Food styling by Bonny Reichert. Prop styling by Paige Weir/Judy Inc. (www.judyinc.com)Hudson Hayden/The Globe and Mail
Don't wait for a turkey to make this crunchy stuffing. In fact, you don't even need a chicken, as you can make it in a skillet to serve with any meat or poultry as a flavourful side dish.
Servings: 4
Ready Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
4 cups cubed baguette or other crusty bread
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
2 tbsp butter
1 Granny Smith apple with peel on, cored and diced
2 tsp sugar
2 leeks
2 or 3 fresh sage leaves, finely sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup chicken stock
Method
Preheat oven to 325 F. Spread out cubed bread on a large baking sheet and walnuts on a smaller one. Toast bread for 5 minutes and walnuts for 10 minutes. Set both aside.
Melt butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add apples and sprinkle with sugar, turning up the heat to brown apples lightly. Meanwhile, prepare leeks by discarding dark green ends, splitting each leek down the centre, washing well and slicing thinly. Add leeks to pan and sauté with apples until softened and fragrant (about 10 minutes). Stir in walnuts, sage, salt and pepper and shut off heat. Fold in toasted bread cubes. Drizzle chicken stock evenly over stuffing to moisten and mix well.
Loosely pack stuffing into prepared raw chicken, reserving any extra to serve alongside. To warm extra stuffing at serving time, reheat in skillet on low, adding a few spoonfuls of pan juices from the cooked chicken, if desired.