Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Pecan and Apricot Sourdough Bread Stuffing - All Stuffings are Dressings, but All Dressings aren't Stuffings

Sorry about that S.A.T. flashback. It's not easy to post dressing recipes this time of year, because of the annoying fact that they have two names - dressing and stuffing. They're the same recipe, except stuffing gets cooked in the turkey, and dressing bakes in a casserole dish separately.

I fear that if I call it a Pecan and Apricot Stuffing, then someone searching for a delicious dressing recipe won't find it, and visa versa. I tend to go with stuffing since dressing is also something we put on salads, and that adds another level of confusion. Thus concludes my stuffing and/or dressing rant.
By the way, I'm going to repost this video recipe in July and remind you that dressing/stuffing is a great and easy side dish, and there is no reason to only eat it at holiday meals. Think of all the stale bread that goes in the trash in an average year. I estimate it to be about 570 pounds per person (this is just a guess and could be a little off). Enjoy…and not just at Thanksgiving!




Ingredients:
1 loaf (1 pound) sourdough bread
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter
1 cup diced onions
1 cup diced celery
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon herb de provence (or other dry herb blend)
4 oz dried apricots, diced
1 cup toasted pecan halves, chopped
1 egg, beaten
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

36 comments:

Connie T. said...

You are so entertaining. Look at the nooks and crannies. I just used stovetop dressing. It costs 98 cents. I am sure your is 100 times better but I am cheap.

Anonymous said...

Hey Chef, you said "distribute throughout the dressing." Distribute? It's "distribute", not "distribute".
Oh Chef, you always screw that up...

Scott - Boston

Jokes And Clips said...

awesome! can't wait to try this.

Anonymous said...

Ah, the park. It would seem I get much of my very limited culinary skills from the park. That's as scary as it sounds.

Anonymous said...

herd du provance...?

italian? lol

Chef John said...

either, or HdP or an italian herb mix

Emily said...

My family and I tried this and it was very good! Next time though I need to cook it a little more. I loved the apricots with the stuffing. It adds something more to it. We had some left over ham and had it with that and it goes great with it!

Markus said...

Hey Chef John

You blog is great. I have visited here many times but this is my first post

I have tried your recipes and I really like your nice tips. In my family the baked chicken parmesan with the garlic croutons and this dressing were huge hits.

My family almost ignored the turkey for the dressing. The flavour of the aopricots were perfect companion to the herbs and the cruchiness of the pecans. Just excellent

Hey if you wonder my "early turkey" I'm from Finland and we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here but I love turkey with dressing and make it at least once a year.

Ps. Sorry for the possible grammar mistakes.

Anonymous said...

Hi Chef!
Can I prepare and mix all the ingredients for the dressing and refrigerate it the day before I bake it?...or would it get soggy? Thanks!

Chef John said...

Yes, this is no problem!

Chef Basket said...

Thanks for this stuffing recipe. I think it could be a great addition to the Thanksgiving meal.

Anonymous said...

Hey there Chef,
You are my life saver! Just love everything you cook! Question about the Butter in this recipe. Salted or unsalted?

Thanks and happy Gobble Gobble,
Nini

Chef John said...

i only use unsalted butter! :-)

Anonymous said...

Aloha Chef John!

This year I will be hosting Thanksgiving (first time ever cooking thanksgiving and 8 1/2 months pregnant) for 6 people including myself, Should I double the amount or keep it how you showed?

I really enjoy your site and have made many of your recipes and told many people of them :) Anyways any help would be lovely!

Mahalo

Chef John said...

Hard to say. Maybe just be enough, but better safe than sorry.

Anonymous said...

Why no sausage?

I'm going to try the apricots, that should be really interesting. We've made stuffing with apples before, and raisins before, and cranberries.
And we use either pecans or walnuts.

Never made holiday stuffing without sausage before, though. And I don't think I could bring myself to follow through with omitting sausage even if I tried. :)

Love your videos and

Happy Thanksgiving.

littleburnsy said...

Dear Chef,
My husband hates sage, can I omit the sage and it be ok, or is there another spice I can replace it with? I'm making it either way, sounds great. Thanks

littleburnsy said...

Dear Chef,
My husband hates sage, can I omit it, or do you have a suggestion on another spice, he hates cloves too. I'm making either way, sounds wonderful. Thanks

Chef John said...

Of course you can omit it! Use what he likes.

silksmoke said...

Can't wait to try this wonderful recipe .... it's going on my Thanksgiving menu this year. I'm new to this website, but it's in my favorites now. Thanks so much!

Jeanni said...

Chef, I LOVE your videos almost as much as I love your recipes! I'm doing the turkey this year and it'll be my first. Also going to make this stuffing/dressing...whatever you want to call it.
But I'm not much for pecans. Think I'll try this with almonds or will that totally screw this up?

Chef John said...

If you like almonds you'll like them in this. :) thanks!

Diana said...

Hola Chef John!

I was wondering if using a sweet turkey sausage in this recipe would work? I've made stuffing/dressing in the past with sausage and I love it. This recipe sounds absolutely delish but I don't want to mess with the flavors if adding sausage might do that and possibly make it not as tasty. What do you suggest?

Thanks!

Chef John said...

if you like it, it will work!! :-) Go for it!

Anonymous said...

Chef John, you are the best!!! I love foodwishes.com!!! LOVE IT!

Bil H. said...

awesome looking recipe, i'm making my first turkey dinner for christmas and i needed a stuffing recipe that would at least replace my mom's all world recipe.

my family has a nut allergy and i don't want to completely omit the textural component the nuts bring to the dish. any suggested alternatives?

Anonymous said...

This recipe looks awesome! I really need to cook it in my crock pot to free up my oven. How do you think is the best way to accomplish that? Thanks!

Chef John said...

Never tried! I guess just on high.

Dan and Hilary said...

Chef John you have done it again. I didn't have pecans or apricots, so I did this with almonds and dried cranberries and it totally worked. Just a weekday side with a pork tenderloin dinner, might step this recipe up to the thansgiving table this year.

Cheers!

Ed the house chef said...

Chef,

You say all stuffings are dressings but not vice versa, so can I take this recipe and stuff it in a turkey? BTW, I'm using your Turkey part 1 and 2 recipe again but am going to stuff the bird and would like to use this stuffing to stuff it.

Catastrophe Waitress said...

I made this the other day with gluten free bread and it was great! I think the real key is spreading it thin in the dish. The butter didn't hurt either. Thank you Chef John!

Aidann said...

I'm going to use this stuffing in a rolled pork roast for the holidays. Sounds really great!

Gary J Moss said...

Chef John,
Have you ever thought of using friselles instead of stale bread to make dressing? Here in New Haven, there are local bakeries that make them. They are nicely peppery and very crispy. But I'm not sure if they won't become too soggy in liquid.
Gary

mysweetharmony said...

After buying the ingredients to make this apricot pecan dressing/stuffing I realized it cost me $16.00 to make this. Dried apricots in Michigan are $8.99, sour dough bread loaf $3.99, pecans $2.99. But then I made the dressing/stuffing today and it was freaking awesome! By far the best turkey dressing I've ever had on Thanksgiving. Who cares how much it costs, it's only once a year and you will LOVE this stuffing/dressing! Trust me, this is so worth it. Really amazing and delicious. A big thank you to chef John!

Gary J Moss said...

I didn't try to use friselles for stuffing. I followed your recommendation to get very good rustic bread and tear it up, piece by piece. Turned out great!

Unknown said...

Could just be my web browser but every time I try to load this recipe the embedded video link is not there. Can't wait for thanksgiving to make this again!