Sausage Dressing with Pears is hands down my favorite Thanksgiving side dish for 5 years and counting! You’ll never make another recipe after this one.

Let me just start off by saying, this is not my original recipe! It’s just wayyy to good for me to claim that I came up with it, so I need to give credit where credit is due!

My friend Chelsea over at With A Plum posted this Sausage Dressing recipe about 5 years ago, and it immediately became my all-time favorite Thanksgiving side dish. I believe she had made it for a church potluck at one point, and once I saw it up on her blog I had to try it for myself! Now you can say I’m a bit of a dressing snob…

The ultimate mark of a coffee snob to me is someone who brings his grinder, his beans, and his pourover when we travel (**ahem, my husband) because he just doesn’t want to deal with the potential of having some sub-par coffee.

I think I might be in this camp now when it comes to dressing. In the past 5 years we’ve hosted Thanksgiving and have also traveled to various places and for me, the one thing that makes or breaks a Thanksgiving meal is the dressing. I’ve never been a fun of stuffing (the kind that gets cooked inside the bird)… it’s just too mushy for my liking. I’ve also been exposed to cornbread dressing, dressing with oysters, dressing with eggs, dressing made from a box, etc. None of it quite does it for me!

This dressing is truly perfect in every way. It starts with sausage and butter. How can you go wrong with that as the beginning?

Next all the right veggies get sauteed in MORE butter. Again, yes. They become just tender enough that there’s no crunch, but also not too mushy that they don’t stand out in a sea of moist bread.

Oh, let’s not forget about the bread. I prefer using sourdough, but my friend just told me she’s starting using caraway rye and that sounds delicious as well! That’ll be on my list to try next year for sure.

Last thing. Let’s talk about the pears. They’re divine. I’ve had apples, cranberries, and craisins in the past, and those are all tasty for sure, but the pears bring a whole new subtle soft sweetness to the dressing that just can’t be competed with.

Closing thoughts: dressing is a must. The RIGHT dressing is an even bigger must. This Thanksgiving sausage dressing with pears is it!

Thanksgiving Sausage Dressing with Pears

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Author: Jessie
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Yield: 10–12 1x

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Description

Sausage Dressing with Pears is hands down my favorite Thanksgiving side dish for 5 years and counting! You’ll never make another recipe after this one.

Ingredients

Scale

1 large loaf day-old sourdough bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 12 cups)
1 stick unsalted butter (affiliate), cut into pieces, plus more for baking dish
1 1/2 large onions, chopped (about 3 c)
2 small leeks, trimmed, thinly sliced into half-moons, and rinsed well (about 3 cups)
3 stalks celery, chopped (about 1 1/4 cups)
3 firm-ripe pears, chopped (about 3 cups)
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage leaves
1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley
1 1/2 lbs sweet Italian sausage, removed from casings
2 ½ cups chicken broth (affiliate)

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Spread bread cubes around baking sheets and bake until dried out.
In a large pot over medium heat, cook sausage in 2 tablespoons butter. Break it up into small pieces and brown.
Remove the sausage from the pot, drain off most of the fat, and melt the remaining butter. Cook onions, celery, and leeks until soft and translucent. Add salt and pepper.
Stir in the pears and herbs, add back the sausage. Add ½ cup chicken broth and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Add in the bread cubes and stir in the remaining chicken broth until the desired texture is reached.
Heat oven to 425. Grease a 9×13 deep casserole dish with butter and add the stuffing. Place pats of butter on the top. Bake for 30-45 minutes until the edges are crispy.