This sausage stuffing recipe is a delicious twist on classic stuffing.
Ground sausage, bread cubes, and fresh herbs combine with chicken broth to make a moist, savory stuffing that is the perfect side for any feast.
Serve it alongside Thanksgiving dinner, stuff it in a turkey, or bake it for any weeknight meal!
Sausage & Herb Stuffing
- This recipe is the perfect make-ahead dish, and flavors get only better with a few extra hours of lead time!
- Sausage, aromatic vegetables, savory herbs, butter, and chicken broth give this stuffing a superb moist flavor.
- Bake sausage stuffing inside the bird for an even more meaty flavor, or cook it in a casserole dish and serve it on the side. It’s delicious either way.
- This flexible stuffing recipe will accommodate variations. Change up the textures and taste by adding chopped nuts, dried fruit, or ground beef.
Ingredients for Sausage Stuffing
Sausage – This versatile recipe can be made with any kind of ground sausage. We most often use bulk breakfast sausage in this recipe. If your sausage has casings, use kitchen scissors to slice through the casing and peel it away.
Other varieties of sausage (or even ground beef) work well in this recipe, including mild or hot Italian sausage.
Bread – Use dried bread cubes purchased from the store or dry your own bread. I use regular sandwich bread, either white, brown or a combination of the two. Purchased bread cubes will need extra broth to moisten.
Broth – Homemade chicken or turkey broth is always an excellent choice, but boxed broth from a store will work just fine.
Vegetables & other add-ins – Celery stalks and onion are a must. Other additions include pecans, walnuts, chestnuts, raisins, mushrooms, cranberries, apples, or squash.
How to Dry Bread Cubes
If time allows, cube the bread and place them on a baking sheet. Leave them at room temperature for at least 24 hours or up to 1 month.
To quickly prepare bread for this sausage stuffing recipe, place the cubed bread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Dry in the oven at 250°F for 15-20 minutes. Cool before using.
How to Make Sausage Stuffing
Save the stress and make this easy stuffing recipe a day ahead, or the morning of.
- Cook sausage in a pan and set aside, then cook the vegetables in the fat.
- Toss sausage, the vegetable mixture, and seasonings with the bread cubes. Moisten with chicken broth.
- Spread into a baking dish and bake until golden (per the recipe below).
How to Stuff a Bird
This stuffing has no raw ingredients in it, so it is safe to use for stuffing your holiday bird. Just follow these simple steps and precautions.
- Do not stuff a bird ahead of time, or place a stuffed bird in the refrigerator. Put in a preheated oven immediately.
- To ensure the stuffing cooks properly, place it inside the cavity loosely. Don’t pack it in.
- Use a thermometer to ensure the center of the stuffing reaches 165°F.
- Be sure all ingredients in the stuffing are precooked and don’t use raw eggs, oysters, meat, etc.
- Don’t freeze or refrigerate a leftover bird with the stuffing inside.
How to Make Ahead
Reduce holiday stress and make it a day ahead and store it in the refrigerator in a covered casserole dish.
Prepare the recipe as directed without baking. Cover and refrigerate for up to 48 hours.
Remove the stuffing from the fridge at least 30 minutes before baking. Bake as directed below adding 5-10 minutes to the baking time if needed.
Storing Sausage Stuffing
Precooked sausage stuffing that is made ahead of time can be stored in the refrigerator up to a day in advance of baking. To store after baking, cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and reheat in the oven in a foil-covered dish at 325°F until heated through.
Classic Thanksgiving Sides
Did you make this Sausage Stuffing recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and a rating below!
Sausage Stuffing Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork sausage
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 large onion diced
- 1 cup celery diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons fresh herbs parsley, thyme, rosemary and/or sage
- ½ teaspoon poultry seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 8 cups dried bread cubes
- 2-3 cups chicken broth
- ¼ cup butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375˚F
- In a large skillet, brown the sausage over medium high heat until no pink remains. Remove from skillet reserving the drippings.
- Add 1 tablespoon butter to the skillet. Add onion, celery, garlic, and poultry seasoning and cook over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, add dried bread cubes, cooled sausage, onions and celery, fresh herbs. Toss to combine.
- Add broth a little bit at a time while stirring to combine *see note. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Place in a 2 ½ qt casserole dish and drizzle with ¼ cup melted butter.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until golden.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Side Dish
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recipe is similiar to mine but I add sauerkraut and mushrooms……love your recipes.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Your version sounds delicious Barb! Happy Thanksgiving!
Please clarify how much of each of the fresh herbs to use. Thank you.
Hi Barbara, you want to use a total of 2 tablespoons fresh herbs. If using parsley, thyme, rosemary, and sage you will want to use 1/2 tablespoon each. I hope this helps!
I love making Sausage Stuffing I’ve made it just like yours.
We love it too!!
I add chopped apples, craisins and chopped cranberries along with mixing chicken broth with apple cider. Delicious! Along with the sausage and bread etc.
Your version sounds delicious Elaine!
Hi Holly!
Love this recipe and trying it for our late Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Hope yours was great! For the fresh herbs, is it two TBSP each? Or altogether?
Thanks for sharing this! It sounds amazing!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family too Mike. This is 2 tablespoons total. Let us know how it works out for you!
Can you make this stuffing in a slow cooker?
Sure you can! I would follow the cook times in our Crock Pot Stuffing reicpe.
First time making the stuffing I wanted to make it before Thanksgiving to make sure that it came out great and it absolutely did…. great flavors perfect texture can’t wait to make it for Thanksgiving fir Family and Friends this will be a yearly addition to the Thanksgiving day table, gobble gobble
Hi Holly.. I would like to make this stuffing for Thanksgiving and was wondering how much to add of each ingrediant to make 12 servings instead of 10? Can I use your Easy Stuffing Recipe and just add the sausage? Thanks
If you click “PRINT” on the print page you can increase the servings to 12 and it will give you the amounts to use. You can also add stuffing to the other recipe if you’d like!
Have not made this recipe but plan to soon. In looking at another one of your recipes, I saw you do not add raw eggs – is this only when stuffing a turkey but you add eggs to the dressing recipe? Thank you.
You can add raw eggs if you’d like. Some recipes do and some don’t, it helps to bind the stuffing a little bit. I do add it to my crock pot stuffing recipe.
Used this recipe over the weekend for an early thanksgiving dinner, and it was excellent! I’d definitely use it again. Oh, and leftovers are the best :)
So glad you loved it Christina!
Can this be made in a crockpot?
Yes this will work just fine in a slow cooker. I would suggest following the directions for Crock Pot Stuffing.
I have a question about making this the night before. Do you add all ingredients.. even the broth.. and bake fully then put in the fridge or do you add all ingredients, even broth and refrigerate then bake the next day?
Hi Tiffany, we add all the ingredients together in the casserole dish, cover and store in the fridge up to 24 hours ahead. Then take it out and bake as directed on the day.