Although hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the family provides a plethora of rewards it also comes with several challenges, particularly if your home the annual congregation place. One of the many challenges is finding a way to keep things different every year. Now of course the turkey is sacred and even if you spice it up, deep fry one, or smoke it, you should always have one traditionally made turkey also in case some of your guest are traditionalist or simply don’t like the flavor of turkey when it’s cooked a different way. However there are other things you change to spice up the annual gathering and we continue our series on holiday meals with a look at some variations of one of the most important dishes on the table, stuffing.
Although stuffing has to be considered a “1b” in regards to the most important dishes on the Thanksgiving table, surprisingly you would be hard pressed to find two families on the same street that make it the same way. It that regard it’s much easier to shake things up and make something a little different. We have a great recipe for a stuffing that will compliment your turkey regardless of how you elect to do your bird, doesn’t bog you down with ingredients you can’t find in your local supermarket, and won’t take hours to prepare as you will have tens of other things to do in addition to putting together an dinner to remember. Here is the recipe for Chorizo, Cornbread, and Cilantro Stuffing.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup chorizo
- 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 onion, diced
- 1 carrot, peeled and diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 2 cups diced jalapeno cornbread, homemade or store-bought
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8×8 baking dish with nonstick spray.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add chorizo and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the chorizo as it cooks. Add garlic, onion, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables have browned, about 8-10 minutes. Stir in cornbread, cilantro and chicken stock; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Add cornbread mixture to prepared baking dish. Place into oven and bake until heated through and lightly browned on top, about 20 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with cilantro.