Two Way Stuffing with Mushrooms and Bacon
We are still busy making side dishes for Thanksgiving! Did you see the other recipes Katie made? Don’t miss the leek bread pudding or sweet potato pudding with pecan and gingersnap topping -they are so good and great additions to any Thanksgiving menu!
Today Katie made two way stuffing with mushrooms and bacon. Anything with bacon has me interested and this stuffing is really good and different from what I usually make. I love mixing it up and adding a few new sides to our very simple menu. And what better than serving a new take on stuffing??
It has leeks and mushrooms, two ingredients I really like and wouldn’t have thought about for stuffing.  While it was really good right out of the oven, I am looking forward to eating the leftovers on my turkey sandwiches! Give it a try and let us know what you think.
Two Way Stuffing with Mushrooms and Bacon
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons melted butter more as needed for greasing pan
- 1 ½ pounds sliced white bread or corn bread
- ½ pound thick-cut bacon
- 2 large leeks trimmed and sliced (3 cups)
- 1 ½ pounds mixed mushrooms cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- ¾ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons chopped sage
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 1 ¼ cups chicken stock more as needed
- ¼ cup apple cider if using white bread
- 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Instructions
Step One
- Heat oven to 250 degrees.
- Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.
- Trim the crusts from the white bread and cut into 1-inch cubes; if using corn bread, coarsely crumble it.
- Spread the bread pieces out on one or two large baking sheets.
- Toast in the oven, tossing occasionally, until very dry, about 30 minutes for white bread, 1 hour for corn bread.
- Transfer to a large bowl to cool. Increase oven temperature to 375 degrees.
Step Two
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the bacon strips until crisp.
- Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain, leaving the fat in the pan.
- Add the leeks to the bacon fat and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 5 to 10 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.
- Cook, tossing frequently, until mushrooms are tender and most of their juices have evaporated, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Stir in the sage and cook 1 minute.
- Add the wine and cook until it evaporates, about 2 minutes.
Step Three
- Spoon the mushroom mixture over the dried bread.
- Stir in stock. If using white bread, stir in the cider.
- Add parsley, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
- The mixture should be moist and very soft.
- If you like your stuffing extremely moist, add enough stock to make it seem slightly soggy but not wet. (Think pudding.)
- Crumble bacon and stir it in.
- Transfer the bread mixture to the prepared baking pan.
- Drizzle 3 tablespoons melted butter over the stuffing.
- Bake until golden, 35 to 45 minutes.
Notes
