This Easy Stuffing Recipe will complete just about any meal!
Celery and onions are cooked with butter, herbs and seasonings. It’s all tossed with dried bread cubes and broth, then topped with a bit more butter and baked until hot and golden.
I love mashed potatoes, but homemade stuffing is easily my favorite thanksgiving side dish.
Ingredients for Stuffing
Bread – You can use almost any kind of dry bread for stuffing or purchase dry bread cubes. I prefer to use half white bread and half wheat bread and set them out to dry for a few days before making this stuffing recipe.
Celery/Onions – These add lots of flavor to this recipe and should be cooked in butter until tender.
Seasoning – Poultry Seasoning is my first choice for this turkey stuffing recipe. It is a blend of savory spices like sage, thyme, and rosemary and it adds delicious flavor to soups, stews, and casseroles. You can replace poultry seasoning with ground sage if needed.
Broth – Chicken or turkey broth adds moisture and the amount needed will vary based on the type of bread used and how dry it is. See the recipe notes for more details.
Additions – I think a simple classic stuffing recipe is the best stuffing recipe, so the add-ins are kept to a minimum however you can add shredded carrots, raisins, dried cranberries, or even cooked sausage.
Bread for Stuffing
The key to making this homemade stuffing recipe the right consistency is to ensure that the bread is really dry before adding broth. This allows it to soak up the broth (and flavor) without becoming soggy.
If possible, purchase the bread a few days (or even weeks) early, tear it or cut it into cubes, and let it dry for a few days on the counter. Any kind of bread will do (like sourdough bread or half cornbread), I most often use a combination of brown and white.
You can use dried bread cubes from the store, they’ll work just fine in this recipe although they may require a little bit of extra broth.
How To Make Stuffing
I prefer to cook my stuffing in a casserole dish (which would technically make it dressing) or to make Crock Pot Stuffing. Cooking the turkey and stuffing separately ensures that they both reach the right temperatures without overcooking.
Make ahead – Stuffing can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge in a casserole dish. Prepare the stuffing without baking and refrigerate up to 2 days in advance. You may need to add 5 to 10 minutes to the baking time.
Stuffing a Turkey – You can use this stuffing to stuff a turkey. Ensure that the stuffing has cooled in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.
Do not stuff the turkey until just before roasting or it can sit at an unsafe cooking temperature for too long. If stuffing a turkey, the center of the stuffing should reach 165°F as the drippings from the bird enter the stuffing.
To Make Ahead
Stuffing is a great side as it can easily be made ahead of time! Simply prepare as directed, cover tightly, and refrigerate for up to 48 hours.
To bake, remove it from the fridge at least 30 minutes before baking. Prepare as directed (you may need to add a few minutes extra if it’s still cold from the fridge).
How To Freeze Stuffing
Everyone loves turkey dinner leftovers. Turkey dinner stacks or hot turkey sandwiches are my personal favorite ways to enjoy them, but sometimes you can’t get to them by the time they will go bad. Fear not, as turkey stuffing freezes well! Just pop it in the freezer and it should last several months.
To reheat stuffing, pop it in the oven at 350°F for about 20 minutes with a little broth on it to keep it from drying out.
Easy Stuffing Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 small yellow onions diced
- 4 ribs celery diced
- ⅔ cup butter
- 1 ½ teaspoons poultry seasoning or ½ teaspoon ground sage
- black pepper
- salt to taste
- 12 cups dry bread cubes
- 2 to 4 cups chicken broth see notes
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley or 2 teaspoons dry parsley
- 1 tablespoon fresh herbs sage, thyme, and/or rosemary, or 1 teaspoon dry herbs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion, celery and poultry seasoning (and rosemary if using). Reduce the temperature to medium low and cook until tender, about 10-12 minutes. Cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, combine the bread cubes, onion mixture, parsley and fresh herbs.
- Pour 1 cup of broth overtop and toss the cubes. Add the remaining broth, a little bit at a time until cubes are moist (but not soggy) and gently toss. You may not need all of the broth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Place the bread mixture in a baking dish, dot with additional butter if desired, and cover.
