Bread Pudding “Dressing”

This bread pudding has the flavors of turkey stuffing, making it perfect for the holiday table or any time you’re serving poultry or craving stuffing. If you like, you can make this a vegetarian dish by substituting vegetable stock for the chicken stock. If your family has traditional add-ins to their stuffing, you can add them here. Or, throw tradition out the wind and add things that might never be in stuffing, like cooked carrots, frozen peas, or roasted red peppers. Or, top with shredded cheese that will melt on top.

By Donna Currie

Cuisine: American
Course: Side Dish

Ingredients

8 cups bread cubes, (1/2 to 3/4-inch cubes)
1 stick butter
4 stalks celery, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
1 onion, medium dice
2 tablespoons poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon salt, (if your stock is very salty, adjust this)
1 cup chicken or turkey stock
10 eggs
1 cup milk

Directions

Place the bread cubes in your 9x13 stoneware baker while you prepare everything else. If you think of it, stir them around once or twice so they get a little bit dry.
Melt the butter in a wide, shallow sauté pan. Add the celery, onion, poultry seasoning, and salt. Cook, stirring once in a while, until the vegetables start to soften, just a few minutes. Add the chicken stock and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and the liquid is mostly gone. This will happen much faster in a wide shallow pan than if you’re cooking this is a saucepan. Figure about 15 minutes.
Let this mixture cool slightly. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 350° F.
In a large bowl, mix the eggs and milk. Whisk to combine.
Add the egg/milk mixture to the bread crumbs. Use a spatula or your very clean hands to press any unsubmerged bread cubes down into the liquid momentarily. You don’t need them to stay down, but you want to make sure all of them have soaked up their share of liquid.
Bake at 350° F until a small thin knife inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean, about 40 minutes. The top will no longer be shiny and you should see a little bit of browning here and there.
Remove the pan from the oven and let it rest on a rack or cutting board to cool just a bit. The stoneware will retain heat for serving for quite a while, so if other parts of the meal aren’t quite ready, you can cover this with foil and let it rest.
Cut in squares to serve. This is good hot, warm, and at room temperature. I also like it refrigerator cold, but I’m a little weird like that.