Thanksgiving leftovers! There’s the usual suspects… traditional turkey soup, sandwiches, and whatevers. This year, I came across a small article about using leftover stuffing and I was from then on committed to making epic leftover stuffing. This is where fried stuffing balls come in. First, I tested frying stuffing balls without a binder… didn’t work too well. Stuffing without a binder fried ok but not great. Next, I tried using egg as a binder… PERFECT. Now for the cheese, I tried stuffing the stuffing balls with Havarti, Mozarella, and Gruyere because it just so happened that I had those cheeses in fridge. The Gruyere kicked the other cheeses asses which is what I expected. It was perfectly stringy and flavorful.
If you want to make fried stuffing balls at home you can heat your deep fryer to 375F or heat 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium high heat until smoking. I mixed about a cup and a half to two cups of stuffing with one egg for three stuffing balls. Once I had my stuffing balls rolled out with a 1/2 inch cube of cheese in the center I rolled them in panko bread crumbs and fried them. They will only take about 5 minutes or less and you will want to turn them a few times if you’re frying in a pan. Finally, I recommend using some leftover gravy as a dipping sauce. A good stuffing by itself prepared this way is good but not terribly flavorful. The Gruyere helps a lot but some gravy to dip the whole thing in really makes this an extremely pleasing, decadent dish.