French Canadian Meat Dressing Recipe is Grandpa’s SECRET Thanksgiving turkey stuffing made with ground beef, gluten-free bread, aromatics, lots of fresh ground pepper.
Can You Guess What the SECRET Dressing Ingredient Is?
We bet if you look in your spice cabinet right now, you have it. This special ingredient makes regular Thanksgiving dressing go from ho hum boring to Oh my goodness, please give me seconds or maybe thirds. Are you ready?
Drum roll please…
Fresh Ground Black Pepper and LOTS of it!
When I say a lot of freshly ground pepper, I mean a really BIG punch! This old fashion meat stuffing (dressing) has 3 full teaspoons of pepper in it. You heard me right “3 teaspoons of black pepper”.
Of course, you don’t have to put the full 3 teaspoons of pepper in it if you don’t want to. However, then is would not be Grandpa’s Secret Stuffing, it would be just plain old boring run of the mill ground beef dressing. What sets this stuffing apart from many others is that it comes with a big pack of flavor from the aromatics and a big punch from the freshly ground pepper.
10 Reasons to Love Our French Canadian Meat Dressing Recipe
- This meat stuffing gets a little crispy on the outside and is tender and delicious on the inside, especially when prepared in muffin tins. (AKA MEAT MUFFINS – Perfect individual servings for any holiday dinner gathering)
- Recipe can be prepared in advance of guest’s arrival or even baked in advance and then reheated. It keeps it’s texture and flavor.
- Can be served as stuffing inside a turkey or outside as a side of dressing.
- Dressing can be baked in a single baking dish for easy transport or in muffin tins to allow for more crispy bits on the ends. The little browned crispy bits are our favorite part of this simple oven baked dressing.
- The BEST darn dressing ever! Tried and true family recipe that has been passed on from generation to generation.
- Hearty enough to be served as a main dish with a side salad and vegetable.
- Gluten free, dairy free and egg free. However, you can use plain regular bread if no issues with gluten.
- Easy on the wallet (budget friendly) with just a handful of easy to find ingredients.
- Super flavorful with a big punch of freshly ground pepper to warm you up.
- Perfect side dish along with our Spicy Rosemary Butternut Squash, Balsamic Roasted Fennel and Carrots and our Autumn Kale Salad for Thanksgiving dinner or any autumn meal.
Why Do We Call This Grandpa’s Secret Stuffing?
We call it “Grandpa’s” stuffing as all the grandkids, just love this recipe – and grandpa was the only one who made this each holiday. My father (a descendant of immigrants from Quebec) had never shared this recipe and it had never been written down until 2011 [when we first posted this recipe]. However, over a cup of coffee and some persuasion he started to share his secret stuffing recipe with me. This French-Canadian meat dressing recipe was passed on to him by watching his mother and grandmother in the kitchen. If you love traditional French-Canadian recipes, be sure to try Grandma’s Chicken and Sliders.
We are certain grandpa (dad) is smiling down at us from heaven. He would be proud to share a little of his French-Canadian family tradition on to the world. His rich family history and stories will always be dear to our hearts.
Grandpa’s stuffing has been a celebrated family tradition in our family for many years. Thanksgiving would simply not be Thanksgiving, unless there was Grandpa’s ground beef Thanksgiving stuffing was on the dinner table.
What’s the Difference Between Turkey Dressing and Stuffing?
According to Food and Wine, the main difference is in the method that they are cooked.
Stuffing is usually made with bread and assortment of ingredients and aromatics that is actually stuffed into the cavity of the turkey and then baked inside the turkey.
Dressing is a side dish. It is also made with bread and other ingredients that is baked in a separate dish outside the turkey or other poultry cavity.
The best part of this French-Canadian meat dressing recipe is that it can be made as a traditional old fashion meat stuffing for inside the bird or as a side dish as a dressing. This dressing is also fantastic as a side dish for our Savory Herb Roasted Whole Chicken or stuffed inside a duck or pheasant.
Don’t Forget the Giblets!
Where are all of our French-Canadian friends? You already know that this ground beef Thanksgiving dressing or stuffing usually is made with the chopped up fried turkey giblets along with the ground beef. Turkey giblets are those parts is parts bag that is usually found inside the cavity of the bird when you get it from the store. The giblet package usually has the heart, liver, gizzard and neck of the bird. Waste not want not is the motto of our ancestors.
Will you be making this dressing recipe for children? If so, hold the giblets. As the years went by and more and more grandchildren filled grandpa’s home, he left out these little ingredients to make the kids happy.
Recipe Exchanges and Substitutions
- We like to use lean beef with 90% to 92% lean beef and 8% to 10% fat as we do not like all that extra fat. In addition, if it is lean, you can save a step of draining the beef after it is cooked. A little fat left in is a good thing as it makes it moist and gives it the crispy edges that everyone craves.
- Feel free to use regular bread instead of gluten-free, if no gluten intolerances. It’s a great way to use up that day-old bread.
Meat Stuffing Ingredients
- Ground beef (90-92%. Lean and 8-10% fat). You may also choose to cook up the turkey giblets. They are quite good. However, if you have small children, you may want to skip the giblets.
