Cranberry Stuffing

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, spray a casserole dish with nonstick spray and set aside.

In a pan, over medium heat, melt 1 TBSP of butter. Add in onions, celery and a pinch of salt. Cook until soft (but try not to add color), about 5 minutes. 

Add in the thyme, orange zest and orange juice. Warning, it’s going to start smelling delicious…

Add in cranberries. 

Add in the chicken or vegetable stock. I usually buy low sodium/unsalted stock, but if you didn’t no worries!  I will suggest that at the end, before it goes in the casserole dish, you may want to test-taste it to see if it’s missing salt (or pepper). 

Helpful hint – salt actually brings out the flavors of your ingredients so if it seems a little dull add a pinch or two of salt and you will taste the difference right away. 

Stop to admire this festive picture (and the next one)

Cook over medium heat until the cranberries start to pop (you will hear a pop sound and see them start to split – see picture below), about 3- 5 minutes.  

Take off the heat.  In a bowl, combine with your bread crumb/stuffing.

Combine the ingredients together, stirring carefully, try not to break the cranberries. You will break some, but try to keep as many as possible whole. 

This is where you will want to taste test your mixture and add in salt (or pepper). Remember my advice on this above…if in doubt sprinkle a pinch of salt. 

Add your stuffing mixture to your prepared casserole dish. And dot with the remaining 1 TBSP of butter.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes.