Sticky Rice Stuffing

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This is a twist on Thanksgiving stuffing that my mom makes.  Everything we do has a bit of an Asian flair to it so the ingredients may seem a bit odd.  Trust me though, give this a chance and you’ll see why this is just as good (if not better!) than any other stuffing variation.

Ingredients:

• One bag of croutons (seasoned or not, doesn’t matter)
• One cup uncooked sticky rice (Sushi rice)
• 1/2 cup cooked chestnuts
• 1lb ground pork
• 2tbsp diced ginger
• Three diced celery stalks
• One diced carrot
• Six diced shitake mushrooms

Directions:

1. Cook the sticky rice however you would normally cook your rice.  You can use this time to cut and dice the rest of the ingredients.
2. Heat up a pan with some oil.  When the oil is hot, add the ginger.
3. When you can smell the fragrance from the ginger, add the pork with a dash of cooking wine.  Cook until all water has been evaporated from the pork.
4. Add the celery, carrots, and mushrooms and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
5. In a large bowl, mix in the contents of the pan with the sticky rice, the croutons, and the chestnuts.
6. At this point, my mom would stuff the turkey.  There are whispers of this being “unsafe”, so alternatively you can take some of the pan drippings of a cooked turkey and add it to the mixture.

At this point you’re technically done.  I like the texture of the stuffing when it gets baked with the turkey, so here are some optional steps.

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spread the stuffing on a baking sheet.
3. When the oven is hot, add the stuffing to the oven.
4. Have some chicken broth or more turkey drippings if you have enough on the side.  You’ll need to pour a little over the stuffing so it doesn’t burn.
5. Leave in the oven for thirty minutes.  You’ll need to pour some broth on the stuffing every ten minutes or so.  Not too much or else you’ll end up with soggy stuffing and no one likes that.
6. If you’d like, leave it in the oven for a little while longer so that a crispy layer forms on top.  Careful that it doesn’t burn!

And that’s it.  Thanksgiving, Asian style!  This is a baseline recipe and you can definitely tweak the amount of mushrooms and chestnuts to taste.