- Aromatics – celery, onion and garlic. Well, of course garlic!!!
- Freshly ground black pepper and lots of it! If you are making this for small children, you may want to scale back a little on the black pepper, so it is not too spicy for them. Season along the way. Be sure to check out our video below and watch us season throughout the cooking process.
- Olive oil
- Chicken broth
- Bread- gluten free or regular. We used white but use whatever you have on hand.
How to Make Homemade Turkey Dressing?
Here is an overview:
(See recipe card below for full instructions)
Sauté the aromatics until translucent and then add the ground beef and cook until brown. Season with salt and ground pepper. Lots of pepper!
Soak bread in chicken broth and then squeeze out excess and break into pieces. Mix the cooked meat mixture and bread mixture and place in a greased casserole pan or muffin tins. We love using the muffin tins as it gives you more crispy edges to our French Canadian Meat Dressing Recipe.
Drizzle with a little olive oil to help with the browning and bake between 40 – 50 minutes depending on the mode of cooking process.
If you want to make stuffing do all the steps above, except instead of placing the stuffing in a separate dish to bake, place in the cavity of the turkey or bird of choice and bake. The baking time for a stuffed bird, will depend on weight of the turkey.
Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
You do not need to put eggs in your dressing or stuffing. The extra moisture from the chicken broth is all that is needed to bind the Thanksgiving turkey dressing.
Do not cover the dressing while it is baking, or it will prevent the dressing from getting the little crispy browned edges that we all love.
The ground beef, giblets, vegetables and aromatics should all be fully cooked before stuffing the cavity of the turkey or other poultry. This is to prevent any illness. A stuffed turkey takes longer to cook than an unstuffed turkey. A stuffed turkey takes too much time to cook the internal stuffing to the temperature required for safe consumption. If you baked your turkey long enough to cook the stuffing to the proper safe temperature if would be dry. No one likes dry turkey.
More Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas
Roasted Turmeric Spiced Turkey
Spicy Rosemary Butternut Squash
Roasted Butternut and Carrot Ginger Soup
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French Canadian Meat Dressing Recipe
Equipment
- Muffin Tin or Casserole Dish
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
(reserve 1 tablespoon for drizzling on top before baking) - 1 onion chopped
- 3 stalks celery
chopped - 4 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 1.5 pounds ground beef
we like to use 90 - 92% lean and 8-10% fat - 3 teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups chicken broth
gluten free - 10 slices bread
gluten free (or regular bread if no gluten allergies) - salt to taste
Garnishes
- parsley to garnish (optional)
- carrot julienned slices to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F ( 176 degrees Celsius)
- Place 1 tablespoon of olive oil in sauce pan and add chopped onions, celery and garlic until slightly translucent- add a little salt and pepper. (Reserve the other 1 tablespoon of olive oil right before baking)
- Add ground beef and add some more salt and pepper and cook until beef is browned. Take off burner and set aside to cool.
- In the meantime in a separate bowl place about 2 cups of chicken broth. Place the slices of bread into the chicken broth and squeeze water out. Place squeezed out bread into a clean bowl and pull apart bread into small pieces.
- Add cooled ground beef mixture to bread. Salt and add the rest of the pepper and mix.
- Grease an oven proof muffin tin or casserole dish and place stuffing mixture inside. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil on top. Bake UNCOVERED in the oven!If you like crispy edges, place your dressing in a greased muffin pan and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and slightly crispy. If you prefer to bake your dressing in a casserole dish, bake in the oven for about 50 - 60 minutes or until the top is slightly golden brown.You can also stuff a turkey (or other poultry of choice) with our prepared French Canadian Meat Dressing Recipe. Just prepare your poultry and stuff the dressing in the inner cavity. Bake according to the required time needed for the weight of the turkey, goose, duck, chicken or pheasant.
- If desired, garnish with parsley and little julienned carrot slices before serving.
- Serve hot and bring on the holiday cheer!
Video
Notes
- We like to use lean beef with 90% to 92% lean beef and 8% to 10% fat as we do not like all that extra fat. In addition, if it is lean, you can save a step of draining the beef after it is cooked. A little fat left in is a good thing as it makes it moist and gives it the crispy edges that everyone craves.
- Feel free to use regular bread instead of gluten-free, if no gluten intolerances. It’s a great way to use up that day-old bread.
- This dressing recipe is very black pepper forward. Reduce amount as needed for your spice and heat level.
- If you want to make this recipe vegan, exchange the ground beef with chopped mushrooms and vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. Chanterelle mushrooms are so delicious.
mjskitchen says
Who need turkey when you have this? I've always considered the dressing the best part of the Thanksgiving meal and this dressing would be no exception. I'll probably just make these for a meal with a side. My husband would definitely go nuts over the secret ingredient. He LOVES pepper!
HWC Magazine says
Thank you MJ! We think of this dressing recipe as really a main too. Great dinner with just a side salad. The black pepper really makes this recipe pop. Wishing you a super week ahead.
