Wild Rice Dressing (Minnesota)
Nutty wild rice cooked in broth, mixed with toasted bread crumbs, onion, celery, garlic, sage and thyme and a light custard of cream, eggs and the rice's own cooking liquid, baked covered until set.
Wild rice is manoomin to the Ojibwe, a word MNopedia (Minnesota Historical Society) says is related by analogy to a word meaning "good berry". Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Odawa people followed a vision west to a homeland "where the food floats on water", which they recognized in the wild rice around Lake Superior. Ricers work in pairs from a canoe, one poling and one knocking the grain in with sticks; the rice is parched over a fire, jigged (stepped or danced on) to loosen the hulls and winnowed in birch bark trays. The 1837 treaty that transferred Ojibwe land to the United States reserved the Ojibwe right to gather wild rice on the ceded territory. Farmers began growing wild rice in paddies in the late 1960s, and cheaper cultivated rice cut into the income of Ojibwe harvesters; Minnesota made wild rice its state grain in 1977 (MNopedia, "Wild Rice and the Ojibwe", by Jessica Milgroom:). Minnesota law now requires any wild rice that contains cultivated rice to be labeled "paddy" or "cultivated" (Minnesota Statutes 30.49:). The casserole below is a Midwestern holiday dish, not an Ojibwe recipe.
🇺🇸 This one is American
Nutty wild rice cooked in broth, mixed with toasted bread crumbs, onion, celery, garlic, sage and thyme and a light custard of cream, eggs and the rice's own cooking liquid, baked covered until set.
🇬🇧 The original
The English original is sage and onion bound with breadcrumbs and butter, cooked inside the bird or in a dish beside it. See the Sage and Onion Stuffing (Mrs Beeton, 1861) recipe.
📖 : Stuffing vs Dressing: What's the Difference? →
Why it works the kitchen science
Extra cooking liquid
Wild rice brands absorb very different amounts of water, so ATK cooks it in plenty of liquid, drains it and uses the leftover, now nutty and earthy, to lighten the cream and egg custard.
Small crumbs
Big bread cubes swamp the slender rice grains, so the bread is pulsed to pea-size pieces and toasted for color and crunch.
Step by step
- Step 1
Bring the broth, water and bay leaf to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the rice, cover, lower the heat to low and simmer 35 to 45 minutes, until tender. Strain, saving the liquid; you need 1 1/2 cups (top it up with broth if short). Discard the bay leaf.
- Step 2
Heat the oven to 325°F with racks in the upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Pulse half the bread in a food processor to pea-size crumbs and spread on a rimmed baking sheet; repeat with the rest on a second sheet. Bake about 20 minutes, stirring now and then and swapping the sheets halfway, until golden. Cool 10 minutes.
- Step 3
Melt 4 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the onions and celery 8 to 10 minutes, until golden. Add the garlic, sage and thyme and cook 30 seconds. Stir in the saved 1 1/2 cups cooking liquid, take off the heat and cool 5 minutes.
- Step 4
Whisk the cream, eggs, salt and pepper in a large bowl, then slowly whisk in the warm onion mixture. Stir in the rice and toasted crumbs and spread in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Melt the remaining 4 tbsp butter and drizzle it over the top.
- Step 5
Cover with foil and bake on the lower-middle rack 45 to 55 minutes, until set in the center and 165°F.
- Step 6
Uncover and rest 15 minutes before serving.
Wild Rice Dressing (Minnesota)
Serves 12 · one 13 by 9-inch dish · 2 hr total
Rice
- 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cups wild rice
Bread and vegetables
- 10 slices hearty white sandwich bread, torn into pieces
- 8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 3 celery ribs, finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 tsp dried sage
- 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
Custard
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Method
- Bring the broth, water and bay leaf to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the rice, cover, lower the heat to low and simmer 35 to 45 minutes, until tender. Strain, saving the liquid; you need 1 1/2 cups (top it up with broth if short). Discard the bay leaf.
- Heat the oven to 325°F with racks in the upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Pulse half the bread in a food processor to pea-size crumbs and spread on a rimmed baking sheet; repeat with the rest on a second sheet. Bake about 20 minutes, stirring now and then and swapping the sheets halfway, until golden. Cool 10 minutes.
