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Paula Deen’s Oyster Dressing

Source of Recipe

Paula Deen


Recipe Introduction

I was looking for a dressing to make for Christmas 2007 instead of a stuffing. We wanted to try to make things a little easier and more streamlined (i.e. – less stressful) this year and decided that turkey breasts made the day before and reheated in the Nesco the next day with some stock would work well. It worked great – I stored the sliced turkey in a plastic bag with some stock and reheated it with the stock the next day. I don’t think we’ve ever had such tender, flavorful turkey! But, of course, you can’t stuff a turkey breast! So I tried this recipe the week after Thanksgiving for a test. It was ok, but needed some punching up and it was much, much too wet. I used good, crusty bread instead of white. I upped the amount of vegetables and seasonings and mixed the bready stuff with the seasonings and sautéed vegetables and let them sit overnight. I also added parsley and reduced the amount of stock. This turned out to be a really good, rich and tasty dressing. The original recipe can be found at the linked site.

Recipe Link: www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_32322,00.html

List of Ingredients

7 slices crusty Country-style bread, cut in small cubes
2 boxes Jiffy cornbread, prepared
1 sleeve saltine crackers
3 1/2 C. chopped celery
2 large onions, chopped or 2-12 oz. bags frozen
8 tablespoons butter
3 C. chicken stock (about)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 t. dried sage, or more, to taste
2 T. poultry seasoning, , or more, to taste
4 T. dried parsley, , or more, to taste
5 eggs, beaten
2 pints or 1 quart oysters, drained (I chop mine up)



Recipe

The night before you are going to make the dressing, mix the bread, cornbread and crackers in a large roasting pan (I use a disposable aluminum one). Sauté the onion and celery in the butter until translucent and add to the bread mixture. Season with salt, pepper, sage, poultry seasoning and parsley. I say “to taste”, but it is really to smell. I can’t put it better than to say when it smells like dressing, you’re done. If you are an experienced cook, you’ll know. If you aren’t, you’ll learn ;-)! Mix this up really well, cover with wax paper and let sit out overnight.

The next morning smell the mixture again and adjust seasonings, if necessary.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add the eggs and the oysters to the bread mixture and mix very well (hands work well for this step). The next step is adding the stock and here you have to use your senses again. Add about a cup, mix well and feel how wet the dressing is. If you squeeze a handful of it and it crumbles and doesn’t hold together, add more stock. You want it to clump together when you squeeze it, but it should NOT be soupy! Add stock 1 cup at a time until you have the consistency you want.

Bake, uncovered, for about 45 – 60 minutes (mine took more like 60).

Serves 15 - 20.