Liz says
Wow, I've never heard of such a thing (and I even lived in Canada for a year!). My sons call themselves meat-a-holics so you know this would be a hit with my crew!
HWC Magazine says
Thanks Liz. The boys here refer to this dressing recipe as "Meat muffins". LOL A sure crowd pleaser for all the meat-a-holics.
Rahul says
This is such an amazing recipe and beautiful post. Loved your idea of cutting it into bite size.
HWC Magazine says
Thanks so much for stopping by. Making this recipe in muffin tins give you loads of crispy edges. That is our favorite part. Wishing you a super week ahead.
Hannah Kaminsky says
I've never seen stuffing quite like this before! I love that you made them as single servings too. Perfect for smaller "parties" as we would expect this year...
HWC Magazine says
Thank you Hannah. You know you can exchange the ground beef with mushrooms and it is really good. We love chanterelle but any kind of mixed mushrooms and a vegetable broth instead of the chicken broth and you are good to go. Take care
Eha Carr says
*Sunday smile* No Thanksgiving here as you would know ! Have never baked a whole turkey in my life ! But am aware that in Australia these days it is also advised to cook any 'stuffing' apart from any whole bird when baking for the reasons stated. Lovely mince recipe . . . no problem in this house with black pepper . . . I never know when to stop grinding 🙂 ! Also no problem using the delicious individual moulds all by their little selves with a side or two as lunch or light dinner . . . my main lesson here has been your differentiation twixt 'dressing' and 'stuffing' . . . useful bit of explanation ! . . . be well . . .
HWC Magazine says
Hiya Eha! Glad you like the black pepper too. It is really an under utilized spice and many times overlooked. As you know, garlic always gets the lime light on this recipe website but wanted black pepper to have her 15 minutes of fame too. Believe it or not, this was a difficult post to write, brings up a lot of fond memories of dad. Stay well and take care
Raul says
We make this every Christmas. And eat off it for about a week.
HWC Magazine says
So happy to hear Raul. That is the best part about the holidays - THE LEFTOVERS! Have a super weekend ahead.
Chef Devaux says
The recipe from grandpa is amazing. You can be proud on him. This weekend is perfect for to prepare this pasta. Yummy.
dianeskitchentable says
I'm finally getting a chance to catch up on you & guessing that you're probably already home...are you knee deep in snow?
I really enjoy this post & recipe because I always think that our parent's stuffing is the best. Once we get married and have to share the holidays, an in-law's stuffing is never the same. My mother used to use all those parts is parts and frankly I still do (i don't tell anyone or they wouldn't eat the stuffing) but I think the liver is what gives it the flavor kick.
I have to laugh though because all of my husbands sisters and his brother would rave about their mother's stuffing. One Thanksgiving, her daughter decided to write down grandma's secret stuffing recipe. Well, she finally admitted that all along she was using Stouffers.
nagimaehashi says
I really loved reading this post Bobbi! What a legend your grandpa is. I'm so happy that you're visiting home to watch the "pro" make this!!! I adore secret family recipes and you know what? I'm squeezing this into my thanksgiving this year!! (Even though I'm Aussie, you think I let such a major food holiday pass without acknowledgement? Not likely!) PS I bet you can make this a complete meal. Check the recipe and I'd make it a complete meal too! I bet it's also delicious made in a muffin tin so there's a high ration of golden bits 🙂 <3
Healthy World Cuisine says
I am delighted to hear this Nagi. Actually we all call my dad, grandpa, as after 91 years of age, he has well earned the title. You can't miss out on any of the major food holidays... lucky me I get to add something like 16 more Hong Kong holidays on to my original 6 from the States so I am one happy girl! Making the stuffing in a muffin tin is a brilliant idea. I hope you are on the beach soaking up some rays! Take care
The Gourmet Gourmand says
I love love love stuffing!! This looks amazing!
Kathleen Richardson says
BAM, what a wonderful family recipe to share. I love that you made smaller individual servings, too, and wonder if you cooked them the same length of time as one big casserole.
Healthy World Cuisine says
Actually, I made the full large recipe in a large casserole dish and then just used my circle cutter to press out individual round servings. However, you could just divide the recipe by 4 and then it would be just enough for you and a couple meals of leftovers.. Grandpas stuffing tastes even better the next day.
Jo Ann says
Hi, could you share what brand of gluten free bread you used? I haven't had stuffing in so long and I really want to try this one.
Healthy World Cuisine says
Hello Jo Ann. I actually made this recipe with Udi's gluten free white bread. In order to keep this stuffing tender and soft in the interior and crunchy on the exterior, allow ample time for the bread to soak up warm chicken broth and then when you squeeze out the bread, don't squeeze all the moisture out just leave a little moisture in and it is perfect. I hope you give this recipe a try. Take care
Mary Frances says
Wow it is so moist! This stuffing recipe looks great and such a beautiful story behind it too 🙂
Culinary Flavors says
It is great when such types of family recipes pass from older to younger and keep the traditions. I am so happy for you visiting your family! It is heartbreaking when you are so far away from your roots, I think! The stuffing looks amazing, pinned and stumbled!
Raymund says
I definitely don't need a turkey with that