- Melt 4 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the onions and celery 8 to 10 minutes, until golden. Add the garlic, sage and thyme and cook 30 seconds. Stir in the saved 1 1/2 cups cooking liquid, take off the heat and cool 5 minutes.
- Whisk the cream, eggs, salt and pepper in a large bowl, then slowly whisk in the warm onion mixture. Stir in the rice and toasted crumbs and spread in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Melt the remaining 4 tbsp butter and drizzle it over the top.
- Cover with foil and bake on the lower-middle rack 45 to 55 minutes, until set in the center and 165°F.
- Uncover and rest 15 minutes before serving.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen, "Wild Rice Dressing" (September 15, 2011), as written (ATK says 10 to 12; we call it 12; ATK files it under Midwest). ATK's make-ahead note refrigerates the assembled dressing for up to 1 day; we do not (FSIS). The 165°F check and the note on lake-harvested rice are ours. America's Test Kitchen. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Hand-harvested, lake-grown wild rice (parched and lighter in color) usually cooks much faster than black paddy rice; start checking at 15 to 20 minutes and drain when the grains are tender and some have split. A University of Minnesota wild rice handout says to drain at 30 minutes for chewier rice.
- When you can, buy wild rice labeled "100 percent naturally grown, lake and river wild rice" directly from tribal or Native-owned harvesters.
- Foil stays on for the whole bake so the rice on top does not turn crunchy.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Paddy-grown rice is real wild rice. Disputed: it is the same genus (Zizania) and Minnesota law sells it as wild rice if labeled "paddy" or "cultivated"; MNopedia records that cultivated rice undercut Ojibwe harvesters, and Ojibwe communities have long fought to "keep their wild rice wild" (Indian Country Today, 2011:).
- Wild rice is the same plant as white rice. Documented as not: MNopedia gives its botanical name as Zizania palustris, and the Minnesota Secretary of State lists Zizania aquatica or Zizania palustris.
- Wild rice dressing is an Ojibwe dish. Folklore: the grain is an Ojibwe food; this bread-and-cream casserole is a Midwestern holiday recipe.
Every other stuffing
Sage and Onion Stuffing (Mrs Beeton, 1861)
The Victorian English stuffing for goose, duck and pork: onions simmered until mild, chopped fine with fresh sage, worked together with bread crumbs, butter and an egg yolk, and baked in its own dish until crisp on top.
Chestnut and Pork Stuffing (Farce aux Marrons)
Whole chestnuts simmered in broth until just tender, folded into seasoned ground pork with shallots, thyme and a splash of Cognac, and baked in its own dish: the classic French stuffing for a Christmas turkey.
Artusi's Roast Chicken with Sausage and Chestnut Stuffing (1891)
Pellegrino Artusi's family stuffing of Italian sausage, chicken liver, roasted chestnuts, dried mushrooms and nutmeg, bound with egg and a little bread soaked in broth, packed into a whole chicken and roasted until the stuffing itself reads 165°F.
Lebanese Hashweh (Spiced Rice and Beef Stuffing)
Ground beef and onion browned in olive oil, seasoned with Lebanese seven-spice, cooked with basmati rice in chicken broth and finished with toasted pine nuts and parsley: served on its own or as a stuffing for turkey.
Italian-American Sausage and Fennel Stuffing
Oven-dried white bread cubes tossed with browned sweet Italian sausage, onion and fennel cooked in butter, fresh thyme, marjoram and sage, chicken broth and eggs, baked covered and then uncovered until golden.
Chinese-American Sticky Rice Stuffing
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New England Sage Bread Stuffing
Dried French bread cubes tossed with onion and celery cooked in butter, sage, thyme, marjoram and parsley, chicken broth and eggs, baked covered until fragrant and then uncovered until a golden crust forms.
Southern Cornbread Dressing
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A half-size, one-skillet stuffing for any night: baguette cubes toasted in a hot oven, soaked in broth and egg with browned onion, celery, sage and thyme, crisped on the stove and finished in the oven with a golden crust on top and bottom.
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The boxed classic made from scratch: white and whole wheat bread cut into eraser-size crumbs and dried in the oven, then stirred into a simmering pot of broth, butter, dried onion, celery and poultry seasoning, covered and left to stand 5 minutes. Inspired by, not official.
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