Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays. It has the beauty of the fall season and time spent with family and friends, without all the commercialism and sometimes stress, of Christmas. I also love a holiday where the focus is on the meal… and family, of course! 😉
There’s turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce, squash, corn and gravy, but the dressing if often the most talked about dish. I love slow cooker sausage dressing and have been making it with turkey dinners for years.
The joy is this dressing is that it is made in your slow cooker, so you don’t have to worry about space in your oven. Prep it earlier in the day, turn it on, and then when dinner is ready, your dressing will be warmed and ready to go. It’s perfect!
Slow Cooker Sausage Dressing
The first step involves frying up 1-lb of ground pork with onions and celery. If I can get it, I like to use Johnsonville sausage meat. If not, I sometimes buy whole sausages and squeezed the meat out of the casing. It works just as well, but the sausage meat is just so easy.
After adding your sausage, onions and celery to your greased slow cooker, you just add the rest of the ingredients and stir. It couldn’t be easier! You can make your own croutons, or use bags of ready-made, which is what I usually do. Walnuts or pecans are optional, but I really like addition of nuts.
- 1 lb sausage
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 celery ribs, chopped
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 1½ tsp rubbed sage
- ½ tsp pepper
- 9 cups seasoned croutons
- 1 large tart apple, chopped
- 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
- In a large skillet, cook and crumble sausage with onion and celery over medium heat until no longer pink, 5-7 minutes
- Transfer sausage mixture to a greased 5-qt. slow cooker
- Stir in broth, eggs, melted butter, sage and pepper.
- Add remaining ingredients; mix lightly to combine.
- Cook, covered, on low for 4-5 hours
If you’re not in the mood for turkey, slow cooker sausage dressing also goes well with roast chicken. Serve with a spiced cranberry sauce or try a nice brandied cranberry sauce for a change. So simple and delicious, sausage dressing, is one of my favourite parts of the meal.
How do you make dressing? A traditional potato dressing or do you prefer bread dressings? Nuts and apples, or is that a no-no? 😉 I’d love to hear how you make you make your dressing and what you put in it. Leave a comment and let us know!
Your recipe is similar to my oven cooked dressing, I also like to add dried/fresh cranberries and summer savory because I love the smell and taste, one year I forgot to get the walnuts or pecans so I substituted toasted almonds and it turned out to be another fave variation. I love your site and your recipes!
Thanks MaryAnne! Like your ideas…I may try those sometime. 🙂