Mushroom and French Bread Dressing

This past weekend when Steve was trying out frying a turkey, he suggested I try a different dressing to go with it. Around here, dressing is always of the southern cornbread variety. Well, that takes a lot of time and effort, and his grandsons were here, so I wasn’t excited about the idea. And, then I thought to myself other people (from somewhere else, not even sure where) make bread dressing, so I should try that. I didn’t have to make cornbread first, so this really cut down on the time. And, it was really good. Now, I have to be honest with you though. Cornbread dressing is one of my favorite things to eat, and I only make it at Thanksgiving, so this is not going to replace my yearly favorite.

This recipe kind of reminds me of a savory bread pudding. I used all of my favorite ingredients from the usual cornbread dressing plus mushrooms, which are an ingredient in another dressing recipe that I tried and liked a few years ago. It also has the addition of a small amount of bacon, which gives it a little extra flavor.

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Mushroom and French Bread Dressing

Author Michelle

Yield 8

Ingredients

• 12 cups toasted French bread, broken into bite sized pieces (about 1 pound)
• 5 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled (reserve the grease for cooking the vegetables)
• 1 1/4 cups celery, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 12 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1/4 fresh sage, chopped
• 1/4 fresh parsley, chopped
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Instructions

1. Grease a 9″ x 13″ baking dish.
2. Toast French bread at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Turn it over and toast an additional 10 minutes on the other side. Break into bite sized pieces and place in a large bowl.
3. Fry the bacon until crisp in a large skillet, leaving the grease in the pan to cook the vegetables. Cool and crumble.
4. Add the butter, celery,onions and mushrooms. Saute until tender and most of the liquid produced by the mushrooms has evaporated.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Add the vegetables, sage, parsley, broth, and eggs to the bread. Stir until all is moistened and all ingredients are evenly distributed.
7. Pour into prepared dish.
8. Bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes or until it is set in the center and the top is browned. If it starts to get too brown before it is set, cover with foil.

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