Best 8 Apple Bacon Leek Stuffing Recipes

APPLE, BACON, & LEEK STUFFING RECIPE - (4.5/5)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 3-quart rectangular baking dish with cooking spray; set aside. In an extra-large skillet cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels; crumble bacon. Drain fat, reserving 3 tablespoons drippings in skillet. Add butter to drippings in skillet. Add mushrooms, leeks, and celery. Cook over medium heat for 7 to 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. Add apples and garlic. Cook and stir for 2 to 4 minutes or until apples are just softened. Stir in cream. In an extra-large bowl combine apple mixture, crumbled bacon, bread cubes, the 1 tablespoon sage, the thyme, and pepper. Drizzle with broth to moisten, tossing gently to combine. Spoon mixture into prepared baking dish. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until heated through and top is light brown. If desired, garnish with sage leaves. *Tip: To make dry bread cubes, preheat oven to 300°F. Cut 18 to 21 fresh bread slices into 1/2-inch cubes to yield 12 cups bread cubes. Spread cubes in two 15x10x1-inch baking pans. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until cubes are dry, stirring twice; cool. (Cubes will continue to dry and crisp as they cool.) Or let bread cubes stand, loosely covered, at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours. Make-Ahead Directions: Prepare stuffing as directed through Step 2, except do not preheat oven. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. To serve, preheat oven to 375°F. Remove plastic wrap; cover baking dish with foil. Bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake about 15 minutes more or until an instant-read thermometer registers 165°F.

APPLE STUFFING

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss bread with 3 tablespoons melted butter; season with salt and pepper. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet; toast, rotating halfway through, until browned, 20 to 25 minutes.
• Heat remaining tablespoon butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add leeks; cook, stirring frequently, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add apples; cook, turning occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes.
• In a large bowl, combine bread, leek mixture, rosemary, and broth; season with salt and pepper. Add egg; stir until thoroughly combined. Transfer to a buttered 1 1/2-quart shallow baking dish.
• Bake until golden on top and crisp around edges, 40 to 45 minutes.

BACON APPLE STUFFING

Steps:

• Adjust oven rack to the center position and heat the oven to 350˚F.
• Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp and brown, about 10-12 minutes.
• Transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate.
• Add the celery, onion, and apple to the same skillet the bacon was cooking in (don't drain off the bacon grease) and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened about 8-10 minutes.
• Add the parsley, thyme, sage, and marjoram and stir. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.
• Add the breadcrumbs, egg, salt, pepper, chicken broth and bacon to the vegetable and apple mixture.
• Place the stuffing mixture into a buttered 9x13 pan, or any other 3-quart pan. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the internal temperature reaches 165˚F.
• Cool for 5 minutes, then serve.

HERB AND APPLE STUFFING

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
• Put the bread cubes on a 13 by 18 by 1-inch baking sheet and bake them in the oven for 7 minutes.
• In a large saute pan, melt the butter and add the onion, celery, apples, parsley, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Saute for 10 minutes, until the mixture is soft.
• Combine the bread cubes and cooked vegetables in a large bowl and add the chicken stock, and almonds, if desired.
• Place the stuffing into the main cavity of the turkey and into the neck of the bird. I cook a 12-pound turkey for 2 1/2 hours at 350 degrees F in a preheated oven. Make sure the stuffing in the cavity is secured by wrapping the legs tightly with string.

STUFFING WITH MUSHROOMS, LEEKS AND BACON

Steps:

• Heat oven to 250 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Trim the crusts from the white bread and cut into 1-inch cubes; if using corn bread, coarsely crumble it. Spread the bread pieces out on one or two large baking sheets. Toast in the oven, tossing occasionally, until very dry, about 30 minutes for white bread, 1 hour for corn bread. Transfer to a large bowl to cool. Increase oven temperature to 375 degrees.
• In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the bacon strips until crisp. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain, leaving the fat in the pan. Add the leeks to the bacon fat and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the mushrooms, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Cook, tossing frequently, until mushrooms are tender and most of their juices have evaporated, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the sage and cook 1 minute. Add the wine and cook until it evaporates, about 2 minutes.
• Spoon the mushroom mixture over the dried bread. Stir in stock. If using white bread, stir in the cider. Add parsley, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. The mixture should be moist and very soft. If you like your stuffing extremely moist, add enough stock to make it seem slightly soggy but not wet. (Think pudding.) Crumble bacon and stir it in.
• Transfer the bread mixture to the prepared baking pan. Drizzle 3 tablespoons melted butter over the stuffing. Bake until golden, 35 to 45 minutes.

