Sausage Stuffing Baked in Onions

My granny used to make sausage stuffing. It was dense and full of flavour and a whole pile better than the overcooked, dried out bird (sorry nan, but it's true). It took a leading role on the table, next to the star of the show: the dark brown, pan drippings gravy.

I've never made it before myself; I think I can't get over the idea of not having bread stuffing on the table. The gravy might not know what to pour itself over. Seeing a picture of some stuffed onions on Smitten Kitchen changed my mind. While she stuffs hers with a traditional bread stuffing, it was my granny's sausage stuffing that immediately came to my mind. Everyone knows sausage and roasted onions belong together, and I figured it was finally time they bunked up.

Sausage Stuffing Baked in Onions

Drawing inspiration from the apple and sage sausages from Save-on-Meat (a fab Vancouver butcher), the stuffing became a sage and apple sausage stuffing. They're sweet from the apple and onion and savoury from the sausage.

Hollowing out eight onions sounds only slightly more preferable than shovelling three feet of snow from a mile long driveway, or so I thought. Turns out I cried less carving out these eight onions than I have mincing two.

Sausage Stuffing Baked in Onions

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Sausage Stuffing Baked in Onions

  • Author: Kristen Stevens
  • Prep Time: 30 mins
  • Cook Time: 40 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
  • Yield: 8 servings 1x
  • Category: Side Dish
  • Method: Baked
  • Cuisine: North American
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Description

Sausage stuffing baked in onions makes for the prettiest presentation of this traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas side dish. You will LOVE it!

Scale

Ingredients

  • 8 small onion (I chose 4 red and 4 white)
  • 4 good quality sausage
  • 1/2 onion, minced
  • 2 celery stalks, minced
  • 1 apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
  • 2 teaspoons dried sage, crumbled
  • 1 cup breadcrumbs
  • ¼ –½ cup chicken stock
  • Oil
  • Salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Carefully hollow out onions using a teaspoon and set aside
  3. Fry sausage in a pan for 5 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove from pan. When cool to the touch, use your hands to crumble the sausage into small pieces.
  4. Heat oil in the sausage pan. Add onions, celery and apple and cook till onions are transparent. Add sage and season to taste with salt
  5. Add onion mixture and breadcrumbs to the crumbled sausage. Mix to combine. Add just enough chicken stock to moisten stuffing.
  6. Stuff onions with stuffing and place on a greased baking sheet
  7. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, or until onion is soft and top of stuffing is brown
  8. Enjoy!