Rigatoni with Chicken Thighs

This hearty stuffing requires no use of a stove-top or oven-simply add cut-up stale French bread, a few vegetables and sweet Italian sausage to a slow cooker and let the machine do the rest. Only a small amount of chicken broth is necessary because the vegetables and sausage give off so much liquid (and flavor).
Directions for: Slow-Cooker Sausage Stuffing

Ingredients

8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces plus more for greasing the slow cooker

1 large crusty loaf of French bread or two baguettes (not sourdough), cut into 1-inch pieces and staled overnight (about 14 cups)

1 large onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces (about 2 cups)

2 medium carrots, cut into 1/3-inch pieces (about 1 heaping cup)

2 stalks celery, cut into 1/3-inch pieces (about 1 cup)

1 tsp finely minced fresh thyme leaves

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1 lb(s) sweet Italian sausage, casings removed

2 Tbsp roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 6-quart slow cooker with butter.

2. Toss the stale French bread, butter, onions, carrots, celery, thyme and 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper in the slow cooker. Pour the chicken broth over the bread mixture and toss to coat. Use your hands to tear teaspoon-size pieces of the Italian sausage and put them directly on top of the bread mixture. The sausage should cover most of the stuffing.

3. Cover the slow cooker and cook on low until the sausage is cooked through and the vegetables are tender, about 4 hours. Remove the lid and gently stir the sausage into the stuffing. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper. Transfer to a shallow serving dish and garnish with the chopped parsley. Serve hot.

Tips and Substitutions

For this recipe it is important the French bread is extremely stale (on the verge of dried-out). If you do not have the time to leave the bread out to become stale overnight, simply dry out the cut bread in a low oven.

Source and Credits

Copyright 2014 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved.

Courtesy of Food Network Kitchen

See more: Bread, Christmas, Herbs, Pork, Side, Thanksgiving, Vegetables, Slow Cook