Festive Sausage Stuffing
Most of us have grown up with stuffing being inside the cavity of a chicken or turkey – this is a stuffing that is cooked separately and we can’t say it will change your life…we can’t say it won’t either. It will certainly change how you think about stuffing and makes an incredibly decadant fry up with any leftovers.
Serves 8
This recipe works on visual ratios: you want roughly equal volumes of toasted bread and sausage.
You can use any bread you have available. I recommend something with some crust and flavour. Freeze uneaten baguettes from your festive cheese boards, or the ends of that delicious sourdough loaf. A mix of different breads is delicious, rye, fruit loaf, mixed seed all add texture and flavour, so mix and match.
Baking the stuffing in a tray gives it a delicious brown crust, avoiding adding a dense mass to the middle of a turkey, increasing cooking time, and making it hard to serve.
Ingredients
3 pork, apple and sage sausages
3 pork, chilli and leek sausages
6 cups cubed or torn stale bread (2–4 cm pieces)
1 stick celery, brunoise (3 mm dice)
1 carrot, brunoise
1–2 sprigs sage (fresh)
3 eggs
1 cup cream or full-fat milk
2 cups chicken stock
100g butter, melted (plus extra for brushing)
Salt and pepper
Method
Preheat your oven to 180°C.
Cut or tear your bread into 2–4 cm pieces—include any crumbs or broken bits, they won’t hurt the final dish. Place on a tray and toast in the oven until nicely golden, about 15 minutes.
Sauté the celery and carrot in butter until softened, 8–10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Layer your toasted bread in a baking dish—there should be enough to cover the bottom and half-fill the dish. Sprinkle over the cooked vegetables.
Squeeze your sausages from their casings into the bread and vegetable mix. Using your hands, combine everything, gently crunching the bread as you go.
Whisk together the eggs and cream (or milk), and season generously with salt and pepper. The sausages have enough salt, but the bread, egg mix, and stock need it.
Pour 2/3 of the egg mixture over the tray, gradually. Smoosh gently to help it disperse - you want the bread well-soaked but not swimming in liquid. Leave the top rustic-looking, gently pat the mix into the tray, and let it soak in for a few minutes.
Every 5-7cm poke in sage leaves, leaving some sticking out
Refrigerate the stuffing and remaining egg mixture until you’re ready to cook.
Preheat your oven to 180°C fan-forced.
Remove from the fridge. Combine the remaining egg mix with the stock and pour over the stuffing until small pools form in low spots. Poke small holes into the stuffing to encourage the liquid to disperse. You may have some leftover liquid—add it before browning if you have room in the tray and the mix feels like it can absorb a little more moisture.
Cover the tray with foil and bake for 25–30 minutes.
Uncover and assess. If you have leftover egg and stock mix, you can add it now - use your judgment to decide if there’s room and how much more liquid can be absorbed without becoming mushy.
Brush the stuffing generously with the remaining melted butter, return to the oven, and cook until browned and bubbling, another 15–20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cover with tea towels to keep warm—this preserves the crust better than foil.
Serve this straight from the dish at the table—it’s meant to look rustic and generous.
