Pineapple Stuffing

Servings 6 -8 servings

Ingredients

6 Tablespoons 3 ounces unsalted butter
1/2 cup finely chopped celery about 2 medium stalks
1/2 cup finely chopped onion about 1 small onion
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 20 ounce can crushed pineapple, in it's own juice, not heavy syrup, drained
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf, Italian parsley
8 slices sturdy white bread sliced into cubes

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 11 x 7 baking dish or 2 quart casserole with cooking spray.
Melt butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Add celery, onions and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes or until softened. Set aside to cool.
Whisk eggs and sugar in a large bowl until combined.
Add drained pineapple and parsley and stir to combine.
Add slightly cooled celery/onion/butter mixture and stir to combine.
Add bread cubes and gently toss with a large spoon, bringing the wet mixture from the bottom, up and over the bread repeatedly until all bread cubes are evenly coated. Try not to mash or smash the bread cubes while doing this step.
Lightly spoon the stuffing into prepared baking dish. Evenly distribute in the pan, but do not pack it down.
Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 25 minutes covered. Remove foil and continue to bake until golden brown, an additional 25-30 minutes.
Allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe Notes

*I drained the pineapple in a sieve pressing down gently a few times to squeeze out additional juice. You don't have to press it until it's bone dry, just until it's not dripping lots of juice.

*You could also try fresh pineapple, but you may need to add some pineapple juice or veg/chicken broth if it's not a juicy pineapple.

*I used kosher salt, if you use table salt, reduce to 1/2 teaspoon, or to taste.

*If you use salted butter, reduce salt to 1/4 teaspoon, or to taste.

*Make sure to use a sturdy white bread. Pillowy light bread will not hold up well to all of this moisture, especially since we are not using stale or toasted bread.

*UPDATE 12-25-16: 1 slice of bread cut into about 1" squares= about 1 heaping cup of fresh bread cubes. I did not pack it into the cup, I just lightly place them.

*If your stuffing is in a dish where the foil will rest on top of it while baking, go ahead and give the foil a little spray with cooking spray to help prevent the stuffing from sticking.

*For the original sweet stuffing, use 1 stick (4 ounces) salted butter (melted), 1 cup sugar, 4 eggs, 1 (20 ounce) can of crushed pineapple, drained and 5 slices cubed white bread. Mix together and bake in prepared pan, uncovered, at 350 for about 1 hour.