Monday, February 27, 2012

Grandpa Sonny's Bread Stuffing

1/2 cup butter
2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups sliced celery
1 cup butter
32 slices toasted bread, cubed
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp McCormick poultry seasoning
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
1 egg
1/2 pound chicken livers
Broth from gizzards and livers and enough chicken broth to make 2 cups

 

Cook neck, livers and gizzards in medium saucepan. Add water, some chopped onion and celery leaves and bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 hours replacing water as it cooks off. Drain off broth and reserve to cool in fridge. After it cools skim off some of the fat. Refrigerate cooked livers and gizzards.


Toast the bread. I use the broiler of the oven and toast both sides. Tear into pieces and put in large bowl or roasting pan. Let cool and leave uncovered til needed.


Melt 1/2 cup butter in large skillet and sauté onion and celery on med-low heat until tender about 45 minutes. Add 1 cup of butter and allow to melt. Remove from heat and stir in salt, poultry seasoning and stir well. Let cool at room temperature.


Remove meat from neck bone. Place neck meat, gizzards, and almost all the livers in a blender along with the egg and 1/2 cup broth. Process until relatively smooth. Pull out any gristly chunks leftover by the gizzards and toss out. Dice remaining liver.


On the top of the bread pour blender contents, butter and veggies from the skillet and the parsley. Using your hands bring up bread from the bottom to the top to mix thoroughly. Add remaining broth and keep mixing until the bread is no longer hard and it is mixed well. Stuff neck and body cavities and add any leftovers to a bread loaf pan. You can bake this when the turkey is down to 1 hour of cooking time.


Grandpa Sonny was a meat cutter by trade (Chicago Stock Yard) and had access to the best cuts of meat and top of the line seasonings. I recommend using McCormick Poultry Seasoning because the dressing tastes just like Grandpa used to make.