A Bucks County Thanksgiving - PA Dutch Mashed Potato Stuffing

This stuffing has been on my married life family Thanksgiving table since the day I said "I do". My wonderful mother-in-law always made it and recently my beautiful sister-in-law has taken on the honorable job. I have been hosting Thanksgiving for about 16 years and have introduced many new items to my family, however, this is the one item that cannot, under any circumstances be changed or altered. To my famiy's credit, I have changed a lot of the Thanksgiving menu and traditional foods on them over the years. But I respect the tradition of this dish next to the turkey. So this is why my sister-in-law makes it now - an Unger by blood. Because I, of course, being a chef and a hopeless tinkerer, can not stop myself from putting my own twist on each recipe I make. I encourage you to do the same.

I will give you the traditional recipe that was handed to me. At it's heart this dish is really two dishes blended together - stuffing and mashed potatoes - because more is more! So there are really two places then where you can make an impact on the flavor. The bread is the first place where you can either elevate this dish to something like gourmet mac and cheese perhaps OR you can make it as plain and tasteless as a box of bright orange mac and cheese from the grocery store. My mother-in-law always used bread from a bag bought in a store - half the amount white and half whole wheat. But me being me, when I make this dish on one of the other 364 days of the year, I either make my own crusty bread or would recommend you buy a loaf from a bakery. You can use sourdough, Italian, French or anything with a similar flavor. The second place you can really make an impact, obviously, is the mashed potatoes. Here too, you can buy potato flakes and add hot water OR you can make your own, fresh mashed potatoes with tons of real flavor. The big benefit to making the bread and mashed potatoes yourself is you ditch the preservatives, shelf stabilizers and other artificial ingredients and trade that for fresh, pure, clean flavor AND you control the level of salt. Does it take more time? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes! The choice is yours. I, of course, recommend that you make each component with the very best ingredients and make it as flavorful as possible -so when you blend them together you have created a whole new version of comfort food that can be as healthy for you as it is delicous.

The ingredients of this dish are bread, celery, onion, parsley, chicken broth, mashed potatoes and salt and peper. Again, the final product depends greatly on the quality of the bread and mashed potatoes you choose. So as you read through the recipe, keep this in mind and choose wisely ;)

yield about 12 servings - 13 x 9 baking dish

For the stuffing:

approx. 24 slices of sandwich bread or 1 large loaf or 2 medium loaves of crusty bread

6 stalks of celery with leaves, medium dice

1 small bunch of parsley or 10 stalks

1 large onion diced

approx. 2 cups chicken broth, more if desired

12 servings of mashed potatoes, flavored to your preference (garlic, herb, etc.)

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice bread into cubes and place in a large bowl. Add celery, onion and parsley. Add enough chicken broth to slightly moisten the bread. Stir to check moisture level. Add mashed potatoes and mix well. Spray 13 x 9 baking dish with cooking spray and add mixture, spreading evenly. Bake for approximately 45 minutes until top is nicely browned. Enjoy!