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
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Preheat the oven to 350°F.
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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.
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In a large bowl, combine the bread cubes, onion mixture, parsley and fresh herbs.
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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.
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Place the bread mixture in a baking dish, dot with additional butter if desired, and cover.
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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
Cuisine American
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REPIN this Super Stuffing Recipe
I made this recipe and it turned out very well. I used dried out multigrain bread, cut into cubes, spritzed with I Can’t Believe It’s not Butter, tossed with poultry seasoning and extra thyme. I saute´ed onion and celery in butter. Then added fresh chopped, carrot greens, parslsy, and basil. Then added chicken broth. Once all was heated through, tossed in the cubes. Delicious.
Excelle
5 star
This recipe was perfect! Easy enough and came out incredibly good! I made it to go with roasted chicken with a leftover (Italian) bread bowl I had. WOW! This will be what I make for thanksgiving. I used fresh thyme sage and rosemary, no parsley and my family loved it!
I have to add a few eggs. I’m also Italian (but I don’t want sausage in my turkey stuffing) but I will add Romano Cheese (about 2 cups) and garlic (about 5 cloves). A bit more turkey broth to account for the extra cheese. I also fry up the giblets with the onions and Celery but they kind of disappear in the volume of other ingredients. I used to stuff the bird but not anymore it doesn’t hold a lot of stuffing, it’s much easier to cook an unstuffed turkey to perfection and if you make a good turkey broth (from the neck and any other trimmings) the stuffing has the turkey flavor. I do a 24 hr brine and a 48 hour dry to get the best of juicy meat and crispy skin. I’ve got this down!
Delicious! I made it as the recipe instructed. I ended up cutting the recipe in half as it was just my husband and I. Embarrassed a bit, but we finished it off at dinner! Supposedly six servings, but we just couldn’t stop eating it. This is a keeper! I used sage and thyme for my fresh herbs and dried parsley. Yum!
Great recipe! The stuffing is delicious. Thank you!
Best homemade stuffing recipe I’ve ever made – super easy and delicious! I didn’t add salt as a family member is on a no-salt diet, and I expected to have to add salt to bring out the flavor but it was perfect without salt. A big hit at our Christmas dinner and I’m making it again for New Year’s!
I made this and it’s a prefect easy recipe. I added dried cranberries and slivered almonds, yummy. Making again NYE and this time adding dried apricots. Accompanying a rack of pork!
Easy and delicious stuffing.
We use your recipes all the time. Thank you.
Love this recipe, it is so close to the one my mom and grandma made. The only thing that I change about this recipe is I add 2 apples chopped up (that’s what my mom and grandma added) and it’s perfect. thank you so much.