Tonight is my family’s annual rewatch of Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow movie. Over the years, I’ve experimented with all sorts of Halloween dinners, including ham-and-cheese hand pies and, on one particularly ambitious occasion, an entire roasting chicken cooked inside a hollowed-out pumpkin. It was absolutely delicious. It was also such an enormous mess that I vowed never to attempt it again. Some culinary adventures are best enjoyed as memories.
But for tonight, I’m making a simple roast chicken and serving a pumpkin stuffed with wild rice and sausage on the side. Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow describes the Van Tassel family’s extravagant autumn feast, with roasted meats, seasonal produce, and pumpkin pies. This stuffed pumpkin isn’t a historical recipe from Irving’s story, but it’s inspired by the Hudson Valley harvest setting and, of course, the Headless Horseman’s famous pumpkin. It’s not hard to make, but it does take some time… and it makes a great centerpiece as well!
Stuffed Pumpkin
Ingredients
Pumpkin
- 1 small sugar pumpkin 3–4 pounds
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Stuffing
- ½ cup uncooked wild rice blend
- 1¼ cups chicken broth
- ½ pound mild Italian sausage casings removed
- 1 small yellow onion finely diced
- 1 celery stalk finely diced
- 1 small Granny Smith apple diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- ½ teaspoon dried sage
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
- â…“ cup dried cranberries
- â…“ cup chopped toasted pecans
- 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 375℉. Cut a lid off the top of the pumpkin and scoop out the guts. Brush the inside of the pumpkin with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the pumpkin cut side up in a pyrex baking dish with sides at least 2" high and set aside.
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Follow the directions on the package of wild rice and cook the rice and broth for about 40-50 minutes. When finished, fluff with a fork.
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While the wild rice is cooking, brown the sausage in a skillet over medium heat until fully cooked. Remove the sausage to a plate lined with paper towels to drain but leave the drippings in the pan. To the drippings, add in the butter, onion and celery and sauté for 4-6 minutes or until the veggies soften. Then stir in the apple, garlic, sage, thyme and rosemary. Cook for another 4 minutes.
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In a large bowl, stir together the cooked rice, sausage, apple/veg mixture, cranberries, pecans, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
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Loosely spoon the rice filling into the pumpkin. Add 1/4 cup of water to the baking dish and cover the pumpkin loosely with aluminum foil. Roast for 45 minutes and then remove the foil and keep roasting for another 15-25 minutes or until the pumpkin flesh is tender when cut with a knife. The stuffing is done when it reaches 165℉ in the center. Remove the dish from the oven and rest on a baking rack.
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Allow the pumpkin to rest for 10 minutes and then serve.
