Classic Sage Dressing

Ingre­di­ents

• 18 cups of cubed bread—-use a more dense type of bread (not white sand­wich bread) and cut into 1 inch cubes. I used din­ner rolls. Spread the bread cubes in a sin­gle layer on sheet pans and let dry out for a day or two. stir and toss around a cou­ple of times dur­ing dry­ing time. The bread shouldn’t be as dry as crou­tons, but the outer layer should be good and dry
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups chopped celery
• 2 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tea­spoon poul­try seasoning
• 3–4 cups chicken broth–depending on the bread that you use, and how moist you like your dressing
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 2 tea­spoons kosher salt (use 1/2 this amount if using table salt)
• 1 1/2 tea­spoons black pepper
• 2 table­spoons chopped fresh sage
• 1/2 tea­spoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Instruc­tions

1. Pre­heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place the bread cubes in a large bowl. Set aside.
3. But­ter a 9X13 inch bak­ing dish.
4. In a medium, heavy saucepan, melt the but­ter. Add the onions and cel­ery and sauté on medium heat for 5–6 min­utes. Set aside for 5 min­utes to cool.
5. Pour butter/onion/garlic/celery mix­ture over bread cubes. Pour beaten eggs over as well. Add the fresh herbs, poul­try sea­son­ing, and salt and pepper.
6. Stir until combined.
7. Add chicken broth, start­ing with 3 cups. The final amount will depend on the type of bread you used, and how moist you like your dress­ing. I ended up using 3 1/2 cups, and got a dress­ing that was crispy on the out­side, and moist under­neath, which is what we like in my family.
8. Pour the dress­ing into the but­tered bak­ing dish and spread evenly with­out mash­ing and com­pact­ing the dress­ing down too much. This will cre­ate a tex­ture on the top that will brown to a nice crisp in the oven.
9. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F. for 40 min­utes, then uncover and bake another 15–20 minutes.