Let us take the stress out of your holiday dinner menu with this simple, portable side dish recipe! These Butternut Sausage Stuffing Muffins are perfect for an office potluck, family gathering, or Friendsgiving.
Need a portable side dish for holiday celebrations?
The holiday season is upon us, which means a calendar full of holiday celebrations, office potlucks, and an array of dinners with family and friends. If you’re anything like me, sometimes you need to have a trick up your sleeve for something quick and easy! These Butternut Sausage Squash Muffins are perfect for making holiday dinner season easy peasy.
Made with the same ingredients as many traditional stuffings, the trick with this side dish is transforming them into a portable side dish. When I have to transport food from the house to the office or Grandmother’s house, I want something that’s portable and mess-free. I have terrible memories of taking dishes to holiday dinners or office potlucks, only to arrive and realize they leaked or spilled all over my car! With this recipe, once you arrive at your destination, transfer the muffins to a basket with a gorgeous towel and you have a beautiful side dish ready for the dinner table.
What’s the secret to perfect sausage stuffing?
The key to good stuffing, especially stuffing muffins, is to make sure your bread is nice and crisp, which can be achieved by letting it sit out overnight after it’s been cubed. This helps it keep its structure when you add the moist ingredients like the sautéed vegetables and chicken stock. These butternut Sausage Stuffing Muffins are also a twist on a classic holiday side dish. The chicken sausage brings saltiness to the stuffing, while the sweetness of the butternut squash and fresh apple lighten it just a bit. All of these flavors are enveloped into the crisp bread, making it the perfect simple yet elegant side dish.
What’s on your holiday menu?
These Butternut Sausage Stuffing Muffins will be the star of the show at your next holiday dinner, Friendsgiving, or office potluck. Plus, you’ll love knowing you brought a gorgeous, homemade side dish that was easy and stress free.
Ingredients
- 1 large loaf Italian bread
- 1 lb ground chicken sausage
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup chopped butternut squash
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ¼ tsp dried sage
- ¼ tsp minced garlic
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 apple, cored and chopped
- 2 cup chicken stock
Instructions
- Cut the Italian bread into ½ inch cubes. Lay flat onto a baking sheet, cover loosely with parchment or wax paper, and let sit for 24 hours. Transfer the bread cubes to a large mixing bowl when you’re ready to start assembling the stuffing.
- Preheat oven to 375ºF.
- In a skillet over medium heat, cook the ground chicken sausage.
- While the chicken sausage is cooking, chop and prepare your vegetables.
- Add the butter to a separate skillet and warm over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the onion, celery, squash, apple, thyme, sage, garlic, and salt. Cook until slightly softened, then remove from heat and pour over the bread cubes.
- Remove from heat and pour both the cooked chicken sausage and vegetables over the bread cubes, including all of the fat and drippings from the pan.
- Add the chicken stock to the bread crumbs ½ cup at a time, using your hands to mix it all together.
- Add liners to your muffin pan. Then, spray the inside of the liners with cooking spray. Begin filling each liner with the stuffing mixture, about ¼ of a cup. The muffins will shrink a little bit, but not much, so you want to have a small rounded mound inside each muffin liner.
- Place into the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Notes
Home Chef Tips: Acorn squash can be substituted for the butternut squash. Omit the sausage if preferred. To chop a butternut squash, first peel the skin off the outside. Then, slice lengthwise from top to bottom and then spoon out the seeds and stringy membrane.
We hope you enjoy these Butternut Sausage Stuffing Muffins from SoFabFood Home Chef, Jennifer from Wanderlust and Wellness, as much as we do. If you love this recipe, you can find more like it by visiting our Side Dish Section. For daily recipe inspiration, subscribe to our newsletter, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Pinterest. Enjoy!
