Cooking stuffing under the bird rather than inside the cavity...possible?

If you want to cook stuffing not in bird then you will need to put it in greased ramekin or small baking dish not under the bird where it will burn. Package stuffings are vile. Here is a nice rice stuffing recipe which is safe to put in your bird and yummy. Boil half a cup of white long grain rice. Drain. Finely chop one small onion. Finely chop three or four rashes of bacon. Fry onion and bacon in frying pan until onion is soft and bacon cooked. Finely chop a handful of parsley. Mix rice with onion, bacon and parsley. Add some dried sage or chopped fresh if you have some. Whisk one egg and add to rice and mix through, Season with salt and pepper. Stuff chicken with rice stuffing. If you want to apply the same recipe to sourdough rather than rice then that should work too.

In the bird or under it won't make a difference -- it's still touching raw meat and has a chance of not getting cooked enough to kill germs.

We always put the stuffing in a separate pan. Here's how my mother did it:

1) Put the giblets and turkey neck in a pot of water and let them boil for a couple of hours to make a broth.

2) Fry up some onion and celery and herbs and mushrooms in butter.

3) Mix the fried veggies in with the cubed bread, and add the broth from the giblets until the bread is moist enough.

4) Spread the mix in a greased cake tin or casserole, and bake it in the oven until it's hot through and brown on top.

I would not cook it that way. You said you don't like the box version, because it is smooshy. Cooking the stuffing underneath the bird will be really smooshy from the pan drippings. Try baking it in a separate casserole dish along with the bird. Here is a great recipe. Adjust it to the ingredients you have on hand.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7851_make-baked-stuffing.h...