Categories: Christmas, Czech Family Recipes, Poultry, Thanksgiving

Ingredients

• BROTH:
• poultry necks
• gizzards
• livers
• 2 ribs celery, quartered
• 1 onion quartered
• 3 whole stems parsley
• 1 large carrot, quartered
• salt & pepper to taste
• CORNBREAD:
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup shortening or bacon grease melted
• DRESSING:
• 7 saltine crackers
• 8 slices dry toast
• 1 recipe cornbread
• 1 stick margarine
• 1 large onion, dices
• 4 ribs celery diced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/4 small bell pepper chopped
• 5 eggs
• 1 to 2 cups milk
• 3 teaspoons rubbed sage
• 1 or two cans extra chicken broth (only if needed)
• salt & pepper to taste.

Directions

1. Tip: You can make the broth, cornbread and toast one or two days ahead. I always do. You can make the actual dressing a day ahead and place in fridge. Then you can bake the dressing just before serving.

2. BROTH: One or two days ahead — Cook necks, gizzards, liver with the vegetables listed. Simmer for a couple of hours. If you feel you need more “meat” you can use extra purchased necks or wings for more flavor to your broth. Remove meat and cooked vegetables from broth. Remove meat from bones and save in a zip lock bag in the fridge if you are making your broth a day ahead. Discard vegetables. Store in fridge.

3. CORNBREAD: One day ahead — Do not use any sugar in this cornbread for dressing, that is why you need to make your own and not use a prepared mix. Combine dry ingredients, stir in egg and milk, also melted shortening. Pour into heated, greased baking dish. Bake 20-25 minutes at 425 degrees until it is done. Remove from oven. Allow to sit out on counter over night covered with a clean cloth, do not wrap with foil or plastic wrap, you want it to dry out a little.

4. TO MAKE TOAST: One or two days ahead — To make dry toast, I purchase cheap white bread. Place directly on oven rack and set oven at lowest temp, 170 to 200 degrees. After about 1 hour you will need to check on the toast and flip over. The bread needs to not necessarily be brown as in toasted, but very, very dry so that when you break it in half it will snap in half and crumble. This might take several hours. Allow this to sit out, covered only with a cloth so it can dry out even more.

5. TO MAKE DRESSING: To actually make your dressing now that you have all the pre-preparation work done: Coarsely crumble crackers. Crumble cornbread. Crumble dry toast. You don’t want anything larger than a crouton size. Get all your veggies for this chopped and diced no larger than 1/4 inch pieces. Remove your broth from fridge and bring up to a very slow simmer. In another large stock pot melt your margarine, add your chopped veggies, all EXCEPT garlic. Saute until vegetables are transparent, golden and starting to brown but not burn…toss in garlic at the last minute. Turn heat down as low as it will go. Add your saved neck meat and gizzards. Add about 1/3 of the cornbread, crackers, toast…stir. Add broth & milk until it is almost “soupy”. Add sage. Add more crackers, cornbread, toast…Add the eggs, stirring well finally add the rest of the milk and a little more broth, …you don’t want it quite as “soupy” now. Add the remainder of crackers, cornbread, toast…stir well. Add more broth if needed…you want it a little mushy, but not soupy and not too dry.

6. Place in about a 13×9×2 inch pan, spray pan with non-stick spray. Either refrigerate overnight or bake immediately, about 1 hour at 350 degrees if it is room temp, might take longer if it is cold. Check about half way through, if you think it is too dry at this point, add just a little more broth…if you think it is going to be too mushy at this point, stir browned edges into the center of the dressing in pan and sort of “fluff” up…this will help moisture to evaporate. You can serve directly from pan or spoon into a serving bowl.

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