Name: Chicken and Stuffing Bake
Total time: 30 min
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 1 (16-ounce) can whole-berry cranberry sauce; 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth; 1/4 cup half-and-half; 1 large egg, lightly beaten; Salt and pepper; 3 tablespoons unsalted butter; 1 onion, chopped fine; 1 celery rib, chopped fine; 5 cups dried cornbread stuffing mix; 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)

Why This Recipe Works

To achieve big Thanksgiving flavor without all the work for our Chicken and Stuffing Bake, we turned to skillet-baked chicken breasts to sub for the Thanksgiving turkey, and a cranberry-laced cornbread stuffing took care of the rest. Rather than make homemade cornbread stuffing, we cut down our dish’s cooking time considerably by using dried cornbread stuffing mix. Tasters preferred whole-berry jarred cranberry sauce to the jellied variety.

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Whisk cranberry sauce, broth, half-and-half, egg, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in large bowl. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir vegetables into cranberry sauce mixture. Fold in cornbread stuffing; set aside.

Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Melt remaining butter in now-empty skillet. Cook chicken until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Cover chicken with stuffing mixture and bake until stuffing is golden brown and meat registers 160 degrees, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve.