Portuguese Thanksgiving Stuffing

November 9, 2022November 9, 2022

The Portuguese American Mom, Stacy Silva-Boutwell, shows you how to make her perfect Portuguese Stuffing just in time for Thanksgiving.

Recipe

Portuguese Thanksgiving Stuffing

1 dozen Papo-secos (rolls)

1/2 lb. Ground Portuguese Chouriço

1 large onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbs Ground Pimenta Moida (red pepper)

1 tsp. Portuguese All-spice

2 eggs, beaten

Turkey giblets, chopped (optional)

Kosher Salt to taste

1/8-1/4 cup olive oil Olive Oil

6-8 quarts water for soaking, then draining

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl filled 3/4 with luke warm water, tare bread and soak.

In a large skillet, saute onions in olive oil over medium heat. When onions are starting to cook through, add in garlic and saute another minute. Add in chouriço and continue to saute. The next step will take place once the chouriço is starting to render its fat and become crispy. At this point, add in giblets if desired.

Hold soaked bread between both hands and squeeze out most of the water. Add each piece into your hot skillet. Incorporate the wet bread in with the chouiço mixture and continue to saute the bread in the skillet for about 10 minutes. At this point taste for salt and add if needed. Remove from heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Place in a large casserole dish.

Add in beaten eggs and Portuguese All Spice. Mix in well. Place casserole uncovered in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour until cooked through and top is crispy.

Enjoy!

For More Detailed Instructions

Portuguese Style Stuffed Peppers

April 6, 2016April 6, 20162 Comments

Stuffed peppers are a meal all in themselves. They have protein, grain and vegetable all in one perfect package. Adding in the chouriço, portuguese ground pepper (pimenta moida) and Portuguese Allspice really bring it into “Portuguese Style” territory!

These are great for a weeknight meal, to bring in to work for lunch or make some of the stuffing, freeze in an airtight bag and stuff fresh peppers whenever you get the inkling!

I like the red, orange and yellow peppers myself because they are sweeter, but if you prefer green, go ahead and use green!

Cut each pepper in half lengthwise. This will later lead to a more crispy top on your stuffing.

Seed the peppers removing as much of the white pith as you can.

Dice up a medium onion.

Fresh parsley is important here.

Chop it up.

Use one large can of plain tomato sauce. reserving about 1/3 of it for topping the peppers before they go into the oven.

The meat for this stuffing is made up of half ground beef and half chouriço.

Add in the onion.

Brown everything together in the skillet.

Once browned, add in 2/3 of the can of sauce.

Now add in a couple of cups of cooked white rice. If you prefer brown rice here, that’s fine, just be sure it is thoroughly cooked, this is not the time for aldente anything.

Add in Pimenta Moida.

Add in some salt and pepper to taste and your stuffing is ready!

Select a baking dish that will comfortably fit the number of peppers you are looking to bake without being too tight.

Grease the baking dish with some oil.

Place your peppers with the cut side up on your baking dish ready for stuffing.

Stuff each pepper 1 and a half times its size so that it has a nice rounded top of stuffing.

Cover with some plain sauce just to keep the stuffing moist.

Portuguese Stuffed Peppers

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2-3 bell peppers, cut in half and seeded

1 lb. ground beef

1 lb. ground chouriço

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cups cooked rice

1 can tomato sauce

2 Tbs. parsley, chopped

1 Tbs. Pimenta Moida (ground pepper)

1/2 tsp. Portuguese Allspice

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F.

Brown ground beef, ground chouriço and onion in a skillet over medium heat. Drain if there is an excess of fat (a little fat is ok). Add in Pimenta Moida, parsley and a little salt and pepper (don’t over do it here) and 2/3 can of tomato sauce. Stir. Add in cooked rice. Stir.

Stuff filling into peppers and place in an oiled baking dish. Top stuffed peppers with remaining 1/3 can of tomato sauce. Bake for 30 minutes until pepper has cooked through. Serve hot.

***Gluten-free

Portuguese Stuffing (Recheio)

November 11, 201529 Comments

This is the stuffing I grew up eating. It is the only thing that I knew to be stuffing until I was a teenager and my friend’s mother would get Bell seasoned croutons to make what I now identify as a “stove top” type stuffing. The two types of stuffing can not even be compared. So I won’t even try. What I will do is tell you that to date, I have never tried a stuffing I have liked better or one that is nearly as flavorful and savory. My family’s Portuguese Stuffing recipe is a treasure on our Thanksgiving table each and every year.

My family’s stuffing recipe does not start with croutons at all, but with day old bread. The flavor comes from a combination of very traditional Portuguese seasonings… Portuguese Hot Chouriço is a main component along with pimenta moida, Portuguese All Spice, onions and garlic. The method is really what turns it into a stuffing. I’ll take you through that in the tutorial below.

