When asked why they hated Americans the French responded “parce que vous achetez les croutons.” (because you buy croutons)

I don’t know who to attribute that quote to, but I’ve always liked it as a statement on French vs American cooking.  I usually make bread once a week, a boule or a loaf, but I don’t eat that much bread and it can go stale quickly.  In trying to figure out what to do with a ½ a loaf of white bread I thought I would try to make some stuffing as a side dish with dinner.  My wife loves stuffing and I have tried making stuffing (unsuccessfully) in the past.  It always just tasted like wet bread.  So to appease my wife I would buy and happily eat Stovetop stuffing from a box.  Finally being ashamed enough that I couldn’t prepare what seemed to be a rather simple dish, and happening to have what I figured were the right ingredients on hand I tried again.  This time successfully.

Homemade Stovetop Stuffing

2 cups of croutons

¾ cup chicken stock

Salt if your stock does not already contain it 

Pat of butter

1 stalk celery diced

1 leek cut into rounds and separated

1 tablespoon garlic (or to taste)

1 tablespoon of sage

1.       Make your croutons.  For me all I had to do was cut ½ a loaf of white bread into the right shape and leave it out overnight, you may need to place yours in a low oven tossing regularly depending on how wet your bread it or how quickly you need your croutons.

2.       In a sauce pot combine butter, leeks, garlic, celery and ½ the sage.  Sautee until the celery and leeks get soft and aromatic.

3.       Add your chicken stock and bring to a boil.

4.       Add in your croutons

5.       Add in the rest of the sage

6.       Stir, mixing thoroughly, cover and let sit for a few minutes

7.       Serve along side roasted anything

Sage is the secret that I had been missing and caused my previous incarnations to taste like wet bread (no matter how flavorful the stock.)  I am now convinced I could add croutons, salt, water and sage to a pot and come out with acceptable stuffing.