Email to Cat      

Thanksgiving: Three-Pepper Sausage Cornbread Dressing

Source of Recipe

From "Thanksgiving: How to Cook it Well" by Sam Sifton


Recipe Introduction

"Here is a recipe I adapted from the cooking of Kurt Gardner, a New York theater man of great culinary passions who has been contributing the dish to our home for years, usually in proportions large enough to feed boroughs. Rare is the month where there is not a frozen bag of this stuff in our freezer, ready to be deployed."

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
â—¦ 1 ½ pounds andouille sausage, or fresh chorizo or hot Italian sausage
â—¦ 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
â—¦ 2 stalks celery, cleaned and diced
â—¦ 2 red or orange bell peppers, cored, seeded, and diced
â—¦ 2 poblano or Anaheim peppers, seeded and diced
â—¦ 2 serrano or jalapeño peppers, seeded and diced
â—¦ 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, cleaned and roughly chopped
â—¦ Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
â—¦ 2 cups chicken stock (if using store-bought, use low-sodium variety)
â—¦ 1 pan cornbread, cut into cubes (recipe follows)


Recipe

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat olive oil in large flat-bottomed sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add sausage and sauté until browned, approximately 10 minutes. Remove to a large bowl and set aside.

Add onion to the pan and reduce heat to medium, then sauté until onion begins to turn clear and soften, approximately 5 minutes. Add celery and peppers and continue cooking until peppers begin to soften, approximately 10 minutes.

Pour vegetable mixture into bowl with sausage, add chopped cilantro, salt and pepper to taste, and toss to mix. Return pan to heat and deglaze with a splash of chicken stock, then scrape contents into bowl with sausage and vegetable mixture.

Pour mixture into a large roasting pan and add cubed cornbread, mixing by hand. Add chicken stock to moisten, cover with aluminum foil, and place in oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until it is soft and the flavors well incorporated.

If you desire a crunchy top, remove foil for final 10 minutes of cooking. (Dressing can be made ahead of time and reheated when needed. If dry upon reheating, add additional chicken stock.)



Cornbread:

John Willoughby, once the executive editor of Gourmet and, with the chef Chris Schlesinger, one of the great interpreters of live-fire cooking in the United States, once said that there are only 11 recipes in the world, and those of us who labor in kitchens spend most of our time reinventing them. As an example, here is my adaptation of the recipe for cornbread Schlesinger served in his East Coast Grill from the time he opened the place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1985 to when he sold it in 2012. The adaptation? I have added a few cups of frozen organic corn for texture. Those who wish to go further might add a fine dice of fiery chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, or cook a few slices of bacon in the skillet before cooking the dish, and add the crumbled result to the batter. The fat left over in the pan would allow you to reduce the amount of butter you use by about 2 tablespoons.

â—¦ 4 cups all-purpose flour
â—¦ 2 cups yellow cornmeal
â—¦ 1 ½ cups sugar
â—¦ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
â—¦ 2 tablespoons baking powder
â—¦ 4 large eggs
â—¦ 3 cups whole milk
â—¦ 2 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil
â—¦ 1 10-ounce package frozen organic corn kernels
â—¦ 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9-inch cast-iron skillet or a 12 by 8 by 2-inch pan, and place it in the oven to heat.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and oil. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients, add the corn, and stir until just combined. Add the butter and stir once or twice to incorporate.

Remove the hot skillet or pan from the oven, pour batter into it, and give the whole number a smack on the counter to settle it. Put pan in oven to cook until mixture is brown on top and a sharp knife inserted into its center comes out clean, approximately 1 hour. Cornbread can, indeed should, be made ahead of time. If it is slightly stale at the start of the process, so much the better—the dried cornbread leads to a fluffier dressing.