This year skip your typical stuffing recipe. Instead, try this Southern holiday side dish instead! Check out this Easy Oyster Dressing recipe!
This Easy Oyster Dressing recipehas been sponsored by Sister Schubert’s.
Dressing recipe for Thanksgiving! It’s a Southern side dish favorite!
Until I was a teenager we moved around a lot with the Air Force and Thanksgiving dinner wasn’t very eventful. Neither of my parents really cooked.
So the idea of making a huge turkey dinner for just three people seemed like more trouble and work than it was worth. Most of my memories as a child on Thanksgiving involved some sort of restaurant.
Thanksgiving dinner forever changed at 13 when my grandparents came to live with us. They were both used to a full spread of holiday dishes and my grandma had no problems getting up before the sun to get the turkey prepped and in the oven. As I said, my mom wasn’t much of a cook so my grandma took it upon herself to teach me how and I quickly became her Thanksgiving sous chef.
My grandma was a firm believer in working smarter, not harder. Especially on Thanksgiving.
She wasn’t about to waste precious time making homemade rolls when she could get the same taste, faster and easier by popping Sister Schubert’s Dinner Yeast Rolls in the oven 5-10 minutes before dinner was ready. She would time things just right so that as people started sitting down at the table, the warm basket of Sister Schubert’s Dinner Yeast Rolls would appear.
Oyster Dressing Recipe
Influenced by the other grandma and my Florida roots, I combined our family tradition of Sister Schubert’s Dinner Yeast Rolls with a Southern Thanksgiving staple in this easy oyster dressing recipe.
My uncle’s a fisherman, so when the entire family gets together for the holidays, seafood is usually found. I would assume there was probably some seafood at the first Thanksgiving as well!
How do you make oyster dressing?
My oyster dressing recipe is almost completely homemade. I took a few shortcuts by using a cornbread stuffing mix and the frozen dinner rolls. But everything else is pretty fresh.
You can read the complete recipe on the printable recipe card below.
To make oyster dressing, you need a can of oysters and some oyster juice. You’ll brown the onion, celery, and garlic in some butter first. Then you’ll boil chicken broth with the oyster juice. This is what gives it so much flavor!
After that starts to boil, remove it from the heat and add this cajun seasoning (for a really amazing kick!), stuffing mix and the oysters and place everything over some cubed cooked dinner rolls. Mix this up just a bit with a fork – but don’t over mix it.
What you have is a powerful Thanksgiving side dish everyone will love.
What is the difference between stuffing and dressing?
Literally, stuffing is the bread mixture that you stuff inside the turkey. When you make it as a stand-alone side dish, it’s dressing. If you like dressing, you might like this rice dressing recipe.
"Stuffing is cooked in the cavity of the turkey, so the juices soak into the ingredients, making it more flavorful.Dressing gets cooked on its own and needs extra liquid to make it flavorful." So stuffing is cooked inside the bird. Dressing is cooked outside the bird, usually in a casserole dish.
"Stuffing is cooked in the cavity of the turkey, so the juices soak into the ingredients, making it more flavorful.Dressing gets cooked on its own and needs extra liquid to make it flavorful." So stuffing is cooked inside the bird. Dressing is cooked outside the bird, usually in a casserole dish.
While oysters aren't commonly associated with a Thanksgiving feast, they actually played a larger role in the origination of the holiday than you'd think. The mollusks were likely feature prominently on the tables of early American settlers, unlike a turkey.
But for the Thanksgiving side dish in the South, the term dressing was adopted in place of stuffing, which was viewed as a crude term, during the Victorian era. Although dressing and stuffing are interchangeable terms, the signature ingredient of this Thanksgiving side dish in the South is cornbread.
Stuffing and dressing are commonly used as different names for the same thing—a dish consisting of bits of bread (or other starchy things) and various seasonings. The dish can be made by stuffing it (hence the name) inside a turkey or other bird that will be roasted, or by baking or cooking it separately.
The most common uses for oyster sauce include stir-fry sauces, glazes, and marinades. Oyster sauce flavors chicken, beef, vegetables like broccoli, noodles, and rice dishes. It is an important component to cashew chicken and even a type of radish cake. Make homemade hoisin sauce or teriyaki sauce by using oyster sauce.
Here are our guidelines: Oysters: Appetizer Engagements: 3-4 oysters per person. As a second or third course (where other items are being served with the oysters): 5-6 oysters per person. For a main course (including an Oyster Roast or a Bull & Oyster Roast), figure 6-8 oysters per person.
Put the oysters in a pot of water and bring the water to a boil. Once it boils, remove from heat and drain the oysters in a colander. Rinse them with water just so they're cool to the touch. Do not pat them dry as a little moisture is necessary for the breading to stick.
In the northern hemisphere, the old rule that native oysters should only be eaten when there's an 'r' in the month still holds true; so eat oysters from September to April. During the summer months they're busy spawning, and their flesh becomes unpleasantly soft and milky. Rock oysters are available all year round.
Millions of people across the United States will sit down to a traditional Thanksgiving meal, including turkey, potatoes, squash, corn, and cranberries.
So, to the question “What did the Pilgrims eat for Thanksgiving,” the answer is both surprising and expected. Turkey (probably), venison, seafood, and all of the vegetables that they had planted and harvested that year—onions, carrots, beans, spinach, lettuce, and other greens.
The best side dishes to serve with oysters are grilled asparagus, clam chowder, lobster tails, smoked cod, fried shrimp, classic mignonette sauce, crusty French baguette, lemon herb couscous, garlic spinach, cucumber dill salad, white wine and butter sauce, and steamed broccoli.
Dressing is made with cornbread, and is baked in a pan instead of inside the bird. I view Stove Top stuffing as a totally distinct entity from this most beloved of holiday dishes. It is not the stuff of celebrations, but it is a perfectly suitable side dish the rest of the year.
While you can use almost any bread — cornbread, bagels, or even frozen waffles — to make stuffing, it needs to be dried or “staled” first. Any attempts to make stuffing with soft, fresh baked bread will result in a bread soup with a soggy texture. Follow this tip: Stale, dried-out bread makes the best stuffing.
Should I stuff my turkey? Stuffing cooked inside the turkey cavities is delicious, but it does slow down the cooking time and could be a potential health hazard if done incorrectly. For perfect no-worry results, opt for "dressing" instead – stuffing cooked alongside the bird instead of inside.
Ironically, the term “dressing” replaced stuffing because many folks found it offensive. (Can you see all of the social media posts and hashtags that would have been made?) As far as stuffing/dressing becoming a regular staple of the Thanksgiving Day meal, there are written records as far back as 1836.
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