Spanish/American poultry stuffing

This is a kind of half & half recipe. The traditional stuffing in Spain tends to be meat-based and not my cup of tea - overpowers the delicate flavors of the bird. My favorite American-style bread-based version doesn't always work for folks here; so decided to take the middle ground: meat & bread together.

The recipe can be made two ways: 1. Forcemeat where the ingredients are pureed in a food processor, and 2. Chopped where the stuffing mixture is diced to a coarser texture. Both are good, depends on what you like.

Ingredients

• 1 cup ground chicken (thigh if possible)
• 1 cup ground lean pork
• 4 x strips of bacon, diced
• 1/4 cup ham (diced) use cured ham if available
• 1/2 onion, roughly chopped
• 1 cup of mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 1 x 6" piece of leek, roughly chopped
• 2/3 x stalks of celery, diced
• 3 cups of day old bread, roughly chopped
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 egg
• Olive oil
• Salt, pepper, poultry seasoning

Preparation

• In a large bowl, pour chicken stock over the bread, set aside.
• Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan or pot.
• Brown bacon in the oil, set aside the bacon, leave fat in the pan
• Brown mushrooms in the oil (add extra oil if needed). Set aside.
• Lightly brown chicken & pork. Set aside.
• Sautée onion, leek & celery until soft 3 or 4 minutes. Season with poultry seasoning, salt & pepper.
• Return bacon & mushrooms to the pan, add the ground pork & chicken
• Forcemeat version: Let it cool down a little, then add the egg, bread, cooked meat & veg in the processor, whiz until well mixed.
• Chopped version: If you prefer a coarser stuffing - just mix the bread with the other ingredients, chop to the desired consistency give it a stir and cook for a few minutes to mix the flavors. Let it cool a bit, then mix in the egg.
• Check seasoning by frying up a small spoonful and adjust as needed.

That's it. Use it to stuff poultry, pork chops, etc. It's good on its own as well, make patties & fry it up like a fritter.
Note:
1. A nice addition is to add some broken up walnuts to the final mix for a bit of crunch.
2. Diced chorizo or kielbasa can be used in place of the ham.

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