Emeril Lagasse’s Simple But Fabulous Stuffing
A delicious stuffing with southern flair.
Bam! Emeril Lagasse cooks everything with an exclamation, so you can naturally expect his ‘Simple but Fabulous’ Stuffing to be full of flavor. With bacon and a few other out of the ordinary ingredients, it seemed pretty clear to us that his stuffing would be delicious… but would it be our favorite? We set out to find out.
We made this stuffing as a part of our Celebrity Stuffing Recipe Showdown. The showdown is a fun project where we take four celebrity recipes — some celebrity chefs, some not so much — cook them, and then taste and compare them to see how they stack up. This match-up included Ina Garten, Gwyneth Paltrow, Emeril Lagasse, and Marilyn Monroe. We ended up with four very different stuffings!
What’s in Emeril Lagasse’s Stuffing?
There’s most of the things you would expect in stuffing and a few things you wouldn’t. He calls for:
- Bacon
- Butter
- Onion
- Celery
- Poultry seasoning
- Garlic
- Day-old French bread
- Chicken broth
- Eggs
- Parsley
- Scallions
- Baby Bam seasoning
Bacon, garlic, scallions, and Baby Bam seasoning are sure to bring some unique flavor! If you can’t find Baby Bam, Emeril has a recipe to make it yourself on his website, but it’s essentially cajun seasoning.
How Do You Make Emeril Lagasse’s Stuffing?
Since he has you use day-old bread, Emeril doesn’t ask you to toast the bread first. Instead, you start by browning up some bacon, then adding some butter (this is rich stuff!), followed by the onion and celery, which you cook until soft. Then it’s time for the poultry seasoning and garlic and then everything gets mixed together — the bread, the bacon and veggies, seasonings, chicken broth, eggs — and it bakes, but not before getting drizzled with even more butter.
How Does It Taste?
It’s good! At first appearance, it seems to have a lot going on, but it handles it well. It has really nice flavor, but for being a stuffing that’s influenced by bacon, it actually could’ve used more bacon. If you’re going to use bacon, just go for it! The bam seasoning and scallions give it a somewhat southern vibe. Overall, we found it to be a really tasty and savory stuffing, and a nice departure from your usual holiday fare.
But what about the texture? In some parts, it was almost too moist, though the top was wonderfully crisp. (Love that combo in a stuffing!) If we were to make it again, we’d back off one of the eggs and some of the liquid.
We made this as part of our Celebrity Recipe Showdown.
To see how it stacked up, read on here:
Celebrity Stuffing Recipe Showdown
You can see the other celebrity Stuffing recipes here:
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Classic Bread Stuffing
Marilyn Monroe’s Thanksgiving Stuffing
Ina Garten’s Sausage and Herb Stuffing
Emeril Lagasse’s Simple But Fabulous Stuffing
Ingredients
- 1/4 lb bacon (4-5 slices), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 2 cups yellow onion, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
- 12-14 cups cubed (1/2-inch) day-old French bread
- 2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 tablespoons scallions, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon Baby Bam seasoning
Preparation
- Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400°F.
- In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, brown the bacon. Cook, stirring often, until crisp and golden, 4-5 minutes.
- Add 4 tablespoons of the butter to the pan, along with the onion and celery, and cook until vegetables are soft, 5-6 minutes.
- Stir in poultry seasoning and garlic and cook 2 minutes more.
- Transfer mixture to a large bowl, then add bread cubes, chicken broth, beaten eggs, parsley, scallions, salt, pepper, and bam seasoning. Stir to combine with a wooden spoon.
- Use 1 tablespoon of the remaining butter to butter the sides and bottom of a baking dish. Transfer bread mixture to prepared dish.
- In same skillet that you used for the bacon, melt the remaining 3 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Drizzle butter over bread mixture in baking dish. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake 30 minutes.
- Remove foil, then return to oven until top is golden brown and crispy, 20 minutes more. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe from Emeril Lagasse.