Do you need a great recipe for chestnut stuffing? Sausage and chestnut stuffing is a traditional Thanksgiving turkey stuffing for many Italian families in the United States. If you don't have your own family recipe that's been passed down through the generations, feel free to adopt this one! Read on to learn how to make chestnut stuffing, step by step.

You can start this stuffing by using canned chestnuts, but roasting them yourself gives the stuffing a richer flavor, so it's worth the burned fingers. Check out Mahalo's page on How to Roast Chestnuts if you've never tackled roasting chestnuts yourself before.

• Meat grinder or food processor

• This recipe will stuff an 18-22 pound turkey. Feel free to adjust the quantities up or down, depending on the size of your bird.

• 2 pound loaf of dense white bread, such as Arnold or Pepperidge Farm
• 1 pound breakfast or sweet Italian sausage meat
• 1/2 pound butter
• 14 shallots, finely chopped
• 1-1 1/2 pounds chestnuts, roasted and shelled
• 3 eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons poultry seasoning

1. Soak bread in water for a few minutes, then squeeze dry and set in large bowl.
2. Sauté the sausage until cooked.
3. Drain fat, and add the shallots to the sausage, continuing to sauté until soft.
4. Melt butter with 1/4 cup water and set aside.
5. Run the bread, sausage mixture, and chestnuts through the a meat grinder, alternating each, until all the stuffing has been processed. If you don't have a meat grinder, you'll want to pulse each separately in a food grinder, and then mix thoroughly in a large bowl with your hands.
6. Add the eggs, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper, and half of the butter water mixture to the stuffing and stir until combined.
7. Stuff the turkey and roast as usual, using the remaining butter water mixture to baste the bird until drippings begin to accumulate.
8. This stuffing produces rich dark drippings for a hearty gravy

• This stuffing can be cooked outside the bird, if desired. To cook it outside the bird, place in a greased casserole dish and refrigerate until 45 minutes before the turkey is done. Bake covered at 350 for 45 minutes, uncovering the stuffing for the last 10 minutes.