Chestnut, Onion and Cornbread Stuffing

Submitted by Pianolady

"If I could choose anything I wanted to do, it would be to have a chestnut farm. This is an absolutely awesome recipe -- and every time I make it, the bowl is picked half empty by everyone before I even get it into the oven. I posted my cornbread recipe "Perfect Cornbread" #96862, specifically for inclusion in this recipe. This was originally posted in Gourmet Magazine. It is not a quick recipe, but it is not difficult to make and is WELL worth the effort! Preparation time does not include making the cornbread recipe."

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 5mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 2 loaf cornbread (I use my Perfect Cornbread Perfect Cornbread)
• 2 medium red onions, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 6 shallots, cut lengthwise into 6 ths
• 5 leeks, white and pale green parts only halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces
• 3 stalk celery, chopped
• 236.59 ml flat leaf parsley, packed, chopped
• 14.79 ml fresh sage leaf, chopped
• 9.85 ml fresh thyme leaves, chopped
• 118.29 ml unsalted butter
• 340.19 g whole chestnuts, vacuum-packed or canned
• 828.06 ml chicken broth, divided

directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F Prepare cornbread ahead of time from Perfect Cornbread Recipe#96862, or your own.
2. Cut cornbread into 1/2" cubes.
3. In 2 large shallow baking pans, bake in the middle of the oven until just dry, about 20 minutes.
4. Using only white and pale green parts of the leeks, halve them lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/2" thick pieces.
5. In a large heavy skillet cook red onions, shallots, leeks, celery and herbs with salt and pepper to taste, in butter over moderate heat; stirring, until onion mixture is golden brown and softened-- about 25 minutes.
6. If using canned chestnuts, rinse and drain.
7. In a saucepan simmer vacuum-packed or canned chestnuts in 2 cups of chicken broth for 15 minutes.
8. In a large bowl, toss together bread, onions, chestnut mixture and remaining 1 1/2 cups of broth, with salt and pepper to taste, and let cool completely.
9. (Stuffing may be made ahead up to 1 day before and chilled, covered-- bring stuffing to room temperature before proceeding).
10. To cook all or part of stuffing outside of poultry: In a shallow baking dish bake stuffing in preheated 325F oven 45 minutes.
11. For moist stuffing, bake covered entire time; for less moist stuffing with a slightly crisp top, uncover halfway through baking time.
12. Enjoy!

Reviews

[Orchid32]

I have used this Recipe which I found on Food Network with the Courtesy of Gourmet Magazine. And I have used the Chestnuts once from a jar, to which they were not pleased. So, I just omit the Chestnuts now. I am not experienced enough to really use the Chestnuts and I find that the recipe is just as good.

 

[VictoriaL]

Very flavorful! I used fresh roasted chestnuts (chopped), decreased the butter to 1/4 cup (could have decreased more and may next time), and used Vidalia onions instead of the red onions and leeks. The only problem was-- in now way does this make 4 servings! I used my own cornbread recipe (which uses the same amounts of flour and cornmeal as the author's recipe does) and filled a large casserole. I don't know how big this was (it was put back in storage), but I would guess that this recipe made 8, or more realistically, 10 servings. No problem finishing it, though! :)