Sausage and Potato Stuffing

 Back in the day, there used to be a TV commercial that begged the question: Do you want stuffing or potatoes? And to that I say "why do we have to choose one or the other? why can't we have both?! And that brings me to this stuffing recipe. It's your classic stuffing with sausage and sage, but it has potatoes too! It's the best of both worlds, all in one dish. I found it on Allrecipes.com, which is one of my go-to websites for recipes. One of the things I love about that website is that it shows you lots of comments by regular home cooks who have made it, and very often what minor tweaks they did to make it their own. Many said that "this is now their new holiday stuffing." I guess you can't get much better than that! So give this one a try. Maybe it'll be YOUR new go-to holiday stuffing!



1 pound lean pork sausage
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
3/4 cup diced sweet onion
3/4 cup butter
 9 cups soft bread cubes
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Place sausage, potatoes, celery, onion and butter in a large, deep skillet. Saute over medium high heat until sausage is crumbled and evenly cooked. Combine the bread cubes, thyme, sage, salt and pepper. Toss together with the sausage and potato mixture. Add chicken or vegetable broth if needed. Bake stuffing in a covered casserole dish for 40 to 50 minutes.



Tips:
Instead of peeling and dicing potatoes, I just used halved baby red potatoes. No need to peel!
Many of the reviews on this recipe said that it can easily be cooked in a slow cooker. 3-4 hours on low should do the trick! Also the slow cooker will retain moisture (plus it creates steam), so just keep an eye on that. If your stuffing looks too wet, just remove the lid and let some of the moisture evaporate. If it becomes VERY wet, put it in a pan, uncovered, and pop it into the oven. That should dry it out a bit. On the flip side, if it looks too dry, just add a little chicken broth. Easy!