This traditional stuffing recipe is made from scratch and is made with bread cubes, butter, onion, celery, and savory aromatics. It’s perfect for a Thanksgiving feast or as a stuffing recipe for chicken or pork and really is the best, easy stuffing recipe.
If I were to stand at a table loaded with the classic Thanksgiving dinner dishes, and have to choose just one to eat for the rest of my Thanksgiving dinner days, it wouldn’t be the turkey, it wouldn’t be the mashed potatoes, and it wouldn’t even be my grandma’s ambrosia salad that would make the cut. The one dish I could never miss is a super simple, totally basic, homemade stuffing recipe I’ve been eating since I could put food in my hungry little mouth. It’s buttery, savory, and everything you could ask for in an easy stuffing recipe. Plus, it has minimal ingredients and is so simple to make.
What Is Stuffing
Stuffing is a seasoned mixture of breadcrumbs, vegetables, and butter that is typically placed inside the cavity of a turkey before roasting. You can also use this recipe as a stuffing recipe for chicken or pork.
What’s This Traditional Stuffing Recipe Made Of
There are only six ingredients in this stuffing recipe, plus salt and pepper. What makes this traditional stuffing so crave-worthy is the trifecta of onions and celery sautéed in more butter than you think you should use. The aroma of these three ingredients sautéing on the stove is enough to send visions of turkey day memories flooding through my brain like a food memory time capsule.
Here’s what you’ll need to make this traditional stuffing recipe:
- Dry bread cubes—I use those found in the grocery store bakery or Mrs. Cubbison’s Cube Stuffing
- Onion
- Celery
- Butter—don’t skimp on the butter here, it’s crucial for amazing flavor!
- Chicken broth or turkey stock
- Dried poultry seasoning (more on this in a moment)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Stuffing Seasonings
I season the stuffing the same way my mom always did, with dried poultry seasoning. I buy it already pre-mixed in the little red-topped spice jar.
Here’s what you’ll need if you’re making it homemade:
- Thyme
- Sage
- Marjoram
- Rosemary
- Nutmeg
- Black pepper
How to Make This Stuffing Recipe
This truly is the best Thanksgiving stuffing recipe. Here’s how to make it:
Sauté your veggies. Melt the butter in a skillet, then add in the chopped onion and celery and cook until softened.
Drizzle, season, and toss. Add the dried bread cubes to a large bowl and top with the sautéed veggies. Pour in chicken broth and sprinkle with stuffing seasoning. Stir and toss to mix, tasting as you go, and add more seasoning to taste. Bake either inside the turkey or in a 9×13-inch casserole dish.
What Kind of Bread is Best for Stuffing
The best Thanksgiving stuffing recipe starts with basic dried sandwich bread. You could certainly use artisanal bread, like sourdough, but I find that good old dried sandwich bread does the best job of absorbing the seasonings and flavors.
My mom always used boxed seasoned bread cubes, but I have fallen in favor of the dried bread cubes I purchase from my grocery store bakery. Or, you can make your own. A 1-pound loaf of bread will make about 12 cups of cubed bread.
- To make your own dried bread for stuffing, cut a loaf of white or French bread into ½-inch slices and place on a baking sheet or rack to sit out overnight, or for two nights, until dried. Cut into smaller pieces if desired.
- To prepare bread stuffing in the oven, place the sliced bread in a 225°F oven for 30 minutes or until dried, and cut it into smaller pieces.
What is the Difference Between Dressing and Stuffing?
Though often used interchangeably (depending on what region you’re from), there is a small difference between dressing and stuffing. Historically, while the basic concept of the dish doesn’t change too much (a baked mixture of cubed bread mixed with sautéed veggies and herbs), “dressing” is more of a Southern thing, while “stuffing” tends to be more recognized in Northern states.
There are variations like sourdough bread or cornbread stuffing, ones made with dried fruits and nuts, sausage, rice, or even oysters. But no matter the ingredients, the biggest difference is whether you stuff your mixture inside the turkey to bake (stuffing) or bake it in a baking dish (dressing). Potato, po-tah-to, let’s call both delicious.
