Italian Sausage Thanksgiving Dressing

My dad is a meddler. A tinkerer. Someone who just can't leave simple things alone. He'll take your average can of Campbell's Bean with Bacon soup and start adding condiments, herbs, and spices until you can hardly call it Bean with Bacon anymore. A few years ago, he took good ol' simple Thanksgiving dressing and...mutated it. I'll admit, I was so mad the first year--dressing is something highly personal and near and dear to my heart and he had to go mess with things. But over the years, I came to love it.

Last year was the only Thanksgiving (except one in 2003) in my whole life that I wasn't with my family on Christmas and I have to say that although we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our Louisiana friends, I seriously missed my dad's dressing (even if he does get a little heavy-handed with the Tabasco from time to time). Since I can't get the man to write down the recipe, I went ahead and tinkered around with it myself, which ended with a surprising (and delicious) addition of dried cranberries. One thing I love is that this dressing has it all--the savory of the dressing, onions, and garlic, sweet and sour from the apples and cranberries, bitter from the nuts, and spicy from the sausage.. The beauty is that you can tweak here and there what you like and don't like AND that you can make a portion of it ahead of time to cut down on your T-Day work load.

Italian Sausage Thanksgiving Dressing

Recipe by Our Best Bites

1 lb. Italian sausage (in this recipe, I prefer hot, but if you're worried about spice or want to control the heat, use mild and then season with a hot sauce like Tabasco to taste)

1 onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

5-6 cloves garlic, minced

1 c. sliced mushrooms

1 grated Granny Smith apple (use your food processor if you have one; your knuckles will thank you)

1 16-oz. package cubed stuffing or dressing (I like Pepperidge Farms; for this recipe, I try to stay away from Stove Top because the flavor is so overwhelming)

2 1/2 c. chicken broth

1 c. chopped pecans, toasted

1/2+ c. dried cranberries (optional)

Preheat oven to 350

Heat a very large skillet to medium heat, remove casings, and crumble Italian sausage in the pan. As it starts to brown, stir in onions, celery, and garlic. As the sausage cooks, break up larger pieces--part of the awesomeness of this dressing are the little sausage bits in every bite.

As the onions begin to turn translucent, stir in mushrooms and apple. I grate it because I love the tart flavor of the apple, but I don't like chunks of soggy apple in savory dishes like this. Icky, icky, icky.

When mushrooms are tender, sprinkle dressing mix over the sausage mix and then add chicken broth. Continue stirring as the dressing mix absorbs the liquid. Add in pecans and cranberries (if desired). When the liquid has been incorporated and the mixture is fully mixed, transfer to a 9x13 dish sprayed with cooking spray. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 10 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes. If you'd like to make this 1-2 days ahead of time, cover it after you place it in the 9x13 pan, and then bake it straight from the fridge.