- Bake 35 minutes, uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner
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Any alternatives for using sage my husband is allergic to it.
Hi Teresa, if your husband is allergic to sage you could make your own poultry seasoning but omit the sage. It will still taste delicious!
Any reccomedation on the type of bread to use? Sandwich loaf white bread, brioche, italian bread, sourdough? There are so many types. Does it work better with a specific one?
You can use almost any kind of dry bread or purchase dry bread cubes. I prefer to use half white bread and half wheat bread and set them out to dry for a few days before making this stuffing recipe.
This is very, very similar to the stuffing (what my family in Texas calls dressing) that originated with my grandmother. I am 65 years old now, so you can only imagine how old her version is. These may sound like very weird additions, but she always put sliced water chestnuts (which adds a lovely crunch), and toasted pecan halves (or pieces). The cook hosting the holiday meal always makes an extra pan because our family loves it so much. It is an absolute must to send everyone home with leftovers and a container of homemade gravy. For us, it just doesn’t get any better than this!
Absolutely perfect and delicious. Made earlier in the day and baked at dinner time.
Great recipe!!! Easy and my family loved it!! Will be making it next Thanksgiving!!
Thank you
Made your stuffing, absolutely delicious. Thank you from Canada
I just finished making this recipe. I doubled it (there are 21 people for supper). I also added some dried cranberries. Otherwise, I followed the recipe step by step.
Reading the comments about too much broth, I just wanted to say that even when I doubled the recipe, the bread was moist with just two cups of broth. Yes, my bread was dry. I even pre-toasted it in the oven to make sure.
I will let you know how it turns out when we eat it in a couple of hours. Fingers crossed.
excellent so easy & great tasting.. thank you for sharing this recipe with us.
Happy Thanksgiving to you..& family
Jackie
Can I use celery salt if I don’t have celery?
You can use a little bit of celery salt in place of regular salt.
I followed the recipe exactly, using 2 C of broth since I dried the bread at home. I baked almost 90 minutes, and although it was crisp around the edges, the rest of the casserole was soggy. Ugh.
Oh no Marilyn, how disappointing that the stuffing didn’t work out for you. It could have been the type of bread that may have not been as dense or wasn’t as dried out as ours was. If you do try it again, I would suggest adding the broth a little bit at a time just until moistened. I hope that helps!
Never thought of making my own stuffing but so easy.
My husband always makes croutons for our Cearar salads so I used that to start the recipe.
I had to cut the quantities in half since it was for the two of us and still had left overs.
Will make again and again. Thank you!
made this for christmas dinner & it was amazing. everyone enjoyed it. I pre-made the onion mixture with bacon the night before, dried the bread in the oven and put it all together.
My go-to recipe for dressing. Plus, I add apple for additional flavour and crunch.
Sounds delicious Beverly!
Just delicious. We couldn’t find a turkey and decided to stuff 2 chickens ….it was simply delicious filled with buttery goodness
Cook time is 55 minutes but the instructions are 35 mins covered and 10 mins uncovered. Please confirm the times.
55 minutes also includes the cooking of the onions and celery. The stuffing bakes for 35 minutes covered and 10 minutes uncovered.
My kids LOVED this recipe this Thanksgiving!!! My little Timmy couldn’t believe how well I cooked! My Husband, Richard, seemed to especially love the extra onions I added. Thank you for this recipe!
my grandmother used to toast the bread in a toaster, and dressing always came out awesome. seems like the simplest and quickest method to me.
That’s a great idea Carrie!
Hi there- which type of onions do you recommend for this recipe?
I use a regular white onion (with the yellow/brown skin) but any white onion will work just fine Maddie. Enjoy!
Looking to make this for a community dinner. What size is a serving, approximately?
The serving size would be approximately 1/2 cup but can vary slightly.
This was a hit (I followed except no onions bc of food restrictions). I used store biught bread cubes and the full 4 cups, because I’m not quiet sure when bread cubes become soggy vs moist and if it cooks different.