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.
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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.
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 to taste
- salt to taste
- 12 cups dry bread cubes
- 2 to 4 cups chicken broth see notes
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- 1 tablespoon fresh herbs any combination of sage, thyme, 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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REPIN this Super Stuffing Recipe
Does dry bread mean stale?
Yes stale or dried out like croutons.
Hi a holly,
What size dish do you use?
Thanks
I use a 9×13-inch baking dish.
This has always been my goto recipe! I also add in a lb of hot sausage
Can you provide a ballpark measurement for the salt? How much would you add?
I would start with about ¾ teaspoon and taste, everything in this recipe is cooked so it’s okay to taste before baking.
This sounds great, I am wondering thoughts on adding 2 eggs? Usually my stuffing recipes
call for them. What do you think about the stuffing needing that to bind? Happy Thanksgiving!
You can add eggs to this recipe if you’d like!
Question. For measuring the bread, do you pack the cups at all? Or is there a weight that you’d recommend so I could use a kitchen scale (post-drying) instead?
(I imagine it’s not packing it in like brown sugar. :-) But even lightly packing it in would be way more bread than if I just scooped.)
I don’t pack it—if you end up with a little more or a little less bread, you can adjust the broth as you add it bit by bit. Enjoy!
How big should the bread cubes be? Using homemade bread. Looking forward to non box stuffing this year!
Hi Rachel, cut or tear the bread into half inch pieces and allow it to dry a couple of days (or use the oven drying method listed in the post). A reminder to dry it very very well and use a little broth at a time.
I don’t have fresh herbs, what would be the equivalent of dried herbs?
Fresh herbs can be substituted with 1 teaspoon dry herbs (total). (You can also find this information in the recipe notes if you print the recipe)
How long do you bake the dressing?
Hi Holly. Cook the stuffing in the oven covered for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 10.
It won’t be gooey, will it?
It won’t be gooey. Ensure you add just enough broth to moisten the cubes.
I read through the comments, and it looks like people have success, but I worry if I make this the night before it will make it mushy! I like the idea of preparing ahead of time, but I’m afraid it won’t be as good!
it’s just as good made ahead, add just enough liquid to moisten the bread! Enjoy.
If making ahead do you wait until it’s time to bake to add the chicken broth?
The chicken broth can be added ahead of time. You’ll add just enough to moisten it.
Hi Holly,
My Mum always made sage and onion stuffing at Christmas and I know she put sausage meat in it. How much sausage meat should I add to this recipe and what would I need to change?
Thanks Holly I love your book.
Sausage is great in stuffing, you can add 1lb of browned and drained sausage to this stuffing, no other changes are needed. I’m so glad you’ve loved my book Dorothy, if you’re able, I would love if you could leave a review!
Thank you Holly. this is actually my Mom’s recipe minus the Rosemary. I love your recipes.
I’m going to make this for our family Christmas dinner. what I like about this recipe is not only is it like my mom’s recipe that I loved but I see great ratings. I know it will be delicious.Thank you!!
It’s 11/22/2024 and I have made this recipe 3 times already – this year! I’ve added mushrooms, sausage, chestnuts, pine nuts, and made no changes at all. Perfect every time! Thank you!
What size pan is this cooked in and how many servings does it make? Thank you
Hi Patrick, we bake this recipe in a 9×13 but any 2 ½ to 3qt baking dish will work. It makes 12 – ½ cup servings.
Can I freeze this before I cook it – then thaw and bake
You sure can! Thaw in the fridge overnight before baking. If it is chilled from the fridge, you may need to add extra cooking time.
I made this recipe for Canadian Thanksgiving in October. I used turkey stock instead of chicken broth – I made the stock with the gizzards and neck. The stuffing turned out so good and best part it’s easy to make. I will never stuff a bird again.
Would love to make this for Thanksgiving. I have a couple bags of bread cubes in the freezer. Can I cook this with the bread frozen, or how would you suggest to thaw and dry the bread?
Thanks!
Hi Sara, I would defrost the bread cubes and then leave them out to dry for a few days or they can be dried in the oven at a low temperature.
If using both dried poultry season and sage, how much of each. My mom used both but never measured.
We recommend using 1 ½ teaspoons poultry seasoning or ½ teaspoon ground sage. If wanting to use both you can use a combination of the spices. I would play around with it until you find the right flavors for you!
Hi Holly,
I am assuming this original easy stuffing recipe could also be cooked in the slow cooker at 30 min on high and 3-4 hours on low. It could still be prepared up to 2 days in advance without adding chicken stock. On day of bake remove from fridge add stock to moisten and then put in crock pot. Please advise if this will not work.
Thank you.
I can’t see any reason this wouldn’t work, Let us know how it goes!