The recipe has changed slightly over the years. When my grandmother was alive, in addition to the chouriço meat that we add in to this delicious recipe, we would also add in the giblets. That stopped when I got old enough to understand what giblets were… Well, I say that stopped, but I am quite sure my mother continued to sneak them in until I started really helping her prepare Thanksgiving dinner. And although this stuffing was delicious with the giblets, in my opinion, it is just as delicious without. That being said, I do mention in the tutorial where you can add them in if you so choose. Another change that we have made is that traditionally we would always stuff the turkey with the stuffing as it is “stuffing”. And my mother really liked the addition of the turkey juices into the stuffing as it cooked, but with the national recommendations not to do that, we have stopped filling the turkey with the entire batch of stuffing. Now what I do, is usually add about a cup or two just to the outer portion of the turkey cavity so that it can both gather juices and get crispy on the outside while still able to cook thoroughly. Then the rest is still prepared in a casserole dish.

A good Portuguese stuffing starts with a good day old Portuguese bread. These are pop-secos.

Tare the bread up.

Place bread in a large bowl of water.

Press bread down so it can soak in all the water.

Saute onions in some olive oil over medium heat in the largest skillet you have.

Add in some garlic and continue to saute over medium heat.

This is a bag of ground chouriço I got from my local butcher. If you don’t have this available to you, just get some chouriço, peel the skin off the sausage and run it through a food processor for a minute or so.

Here is what it will look like.

Add chouriço in with your sautéed onions and garlic.

You will want to cook it down until some of the fat is rendered from the chouriço and it stats to get a bit crispy. If you like to use giblets in your stuffing, this is where you would add in the chopped giblets. We do not use them anymore as they are not a family favorite.

When the color of the chouriço is bright and you have rendered some of the fat, add in a couple of table spoons of crushed red pepper (pimenta moida).

Next, squeeze out most of the water from your bread by hand.

Add it into your skillet.

Cook the wet bread in with the chouriço mixture.

Keep working the chouriço, onions and garlic in through the bread after about 10 minutes of this, remove from heat and allow to cool for about 10 more minutes. Transfer to a large casserole dish. At this point, taste for salt and add if needed.

Place two eggs in a bowl.

Beat the eggs well and add in to your bread mixture.

Mix eggs into the bread mixture as thoroughly as you can.

Next, add in about a teaspoon of Portuguese All Spice. (There is a quick recipe for Portuguese All Spice at the bottom of my Beef Stew recipe)

Add in and mix well… then bake in a 350°F degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour… the goal is for it to get crispy on top, heated all the way through and not wet in the middle.

Portuguese Stuffing (Recheio)

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 1/2 dozen Portuguese Pop-Secos (rolls)

1/2 lb. ground chouriço

1 large onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press

3-4 Tbls. crushed red pepper (Pimenta Moida)

1 tsp. Portuguese All Spice

2 eggs, beaten

turkey giblets, chopped (optional)

kosher salt to taste

olive oil

6-8 quarts of water for soaking

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl filled 3/4 with luke warm water, tare bread and soak.

Add in beaten eggs and Portuguese All Spice. Mix in well. Place casserole uncovered in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour until cooked through and top is crispy.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Quahogs

September 4, 2015September 4, 20152 Comments

My godson, Preston, is a great kid! We were spending a little family day by the water earlier this week when the tide rolled out and I spotted what looked like a little collection of quahogs popping up from the muck. All I could envision was some beautifully stuffed quohogs with butter dripping down and a squeeze of lemon on top… I should explain we were at a sort of river mouth that spills out into the ocean, so although there is a sandy beach, it quickly gets quite mucky, for lack of a better word. Anyway, I asked Preston to check out the situation and report back on whether what I was seeing were actually viable quohogs. The kid didn’t hesitate. He put on some water shoes and marched on out there up to his knees in black muck.

Well, he discovered they were indeed quahogs, yay… But… he forgot a bucket and now he was stuck in the muck. So, he tried to turn around and get out and he lost his shoes somewhere in the far reaches of the blackness. Needless to say that lead to me getting all mucky myself! He was able to pull out 4 giant quahog clams and we placed them in the bucket I brought out… I did look for more, but it was honestly pretty difficult to navigate through it all, so we retrieved the shoes and after a little more looking we ended up with the original 4… However, I have to say, we had a good time doing it and lots of laughs! And anyway I got what I wanted, the base to a great local treat!

Quintessentially New England, the Stuffed Quahog is something everyone should experience at least once in their lives. Now if you have never heard the word quahog save for your experience watching Family Guy (based in the fictional “Quahog, RI”) let me explain a little about it. There are two basic types of clams, the steamer, which you will find in most New England clam boils and clam bakes and you get them any time you order a fried clam plate. And then there is the little neck clam. Quahog (pronounced koh- hog, and sometimes spelled quohog) is the giant version of the latter. You can see an example of a basic little neck in my post, Little Necks in Garlic Wine Sauce. There are any number of different types of clams between the two, but Quahogs, or Sea Clams as some refer to them, are always the largest of the breed and they never have a neck that comes out too far (hence the term little neck).

