Apple, Onion, and Leek Stuffing

In keeping with my desire to learn new recipes and ingredients...

I whipped up a relatively easy side dish that I was pretty happy with...



I've used leeks maybe about two or three times before. I bought some last week and needed to use it before it went bad. Below are the ingredients used (sans the salt and black pepper) for a stuffing recipe.

Pouring the chicken broth onto the dish...

Letting the bread, onions, apples,and leeks soak up the broth...

All we need is a turkey (or in the original recipe's case, a roasted chicken)!

But no, this was enjoyed as a side dish earlier tonight.

Roasted Chicken with Apple, Onion, and Leek Stuffing
(adapted from p. 96 of "The Frugal Foodie Cookbook" by Alanna Kaufman and Alex Small)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2, leeks, chopped
2 apples, chopped (I used Gala because it was all I had on hand)
1/2 tsp dried sage (omitted because I didn't have it)
1 tsp dried parsley (omitted because I didn't have it either)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (I used 3/4 cup)
1 cup day-old bread, cubed (I used a little more than a cup)
3/4 cup chicken stock (I dissolved 1 tsp of "Better than Bouillon" chicken base in 1 cup of warm water)
1 (4-5 pound) whole roasting chicken

*substituted dried sage and dried parsley with 1 and 1/2 tsp of Bell's Seasoning

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F

For stuffing:
Heat olive oil in large skillet, add onions and leeks
Cook until soft; add apples, sage, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper
Cook 2 minutes; stir in walnuts and bread
Slowly add stock; saute until stock is absorbed

For chicken:
Wash and pat chicken dry.
Place in roasting pan; stuff with apple, onion, and leek stuffing
Season with salt and pepper
Bake 20 minutes per pound, or until chicken juices run clear and the internal temperature of the breast meat is 165 F.
As you can tell, I skipped the chicken part entirely and just made the stuffing itself.

Baked it for 20-25 minutes at 350 F.

[*A special note - I first heard of Bell's Seasoning from one of Mary's posts, Memere's Pork Stuffing, and ended up ordering a small box from Amazon.]

The stuffing smelled so good coming out of the oven and was great as a side dish to our dinner salad. Stuffing - It's not for Thanksgiving anymore, eh.!