the end of February. Or something. So grab that stale bread and get ready to truss that poultry — we’re making my apple stuffing.
The most basic form of stuffing is bread crumbs cooked with some butter. Which is basically like putting toast inside your poultry, thus making it a type of deconstructed inside-out poultry sandwich (which is chef-speak for “Crap, this whole thing turned out funky — better call it deconstructed. And inside out. Just in case”). And, of course, it tastes good! But something I learned from Mark Bittman’s Arroz con Pollo recipe is that good additions elevate a good dish to a fantastic dish. So let’s talk additions to our basic stuffing.
Sure, we’ve got the usual standbys of onions, bacon, some chicken stock and depressed bears (depressed bears are standard, right?). But there’s one really standout addition here. Apples. Their mild sweetness saves the stuffing from being too much of a savory black hole. Their slight crunch (very slight after cooking) gives a nice textural element. And if you do the smart thing and add some grapes, too, then the whole thing just turns into a winter-time mouth funsplosion.
That combination of tastes is actually one of the biggest secrets to making anything taste truly fantastic. Music is an apt analogy for this phenomenon. A single instrument can perform a devastatingly beautiful solo. But at the end of the day, you’re still hearing the timbre and texture of just a single instrument. It’s the creation of a chamber or even full-fledged orchestra that enhances the beauty of a piece of music.
Same thing with food. When all you taste is bread, it’s really good! But bread with marmalade, or a sandwich can take an already fantastic slice of bread and make it something heavenly.
Speaking of music, I’m on the prowl for some Irish music to get my brain going on Irish recipes for March, which is, as EVERYONE knows, Irish-American month! So, if you’ve got any good suggestions, save me from listening to the Corrs on repeat and share!
- ½ pounds butter (you can use less, but I don't recommend it)
- 2 cups diced onions
- 10 cups bread crumbs (fresh, when possible)
- 1 cup chopped parsley
- 4 cups apples, sliced or diced, according to your preferences
- Melt butter and sweat the onions (cook them very gently, but not so long that they caramelize. They should just begin to soften up)
- Add your fruit and cook for about 10 minutes or so on medium heat, adjusting as necessary to avoid burning the ingredients
- Toss in bread crumbs and stir gently until the butter has been absorbed by the bread
- Add parsley
- Serve or stuff
- Enjoy!
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