If you want a no-fail, can’t-mess-‘em-up, always-a-hit appetizer, then I’ve got the answer for you!! Damon went to a team building exercise at a local catering company a few years ago and they gave out this recipe. He doesn’t ever eat mushrooms, yet came home ranting and raving about how good these were and kept asking when we could cook them. Ever since then, we’ve cooked them for many a group function, and they’ve even become a permanent staple of our family holiday dinners.
Click here to download a printable version of the recipe: No Worries Stuffed Mushrooms
So here’s how they’re done – note, most of the pictures were taken when we were making a double batch, so the quantities may look a little different than yours as you are cooking:
Sauté 1 LB of hot sausage in a pan until browned. Drain and set aside.
Remove stems from mushrooms. We buy 2 large boxes of mushrooms from Sam’s for one batch of stuffing mix.
Peel outer layer off of the mushroom caps and set them aside for stuffing later.
Cut off and discard the end of the mushroom stems.
Chop the remainder of the mushroom stems into small pieces and put them in a large sauté pan.
Rinse and chop 3 sticks of celery and add to the sauté pan. Sorry, I forgot to take pics of this step! I usually just slice the celery lengthwise so I have lots of tiny strips, and then I chop it into small bits.
Chop one whole yellow onion and add to the sauté pan. Cut off the ends and peel the onion.
Cut the onion in half vertically.
Make approximately 3/16” slices vertically along the onion, leaving the very tips still connected on one end.
Rotate the onion 90 degrees and chop the opposite direction into 3/16” square pieces.
Run your knife through at the end if you still have some big chunks that need to be cut up even more.
Cut 1 stick of butter into smaller cubes and add to the sauté pan.
Measure out 1 teaspoon of salt and add to the sauté pan.
Grind some black pepper into a small bowl, measure out 1 teaspoon, and add it to the sauté pan.
Combine Italian herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, and marjoram in a small bowl and add 1 tablespoon of the herb mixture into the sauté pan.
Sauté over medium heat until all vegetables are soft (about 7-10 minutes). While the veggies are sautéing, you can use this time to put together the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.
Put the sausage in a large mixing bowl.
Measure out 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and add it to the mixing bowl.
Crush 2 packages of Ritz crackers. Dump the crackers into a large Ziploc bag, remove all of the air, and seal the bag.
Use a 2 liter bottle of coke or any other large cylindrical object to roll along the crackers and crush them.
Measure out 1 and ½ cups of the crushed crackers, add them to the mixing bowl, and stir.
Add one egg to the mixing bowl and stir it together with the sausage, cheese, and cracker mixture.
When the vegetable mixture is finished, remove it from the stove, add it to the mixing bowl, and stir to mix. Make sure everything is well mixed.
Use a small spoon to stuff the mixture into the mushroom caps.
Line the stuffed caps on a baking sheet. One batch of this recipe will usually fill 2 large boxes of mushrooms, which covers one full baking sheet.
Sprinkle the remaining crushed Ritz crackers on top of the mushroom caps. At this point, you can cover the mushrooms and refrigerate them until you’re ready to cook them. When you’re ready to cook the mushrooms, bake them at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Serve them hot.
They reheat very well – just reheat in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. They are flexible on the time – I have never burned them, even after accidentally leaving them in the oven way too long. You can also wrap them in little foil pouches and send home leftovers with folks. They reheat well in the toaster oven too. Pretty much a no-fail process!
ENJOY!!!