Can You Put an Egg in Stuffing
Some stuffing recipes call for eggs because eggs act as a binder, helping the stuffing holds together more. I don’t add eggs to my stuffing recipe, but if you’d like to try it, whisk 2 eggs and add them to the cooled stuffing mixture so you don’t get scrambled eggs in with your stuffing.
The Best Temperature to Cook Stuffing
Stuffing cooked outside the bird: To be sure there’s no contamination for your stuffing, cook it in a baking dish prepared with butter as noted in the recipe instructions below. When cooking outside the bird, drizzle with ¼ cup more stock and dot with 1-2 tablespoons more butter, so the stuffing doesn’t dry out in the oven. Bake covered with aluminum foil.
Stuffing cooked in the bird: Cooking the turkey unstuffed creates a more level cooking field so the white and dark meat will be done at the same time. Dense bread stuffing reduces airflow inside the bird and slows the cooking time. Dark meat cooks slower than white breast meat, and stuffing the bird compounds the issue. If cooking the stuffing inside the bird, it’s VERY important to use a food or meat thermometer to be sure the internal temperature in the middle of the stuffing hits 165°F.
Stuffing Mix-Ins to Try
This stuffing recipe can be the building block base to all your stuffing cravings by adding other ingredients to take it from simple to special:
- Sausage, ham, or bacon. Plain sausage, mild Italian, or apple sausage all add a savory bite
- Nuts like pecans, pine nuts, walnuts
- Dried fruit like cranberries, currants, raisins, dried apricots, or cherries
- Chopped apples, mushrooms, or fennel
- Roasted vegetables like butternut squash or caramelized onions
- Smoked oysters or water chestnuts
How to Keep Stuffing Warm
Thanksgiving stuffing is one of the first side dishes to cool down once it’s been removed from the oven (bread just doesn’t hold heat well).
To keep this stuffing warm until you’re ready to serve it, cover it tightly with foil and place it in the drawer underneath your oven (it should be fairly warm in there if your oven is still on), or in a 200°F oven.
How to Reheat Stuffing
You can reheat leftover Thanksgiving stuffing on the stove or in the oven. Simply drizzle a tablespoon or two of broth over the stuffing, then either heat in a skillet on the stove or cover with foil and cook in a 350°F oven.
Tips for the Best Stuffing Recipe
It’s all about aromatics. The aromatics of dried herbs are stronger than fresh herbs, which is why I use poultry seasoning every time. Plus, using dried herbs I already have in my pantry means there’s one less Thanksgiving ingredient I need to stock up on.
Homemade stock makes a difference. I like to make my own chicken or turkey stock to flavor this homemade stuffing recipe and use it for making my homemade gravy. I use my recipe for Homemade Turkey Stock or Homemade Chicken Stock.
If I’m making the stock recipe for turkey, I usually sub in the carcass after making my juicy roasted turkey breasts (because I always want extra white meat) and a few roasted turkey wings. Or, simply use chicken stock for turkey stuffing instead.
The BEST Stuffing Recipe
Ingredients
- 11 tablespoons butter divided (1 tablespoon for preparing the baking dish and 2 reserved for dotting on top)
- 2 cups celery chopped (about 4-5 ribs)
- 2 cups yellow onion chopped (1 large)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 10 cups dried bread cubes 1 pound package dried
- 2 teaspoons dried poultry seasoning
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth or use homemade turkey or chicken stock
Instructions
- Melt 8 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat in a large, high sided skillet or Dutch oven. Add the chopped onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 6-7 minutes. Season with the kosher salt and black pepper and remove from the heat.
- Add the dried bread cubes to a large mixing bowl with the sautéed onion and celery. Sprinkle with the dried poultry seasoning and drizzle with the chicken broth. Gently toss until the ingredients until mixed.
- To bake outside the bird, prepare a 9×13-inch baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the reserved butter and spoon the stuffing in the dish. Drizzle with an additional ¼ cup of chicken broth and dot with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to keep moist, cover with foil and bake at 400°F for 20-25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
- To bake inside the bird, spoon 3-5 cups of the stuffing into the bird’s cavity, stuffing it loosely but not overfilling, then follow your bird’s cooking directions. Be sure the internal temperature of the stuffing comes to 165°F on an instant read meat or food thermometer before serving.
