Poultry Dressing

My hubby was on a Thanksgiving dinner kick if you couldn't tell from these last few posts! We had Thanksgiving dinner at his sister's house this year, so we didn't have too many leftovers to enjoy for days ;-) He wanted the whole she-bang, but since I was the only one home cooking, he didn't get the full blown Thanksgiving dinner! This dressing is my second favorite one. My all time favorite is a cornbread dressing, but that requires making cornbread first... something I didn't have time for with everything else. This is jazzed up with apples, craisins and... (my mom will be so proud of me!) the cooked gizzards. This is the first time I have ever actually cooked the gizzards and incorporated them in a dish. Usually the whole packet gets tossed in the garbage. I just tossed all the gizzards and the neck and covered all with water. Then I boiled it for probably about an hour. I knew it was done when a fork was able to pierce everything easily with a fork. I saved the broth and used that in my gravy, since I didn't have turkey drippings due to the unusual method of cooking my turkey. I used my handy dandy food chopper to chop the gizzards into small pieces. The littles didn't even know they were in there!

Poultry Dressing

1/2 C butter
1 medium onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 bag dried bread cubes (specifically for stuffing, found in bakery section...it was probably around a pound of dried cubes)
1 lb sage sausage, browned
1 C pecans, toasted and chopped
1 granny smith apple, chopped
1 C Craisins
Gizzards and neck from turkey, cooked until tender and chopped (absolutely optional!)
2 Cans chicken broth (or use broth from cooking gizzards, or use turkey drippings)

Saute onion and celery in the butter until tender. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except chicken broth. Stir to evenly distribute everything and add chicken broth to moisten dried bread cubes. You don't want the mixture to be swimming in liquid. Spoon into a lightly greased 9X13 pan and bake covered at 375* for 25-35 minutes or until heated through.