Indian-American Thanksgiving Stuffing

Growing up, Selim ate Indian food for Thanksgiving. His biological grandparents lived hours away and so his family celebrated with his non-biological family – who just so happen to be from India. So their traditional Thanksgiving table had samosas and paneer, as well as a turkey. When we realized we were going to be cooking our own Thanksgiving dinner for just ourselves this Thanksgiving, we wanted to incorporate a nod to his childhood Thanksgivings. Hence, we came up with this Indian-American stuffing. We used naan as our bread for the stuffing and incorporated Indian flavors into the dish. Dare we say that it turned out to be the perfect Thanksgiving fusion dish! It’s a little spicy and deeply flavorful, but it still fits in well with the rest of a traditional table. And although it is delicious solo, it is amazing with some turkey gravy smothered on top, cutting the spiciness a bit.

Indian-American Stuffing

Ingredients: 

• 5 pieces of naan, torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 cup butter (+ extra)
• 2 small onions, chopped
• Fresh black pepper
• 2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 dried sanam chilies, coarsely chopped
• 6 large sage leaves, coarsely chopped
• 2 tbsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2(+) cups of chicken/turkey stock
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Instructions:

1. Leave the naan out for 12+ hours, overnight the night before preparing the stuffing. Place the torn pieces of naan in a large bowl.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Melt the butter in a large pan. Once melted, add the onions and cook over low heat for ~5 minutes. Top with plenty of fresh ground black pepper. Follow the onions with the garlic and ginger. Cook for another 3-4 minutes.
4. Now add the chopped chilies, sage leaves, and garam masala. Cook for just another minute.
5. While those are cooking, whisk together 2 cups of stock with the 2 eggs and Worcestershire sauce.
6. Pour the butter mixture over the naan and stir to coat.
7. Now pour the stock mixture over the naan and stir until the liquid is all absorbed.
8. {Add additional stock in small increments if needed. The bread should be completely saturated, but without pools of un-absorbed liquid.}
9. Grease a glass 9×13 pan with butter. Pour the stuffing into the pan.
10. Bake the stuffing for 40-45 minutes, covered with foil.
11. Uncover and increase the heat to 425 (or turn on a convection fan if you have it, keeping the heat at 350) for just a few minutes to brown the top.

Serves 8-10 as a side