Minish Family Holiday Stuffing

Recipe by Linda A. Wingfield

Minish Family Holiday Stuffing

Linda A. Wingfield

I don't know where my mom got the recipe for this stuffing. Actually, I don't think there's ever been a definitive recipe written out for it before. I may have done one in the past, but I no longer have it. Mom never used one. She always just added any appropriate ingredients we had on hand, and the recipe changed over the years. It still does. In order to produce this recipe, I made a foil roasting pan full of the stuffing, the way I make it now. It's in the freezer (six days before Thanksgiving 2018), ready to pop into the oven when the turkey and ham are about halfway done.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 48 servings

Ingredients

  

Begin by chopping all of the following vegetables and setting them aside. The measurements are what you should end up with after the chopping is done. Chop finely, or leave somewhat chunky--whatever you and your family prefer. The only one I chop finely is the garlic.

• 2 cups Chopped Carrots
• 2 cups Chopped Celery
• 2 cups Chopped Onion (I usually use Vidalia onions.)
• 1 cup Chopped Bell Pepper (any color)
• 2 cups Chopped Water Chestnuts (I chopped up 2 cans of sliced water chestnuts.)
• 4 large cloves Fresh Garlic (finely-chopped, or minced)

Melt the butter (shown below), and sauté all of the chopped vegies (from above) and the other ingredients (shown below), in a very large saucepan or kettle. Cook only until the onions start to turn "clear." Be sure to stir most of the time, and don't let anything burn.

• 2 sticks Butter (or margarine...I would NOT use oil.)
• 2 tsp Salt (I use RealSalt, from Redmond Trading Company.)
• 1 tsp Ground Pepper
• 1 tblsp Poultry Seasoning
• 3 cups Sunflower Kernels (Unsalted) (If you use salted kernels, leave out the salt ingredient above.) (Or substitute Chopped Walnuts or Pecans, or...)

Once all of the sautéed mixture is ready, dump in the canned mushroom soup (shown below) and the water/chicken broth (shown below). Stir it well, and let cook for another very short time, just to make sure it's completely incorporated.

• 3 cans Mushroom Soup (Any brand...don't use low-fat, healthy choice, etc., unless you really must.)
• 4 cups Water or Chicken Broth (Unsalted) (Again, if you use salted broth, leave out the added salt, above.)

Pour the croutons (shown below) into a VERY large bowl, or straight into a large roasting pan...whatever works better for you.

• 3 14-oz bags Croutons (I used Country Hearth Herb Seasonsed Croutons. I tasted them first, before coming up with the seasonings used earlier in the recipe. If you use unseasoned croutons, you may want to double the seasonsings shown above.)

Instructions

 

• It's very important that you do NOT completely fill your bowl or pan with the croutons, because if you do, there won't be enough room to mix in the (hot) wet ingredients! If you don't have a bowl big enough to mix it all at once, use half the croutons and half the wet mixture, put them into your baking dish, then do the other half the same way.

  The mixing is easy. Just dump all the wet stuff into the dry stuff. Since it still will be hot, you need a very heavy duty spoon or mixing paddle. The croutons will absorb all the moisture, and everything will start gluing itself together (like a meatloaf...sort of...).

  If you didn't mix it in the roasting pan, dump the finished mixture into the roasting pan, and PRESS IT DOWN fairly firmly.

  You can either do this on the day of the feast and bake it immediately, or (as I've just done, five days before Thanksgiving) you can cover the filled roasting pan (preferably with foil, so that you can just pop the entire package into the oven when it's time), then put the filled pan into the freezer to keep until you are ready for it to be baked. If it's just a day ahead, don't bother with the freezer. Just put it into the fridge.
  

  If you freeze it, don't thaw it before baking it. Bake it about 30-45 minutes with the foil covering it...until it is thoroughly thawed. Then remove the foil and bake it another 30-45 minutes until it is all hot and the top gets golden brown. Since all the ingredients were cooked ahead of time, that's all that's necessary...just make sure it's hot, fragrant, yummy, and ready to serve with the turkey, ham, or whatever other meat you are serving for your feast!
  

Keyword Christmas, Feast, Holiday, Thanksgiving

Nutrition Facts
(Using Water instead of Chicken Broth)

Calories 255.0
Total Fat 14.8g
…..Saturated Fat 4.7g
…..Polyunsaturated Fat 2.1g
…..Monounsaturated Fat 4.0g
Cholesterol 14.0mg
Sodium 767.2mg
Potassium 120.6mg
Total Carbohydrate 25.5g
…..Dietary Fiber 3.4g
…..Sugars 2.8g
Protein 5.2g

Vitamin A 15.5%
Vitamin C 1.2%
Calcium 3.7%
Iron 7.3%