This classic homemade stuffing recipe is the perfect side dish for Thanksgiving and holidays.
Your search for the perfect holiday stuffing ends here. It’s so good that my family requests it every single year for Thanksgiving.
It’s easy to make from scratch, and the traditional combination of buttery onions and fresh sage tastes incredible alongside roasted turkey or roast chicken. If you love mushrooms, try our incredible mushroom stuffing instead.
Key Ingredients
- Bread: The key to great stuffing is dry bread. For the best stuffing, use homemade garlic croutons. They’re already dried out and packed with flavor, giving your stuffing an incredible texture.
- Butter: I use salted butter in this recipe. Unsalted or a plant-based butter works great too, especially if you’re making a vegan version. You’ll just need a touch more salt.
- Onion, Celery, and Garlic: These are the classic, must-have aromatics. You’ll cook them in the butter to build a savory base before adding the broth and bread.
- Broth: Use your favorite type, whether it’s chicken broth or vegetable broth. It’s the key to a moist stuffing. In other stuffing recipes, eggs serve as a binder, helping to make the mixture fluffy when baked. We use butter and broth in our recipe for our binder and don’t miss the eggs at all.
- Herbs: For me, stuffing isn’t complete without fresh herbs. I use sage, thyme, and parsley. The sage is my favorite. It reminds me of my grandmother’s stuffing and makes the whole dish taste like the holidays.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Homemade Stuffing
Tip 1: Bread works, but homemade croutons are better. I love using these garlic croutons. They are easy to make and make our stuffing taste so good. I realize this adds a step, but you can make them well in advance (they keep for 2 weeks!). All that said, you can use plain bread. I’ve shared tips for this below the recipe.
Tip 2: There’s no need to brown the onions. When cooking your onions, celery, and garlic, use a skillet with a lid. You aren’t trying to brown them. Instead, we want the soft and sweet. When they are, you can add broth, croutons, and fresh herbs.
Tip 3: Finish in the oven. Bake your stuffing (uncovered) in a 350°F oven for about 40 minutes. I like to rotate the casserole dish halfway through baking. When baked, the stuffing is moist and set in the middle, with a golden brown and crispy top. Then, let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to firm up before serving.
Serving Suggestions
You can make this stuffing recipe anytime, but it’s perfect for Thanksgiving alongside our Best Roast Turkey or Garlic Herb Roasted Turkey Breast. Here are a few more of our favorite side dishes:
- Perfect Turkey Gravy
- Creamy Mashed Potatoes
- Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Sautéed Brussels Sprouts
- Roasted Carrots
- Green Bean Casserole
- Our Best Cranberry Sauce
- Potatoes Au Gratin
Easy Herb Stuffing
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We love this classic herb stuffing recipe. It is especially good served with roasted chicken and roasted turkey. This is an excellent Thanksgiving stuffing recipe. For extra flavor, we love using our homemade garlic croutons. They are easy to make. If you do not want to use croutons, tips are provided below the recipe for using plain bread.
You Will Need
8 ounces homemade garlic croutons (about 6 cups), see tips
4 tablespoons (57g) butter, plus more for baking dish
1 medium onion, finely chopped, 1 ½ cups
3 celery stalks, finely chopped, 1 ½ cups
2 garlic cloves, minced, 2 teaspoons
1 ¾ cups (415ml) chicken broth or veggie broth
1 teaspoon chopped thyme
1 teaspoon chopped sage
2 ½ tablespoons chopped parsley
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
Directions
1Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 1 ½ to 2-quart baking dish with butter.
2Melt the butter in a large skillet (with a lid) over medium heat. Stir in the onion, celery, and garlic. Cover with the lid and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
3Pour in the broth and bring to a simmer. Toss in the croutons, stirring around the pan to combine. Cook for 5 minutes.
4Stir in the thyme, sage, parsley, and pepper. Taste, and then season with salt. Depending on the broth you have used, you may need to add 1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon.
5Spread the stuffing in the buttered baking dish, and bake uncovered for 40 minutes, or until the middle sets and the top turns golden brown and crisp. Rotate the stuffing halfway through baking. Let stand on the counter for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Homemade croutons: I love the garlic croutons, and they truly make this stuffing better. You can make the croutons up to two weeks in advance.
- Plain bread cubes: If you prefer plain bread cubes instead of garlic croutons, cut 8 ounces of crusty white bread into 1/2-inch cubes. We recommend tossing them onto a baking sheet and bake for 10 to 20 minutes in a 350°F oven. This short time in the oven will dry the bread, making it stand up better in the stuffing mixture. Remember, you will lose a bit of herb flavor when not using the croutons.
- Can you stuff this stuffing into a turkey? Yes, but we prefer not to when preparing a turkey. Stuffing the turkey can affect the overall cooking process. The heat takes longer to penetrate the cavity, and stuffing your turkey pretty much guarantees overcooked turkey meat. By cooking the stuffing separately, we guarantee we cook the turkey and stuffing perfectly without compromise.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
Did you change the recipe for this? I feel like it used to be different?
No, but we do have another stuffing recipe (this mushroom stuffing).
This was delicious!! Making the croutons (not hard) made all the difference!!
Can I prepare this recipe in full, cover, refrigerate and bake next day. Looking for some time savers. Will it be too soggy? At room temp, how much time to bake?
Hi Arlene, we would recommend that you just finishing baking the stuffing and then save it in the fridge. It would probably get to soggy if you baked it the next day.
Other than using garlic, this is exacly the same recipe I’ve used for several decades and it’s perfect. The last 15 yrs I’ve also added mushrooms and some apple for moisture because we were forced to use gf bread.
Hi Conni, We love using mushrooms for stuffing, too. Here’s our mushroom packed stuffing if you are interested. I’ve never added apple, but its a great idea! I’ll have to try it next time.
I use day old cornbread and I also use green pepper with the onion and celery, sage poultry seasoning seasoning salt garlic salt and black pepper, the chicken stock, some of the pan drippings from the roasted Turkey and butter
All sounds lovely, Jeani.
I love this recipe! I recognize it from my childhood. On a more humorous note I could title this recipe as “Yet another one of Grandma’s recipes and why she died so young” (No, I’m just kidding.) Having this stuffing once a year won’t hurt anyone. It represents a celebration by semi-starving people who founded this country. I think it’s symbolism is far more important than any dietary or ethnic protocols. I will never miss out on eating this kind of stuffing as long as I can.
This stuffing is exactly the same as my mom’s, the one that I have made for 50 years. By far the best stuffing.
I am glad that we agree with your mom. Mom recipes are usually the best 🙂