Jane Devonshire's Christmas Recipes

Sausage Meat and Chestnut Stuffing Balls

Main Course

Makes16 stuffing balls approx.

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500g Good quality sausage meat

180g pack of vacuum cooked and peeled chestnuts chopped  

2 medium onions finely chopped

50g unsalted butter

2 tbsp mixed dried herbs

1 large egg

Salt and pepper

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Method

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1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 /180 C (356 F) and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper – this helps save on washing up!                                             

2. In a pan, gently sauté the chopped onions in the butter until cooked, but not coloured. Put to one side and allow to cool.                                     

3. Finely chop your chestnuts and add to a large bowl along with the sausage meat, herbs, egg and salt and pepper.                                              

4.  Add the cooled onions and thoroughly mix the ingredients together. I use my hands to do this as I find it easier.                                               

5. Once ingredients combined, take a ping pong ball sized piece of the mixture and roll it into a ball and place on your lined baking sheet. Repeat until you have approximately 16 evenly sized balls.                       

6. Place in oven around 45 minutes or until the stuffing balls are firm, cooked through and have a dark golden colour on top.  Remove from oven and set aside. They can be reheated just before serving on a low heat in the oven or microwave. I pop them in whilst the turkey is resting.

Jane says... Hide these or they get eaten before the Christmas dinner!

This is my very favourite Christmas stuffing recipe. It's delicious; very easy to prepare ahead, freezes well and simple to reheat.

They can also be gluten free if you use gluten free sausage meat

Photo: © Peter Cassidy