LEEK, MUSHROOM AND BACON STUFFING WITH TARRAGON

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread bread cubes on 2 rimmed baking sheets. Bake until bread is almost dry, about 15 minutes. Cool. Transfer to large bowl.
• Sauté bacon in large pot over medium-high heat until crisp, about 12 minutes. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Reserve 6 tablespoons drippings in pot; discard any remaining drippings.
• Add leeks and button mushrooms to same pot. Sauté over medium-high heat until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add shiitake mushrooms and saute 4 minutes. Add celery and sauté until leeks and mushrooms are tender but celery is still slightly crisp, about 6 minutes longer. (Bread, bacon and sautéed vegetables can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover separately. Store bread at room temperature; refrigerate bacon and vegetables.) Mix bacon, sautéed vegetables and tarragon into bread. Season generously with salt and pepper. Mix eggs into stuffing.
• To bake stuffing in turkey:
• Loosely fill main cavity with stuffing. Add enough broth to remaining stuffing to moisten lightly (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup, depending on amount of remaining stuffing). Generously butter glass baking dish. Spoon remaining stuffing into prepared dish. Cover with buttered foil, buttered side down. Bake stuffing in dish alongside turkey until heated through, about 25 to 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is slightly crisp and golden, about 15 to 20 minutes.
• To bake all of stuffing in baking dish:
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter 15 x 10 x 2-inch . Add enough broth to stuffing to moisten (about 3/4 to 1 cup). Transfer stuffing to prepared dish. Cover with butter foil, buttered side down; bake until heated through, about 30 to 35 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is slightly crisp and golden, about 20 to 25 minutes longer.

BUTTERED STUFFING WITH CELERY AND LEEKS

Steps:

• Using your hands, tear bread, crust and all, into 1 1/2- to 2-inch pieces. (Alternatively, you can cut the bread with a knife, but I prefer the way the craggy bits toast and soak up the goods.) Place chunks on a rimmed baking sheet, and let sit uncovered at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours. If you're short on time, you can toast the chunks in a 300-degree oven instead, tossing occasionally, until lightly crisped, but not browned, on the outside.
• Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, combine olive oil and 4 tablespoons butter. Once butter has melted, add the garlic and leeks. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until leeks are bright green and totally softened, 8 to 10 minutes.
• Add celery, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally until bright green and tender, 4 to 6 minutes. Add white wine, and cook until reduced by about three-quarters, 3 to 4 minutes. Add red-pepper flakes, if using, and remove from heat.
• Whisk together broth and eggs in a medium bowl. Place bread in a large bowl (you want a lot of room for mixing, so go big), and add the leek and celery mixture, parsley, chives and marjoram. Stir to coat so that everything is evenly distributed, trying not to totally crush the bread. Pour the egg mixture over everything and toss a few times. Let sit a minute or two and give another toss. Repeat twice until all the liquid has absorbed and evenly distributed to each and every piece of bread.
• Transfer mixture to a 2 1/2- to 3-quart baking dish (a 9-by-13 pan also works), making sure not to pack it too tightly. (You want to keep the bread in the stuffing as light as possible.) Dot the top with the remaining 4 tablespoons butter, making sure to pay extra attention to the corners, where the stuffing will get the crispiest.
• Cover with foil and bake until the stuffing is sizzling at the edges and completely cooked through, 25 to 30 minutes. If it's not yet time to serve, remove stuffing from oven and set aside. (If you are nearly ready to serve, proceed directly to the next step and continue without pausing.)
• When ready to serve, remove foil and increase temperature to 425 degrees. Bake stuffing until crispy, crunchy and impossibly golden brown on top, 20 to 25 minutes. Scatter with celery leaves, if using, and serve.

CORNBREAD, BACON, LEEK, AND PECAN STUFFING

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread pecans on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast in oven for 7 minutes. Let cool slightly; coarsely chop. Mix together pecans and cornbread in a large bowl.
• Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Cook bacon in a large high-sided skillet over medium-high heat until almost crisp, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; add celery and leeks. Cook until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Stir in thyme and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt; season with pepper. Transfer to a large bowl.
• Return skillet to medium-high heat, and add stock; bring to a simmer, scraping up brown bits and stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Add to bowl with bacon-vegetable mixture. Stir in eggs. Gently mix in corn bread mixture. (Do not overmix.) Transfer to baking dish. Dot top with butter. Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes.