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Coles

  • Nut free
  • Peanut free
  • Sesame free
  • Shellfish free
  • Seafood free
  • No added sugar
  • High in dietary fibre
  • High in protein

Plump up your turkey or chicken with this festive stuffing recipe. Loaded with traditional flavours like sage and cranberry, it’s perfect for Christmas.

  • Serves8
  • Cook time50 minutes
  • Prep time30 minutes, + cooling time
Nov-23-PVX-Turkey

Ingredients

  • 450g stale or day-old rustic bread (sourdough or panne di casa), coarsely chopped
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 200g middle bacon, finely chopped
  • 1 large red onion, finely chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 150g dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
  • 2 tbs chopped sage
  • 2 tbs chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 tbs finely grated lemon rind
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 100g butter, melted
  • 1 cup (250ml) salt-reduced chicken stock
  • 2 extra-large free-range eggs

Nutritional information

Per serve: Energy: 1807kJ/432 Cals (21%), Protein: 12g (24%), Fat: 23g (33%), Sat Fat: 11g (46%), Sodium: 688mg (34%), Carb: 42g (14%), Sugar: 17g (19%), Dietary Fibre: 5g (17%).

Check ingredient labels to make sure they meet your specific dietary requirements and always consult a health professional before changing your diet. View dietary information here.

Percentage Daily Intake information on our recipes is calculated using the nutrition reference values for an average Australian adult.

Method

  1. Step 1

    Preheat oven to 180°C.

  2. Step 2

    Place half the bread in a food processor and process until coarse breadcrumbs form. Place in a large bowl. Repeat with remaining bread. Divide among 2 large rimmed baking trays. Spray with oil spray and toss to coat. Bake for 10-15 mins or until lightly toasted. Set aside to cool.

  3. Step 3

    Meanwhile, heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add bacon, onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 6-8 mins or until onion is soft. Stir in cranberries, sage, parsley, lemon rind and pepper. Remove from the heat.

  4. Step 4

    Place the breadcrumbs and bacon mixture in a large bowl and toss to combine. Whisk the butter, stock and eggs in a medium bowl. Add to the breadcrumb mixture and stir to combine. Divide into 2 portions. Use half to stuff the turkey. Roll remaining stuffing into walnut-size balls and place on an oiled baking tray. Bake for 35 mins or until stuffing is heated through, golden and crisp.

     

Recipe tip

Here we have divided the stuffing in 2, rolling half into balls and stuffing the remaining into the turkey (we used a 4kg bird). You can make balls only or even cook the stuffing freeform on an oven tray.

COOK. STORE. SAVE.
Clever storage:
Leftover breadcrumbs can be frozen for up to 3 months. Here are some clever ideas to use up leftover bread.

A traditional stuffing recipe for Christmas turkey, chicken and pork

Nothing says Christmas quite like a turkey in the middle of the festive table, and the easiest way to take it from amazing to unforgettable is to add stuffing. Our turkey stuffing recipe makes use of traditional flavours – think sage and cranberries – and teams them with bacon and red onion for something sweet, salty, herby … and the thing to elevate a moist turkey breast.

Why bother with turkey stuffing?

Before we answer that, we’ll pick our mouths up off the floor! “Why bother with stuffing?” If you’re going to an effort to make a roast turkey – and it is one of the more challenging Christmas recipes – you may as well go the whole way and make a Christmas stuffing, too. There is some suggestion that stuffing a turkey (or any meat) helps keep it moist as it cooks, but for our recipe, the real reason is that it’s delicious – as the meat cooks, the juices from the turkey soak into the bread, binding all those beautiful flavours together. You can cook it separately if you prefer – try this one cooked in the oven, Curtis Stone’s herb-parmesan stuffing – but then you’d miss out on the great flavours and you’d take up even more space in your oven on a day that you probably don’t have space to spare. 

The best bread for stuffing

This bit is more important than you probably think: bread is the base of your stuffing so you need to get this part right. A rustic-style bread, like sourdough or panne di casa, that’s slightly stale, will hold some structure while it absorbs the juices. This is also why the breadcrumbs you use for the stuffing mix should be coarse, not fine. A soft bread that you might use for sandwiches will become too soggy in stuffing for turkey, so steer well clear of that. 

Some handy tips on how to make stuffing

Firstly, you might be tempted to mix all your ingredients into the breadcrumbs raw because they're going to get cooked in the oven anyway, right? Don’t do this – ingredients like bacon and onion need to be cooked first to soften them and release their flavours. You may also be tempted to add in a little extra of this or that. Too many additions will result in the bread not being able to hold the mix together, which may result in a crumble. If you follow our stuffing recipe, you will get the best results. 

How to stuff a turkey

While you can use a spoon to place the sage and onion stuffing into the turkey cavity, we usually use our hands  – it’s easier and faster (if a little bit messier). The tip here is to not pack the bread stuffing in too densely. It needs room to expand and plump up as it cooks and absorbs the moisture. Finally, use kitchen string to tie the legs together to hold the mixture in place and help the turkey cook evenly.

What cooking method is best for turkey?

Now, it would be remiss of us to give you all the instructions for making homemade stuffing but none of the need-to-know info about actually cooking the turkey! Here is our ultimate Christmas turkey guide. You’ll find everything from what size turkey you need to feed your crowd, how long to cook it and even how to carve it. 

Need more turkey inspiration? Explore our Christmas turkey recipes with plenty of different stuffing ideas to try. 

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