These 4 Quahogs that we collected, believe it or not, will be enough to stuff and feed 8 people! A traditional New England Stuffed Quahog has so much more than just the Quahog in it though, it is chock full of chouriço meat, onions, pepper, garlic and of course Portuguese Pop-secos (bread rolls). Let me show you how I make mine!

Here are 4 very large quohogs, these are 4"+ in width... If your quohogs are smaller, you'll want to use a couple more... All in all you will want to end up with about 1/2 cup of meat.

Here are 4 very large Quahogs, these are 4″+ in width… If your Quahogs are smaller, you’ll want to use a couple more… All in all you will want to end up with about 1/2 cup of meat. (To achieve this level of clean, you will want to soak in cold water and kosher salt for a good 10-20 minutes, after you’ve scrubbed them clean with something good and rough)

Add water into a pot just large enough to accommodate your quohogs.

Once your water is boiling, add in your quohogs.

Bring back up to a boil.

Cover your pot.

You will want to boil until they open.

If any of your quohogs do not open, you will want to toss them because they are not good. You need to reserve the liquid in the pot as you will need it.

Here is a cooked quahog.

You will need to separate the two halves of the quahog.

Remove the meat from the shell.

Don’t worry about that little connective tissue.

After they are cooked wash each one and be sure all the sand has come out. (Look how big that is!)

All washed up.

Chop up the meat… you should end up with a little more than a half cup.

Once you have your quahog prepared, you can start mixing up the stuffing mix…

If I had a large onion handy, I would have used it… but I didn’t so two medium onions it is.

Dice.

You will need half a stick of butter.

In a 10″ non-stick skillet add in 2 Tbs. olive oil and half a stick of butter over medium heat.

Add the onions to your pan and saute.

You’ll want to saute until translucent.

Find the nicest bell pepper you can… I like red, but any color you like will do, or whatever is on sale.

Dice.

Add you peppers to the onions and saute until lightly browned.

Add in a couple of cloves of garlic, minced.

Add garlic to pan and continue to saute.

Chop up a couple Tbs. of flat Italian parsley.

Slice and dice 1/4 lb. of chouriço.

You should end up with about 3/4 cup of chourico.

You should end up with about 3/4 cup of chouriço.

Add in chouriço and parsley to the pan and continue to saute.

Add pepper to the mixture.

Place a large bowl in your sink for easy use.

Add bread into the bowl. Tare it up into small pieces. (Day old bread)

Pour the reserved cooking water into the bowl.

Be sure not to include any of the remaining sand at the bottom of the pot.

Press the bread into the liquid.

Once the bread has sat in the liquid for a bit, drain.

Squeeze out most of the liquid and add back into the bowl.

Your bread should now be damp, but not soggy.

To the bread, add in your chopped quahog meat.

Now add in your sautéed mixture. Mix.

Add in about 1/4 tsp. Portuguese Allspice.

Beat one egg.

Add in and mix.

And here is the finished stuffing mixture.

Use the largest scoop you have to dish stuffing mixture into the prepared shells.

Add the mixture to each shell in a sort of mound.

Some people like to put another shell on top, I happen to like how crispy it will get to all the exposed stuffing.

Sprinkle with a bit of paprika. Place in a pre-heated 375°F oven for 45 minutes for large quohogs such as these.

You will know they are ready when they have firmed up a bit but are not hardened.

Recipe for Stuffed Quahogs:

(serves 8)

4 large quahogs

4 cups water

1 large onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup chouriço, diced

2 Tbs. Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/4 tsp. Portuguese Allspice

1 egg, beaten

1 Heaping Tbs. ground red pepper

5 Portuguese Pop-seco bread rolls (day old)

2 Tbs. olive oil

1/2 stick butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Scrub quohogs and then soak in salted water for about 10-20 minutes.

Fill a medium pot with water, bring to a boil. Add in quahogs. Add in a pinch of salt. Bring back up to a boil and cover. Cook until all have opened. If you find that one will not open, toss it as it was not a healthy clam. Reserve liquid.

In a 10″ skillet over medium heat add in oil and butter. To that add in onion and saute until translucent. Add in bell pepper, saute a few more minutes. Add in garlic, saute. Next, add in chouriço and parsley, saute. Allow to cool as you prepare the bread mixture.

In a large bowl tare bread into small pieces. Cover the bread with the cooking water used for the quohogs. Push bread down into the liquid completely submerging it. Allow to sit for a few minutes and then switch the soaked bread to a colandar. Drain out liquid. Then take handfuls of bread and squeeze out liquid and add back into the bowl.

To the bowl with the bread, add in the quahog meat. Then add in the sautéed mixture to the bowl. Finally add in the Portuguese Allspice and mix. At this point, taste for salt. Once the seasoning is just right, add in the egg. Mix until completely combined.