Andouille and Cornbread Stuffing

As promised, here's one of my all time thanksgiving favorites: Andouille and Cornbread Stuffing (provided by the good people at epicurious). Mom found this recipe about 15 years back, and I haven't let a thanksgiving go by without it. Even two days before Balls' wedding, when his mother-in-law was hosting most of the wedding party for a traditional thanksgiving dinner. It''s stuffing, and it has two kinds of pig in it, what's not to like?

Courtesy Wikicommons.

So, it's pretty straightforward. First of all, make sure you have good Andouille. Good Andouille is really important to me in general. It should be well spiced, heavily smoked (and you should be able to tell by looking at it), and coarsely ground. You should be able to see be able to see chunks of pork in the sausage. Look at the pretty picture to the right, and you'll see what I mean. I try to go to my local market for fresh Andouille made by local butchers, but in a pinch, Aidell's sausages are easy to find at supermarkets and makes decent tasting dishes.



Preparation is pretty straightforward; brown the sausage in butter, add in your trinity, and then the remaining vegetables and seasoning - get everything nice and cooked through - and you'll be rewarded by some great even flavor throughought your stuffing.

At this point you should have a tasty mixture that looks something like this:

You can hold onto this for a day or so. Once you're ready to bake, add in stuffing mix, and chicken stock:

Thanks to hipstamatic for making our food look artsy and dramatic.

Then cover, bake at 350 for 30 min to cook through, remove the cover and bake for another 15 minutes to brown the top.

Enjoy!