Chef Susan Odell: I am Chef Susan Odell of foodell.

com and a professional teaching chef and a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu. Whenever I make roast turkey or roast chicken stuffing is my side dish of choice and I like to make it extra special by putting it in muffin tin. You bake the stuffing in a muffin tin and then they get nice and brown on top and it stays beautifully soft inside.

Let's get started by cooking our bacon. I have got a pan that I am heating. It's dry, there is no oil in there, and I am going to add 6 ounces of chipped bacon. I just want to saut this until the bacon gets nice and brown and crisp, about 8-10 minutes.

Once your bacon is nice and brown, use a slotted spoon and take it out and put it in a bowl. We are going to save it for later, but we want that nice bacon fat, because we are going to cook our onions and celery in it.

In addition to the bacon fat, we want some butter to flavor our stuffing. This is 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter. You know where this gets its flavor. I've also got a yellow onion that I have finally chopped and 3 stocks or ribs of celery. I am going to saut these until they are golden brown. So you want to keep the heat about medium high and keep stirring occasionally, just to make sure they don't burn on the bottom.

My vegetables have been sauting for just about 15 minutes. I've got 2 Fuji apples that I am going to add to the mix and I just diced these. I cored them and peeled them and cut them pretty small, so that they are bite size.

I've also got a couple of walnuts. If you prefer, you can use pecans, anything to give the mix a nice crunch. I've got a teaspoon of dried sage for flavoring and I have 2 teaspoons of dried thyme. We just want to mix all of that together and cook it for about 3-5 minutes more, just until the apple start to soften. Now we are going to add all these ingredients to the bowl that we have our bacon in and give it a good stir.

The main part of my stuffing is bread. I've bought some French bread a couple of days ago and left it out. You want it kind of dry and crusty, so it's good for stale bread. I cut it into about 1/4 inch cubes. Just add all of those good cooked ingredients to your bread cubes, and give it a good stir.

Now to add moisture I am going to add a cup and a half of chicken stock. This is low sodium chicken stock of course, and I am going to give that a good stir. If it still seems dry, add a little more chicken stock or some water.

Once your bread cubes are nice and soggy and moist, taste it, and add some salt and pepper, you are going to need it. Start with a 1/2 a teaspoon of salt and 1/2 a teaspoon of pepper. Keep tasting and adding until you like it.

I've greased my muffin tin with a little soft butter. You could also use vegetable spray if you prefer, and now I am just going to fill up each muffin cup pretty full with my stuffing. Then you want to just press it down really well with your fingers. You want them to pretty compact. You are going to bake your muffins for about 20 minutes just until they are nice and brown on top.

My muffins are cooked for 25 minutes. I left them in a little longer to make sure they were nice and brown on top. They are sizzling hot and they look delicious. Now we just need to pop them out of their tin and serve.

This recipe made 22 stuffing muffins that's a lot of stuffing. Invite everyone you know, because they are all going to love them or just have the recipe for a smaller group. Bon Apptit!