The Best Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing — 🧡😋 Nothing frilly or trendy in this recipe. It’s a classic, easy, homemade stuffing that everyone loves!! Simple ingredients with stellar results! It’ll be your new go-to recipe!!
Table of Contents
A Classic Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe
People love serving this traditional stuffing at Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and I even receive emails at other times during the year from people who make it and no matter the season — it’s always a hit!
My family are stuffing fanatics for classic and traditional stuffings. No pears, dried fruit and nuts, wild mushrooms, or even bacon or sausage need apply.
Think: old-fashioned stuffing made with day-old bread, onions, celery, butter, and herbs.
The stuffing is lightly crusted and golden on top, soft underneath, full of rich buttery flavor, and well-seasoned from the herbs.
As the stuffing bakes, my house smells exactly like Thanksgiving and like all the Thanksgivings I remember at my mom’s and grandma’s houses growing up smelled. Warm, cozy, comforting, and happy. This is the BEST stuffing recipe ever!
Homemade Stuffing Ingredients
Like I’ve already mentioned, this easy Thanksgiving stuffing recipe calls for simple, straightforward ingredients. Classic, but delicious!
- Onions
- Celery
- Fresh herbs (parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme)
- Butter
- Broth – I use reduced sodium chicken broth, but vegetable broth works too.
- Bread
- Eggs
- Salt and pepper – season to taste
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make the Best Stuffing
This classic Thanksgiving stuffing is easy and straightforward to make, even if you’ve never made homemade stuffing before.
Here’s a quick overview of the recipe:
- Melt the butter in a skillet, then sauté the onion and celery until softened.
- In a large bowl, stir together the dried bread cubes, sautéed vegetables, fresh herbs, and broth.
- Add the eggs last, mixed in with a little broth for easier distribution.
- Turn the stuffing into a greased 9×13-inch baking dish and dot the top with butter. Bake until done.
Time Saving Tip
To save time day of, bake and dry out the bread the night before and leave uncovered on the counter until the morning you’re ready to make the traditional stuffing.
Recipe FAQs
Technically this is a dressing recipe because it’s not stuffed inside the bird, but in my family we still call it stuffing rather than dressing. Our age old mis-naming tradition.
I used a loaf (baguette) of day-old white French bread from my grocery store’s bakery that I cubed, dried in the oven for 45 minutes, and allowed it to sit out overnight.
To save time on the big day, I dry it out the night before but you can do it that morning if time permits. You want to begin with really dry bread because otherwise it’ll turn to mush.
I’ve never pre-made or pre-assembled this classic stuffing recipe, but I think it’d be fine to assemble the night before and bake the day after. Check the stuffing just before baking it. If the bread seems dry at all, drizzle a little extra broth over top. You do NOT want to end up with dry stuffing!
Yes, this classic stuffing recipe tells you to cover the stuffing with foil and bake it for 40 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 40 minutes.
If you need to keep the homemade stuffing warm before serving it, loosely cover it with foil and stick it in a 200ºF oven.
Stuffing is best warm and fresh but will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat gently as desired.
Yes! Once baked, let the Thanksgiving stuffing cool completely before storing in a freezer bag. You can reheat the stuffing from frozen in a 350F oven (don’t let it thaw first, otherwise the bread will turn to mush).
This is our go to recipe for Thanksgiving stuffing. It’s a hit every year. I’ve made it with homemade bread cubes, store bought bakery bread cubes, and packaged Oroweat/Pepperidge Farm bread cubes. They all come out great. — Jody
What to Serve with Homemade Stuffing
Recipe Video Tutorial
Pin This Recipe
Enjoy AverieCooks.com Without Ads! 🆕
Go Ad Free
Traditional Homemade Thanksgiving Stuffing
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, divided
- 1 pound day-old white French bread, diced into 1/2-inch cubes and dried
- 1 extra-large, about 2 1/2 cups sweet Vidalia or yellow onion, diced small
- 1 ½ cups celery, diced small
- ⅔ cup Italian flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely minced
- ¼ cup fresh sage leaves, finely minced
- 3 tablespoons fresh rosemary, sticks discarded, finely minced
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme, sticks discarded, finely minced
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
- 2 ½ cups low-sodium chicken broth, divided
- 2 large eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250F. Place cubed bread on a baking sheet and bake, stirring occasionally, until dried out, about 45 minutes. You must begin with very dry bread or it’ll turn to mush. Tip – To save time on the day of, bake and dry out the bread the night before and leave uncovered on the counter until the morning you’re ready to make the stuffing.
- When you’re ready to make the stuffing, transfer bread to a very large bowl; set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350F and spray a 9×13-inch pan or 3-quart baking dish with cooking spray; set aside.
- To a large skillet, add 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter and heat over medium-high heat to melt.
- Add the onions, celery, and cook until vegetables have softened and are just beginning to lightly brown, about 10 minutes. Stir frequently. Transfer vegetables to bowl with bread.
- Add the parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper, 1 1/4 cups chicken broth, and toss well to combine; set aside. Note about salt – the saltiness level of low-sodium chicken broth varies, and so do personal preferences, so salt to taste.
- To a small bowl, add the remaining 1 1/4 cups chicken broth, 2 eggs, and whisk to combine. Pour mixture over bread and toss well to combine. Turn mixture out into prepared baking dish.
- Dice the remaining 1/4 cup (half of 1 stick) butter into 8 to 10 pieces and evenly dot the butter over the top of the stuffing.
- Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 40 to 45 minutes, or until top is as lightly golden browned as desired. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
More Easy Stuffing Recipes:
All of my Thanksgiving recipes!
Slow Cooker Sausage Stuffing — This sausage stuffing is super easy to make since the slow cooker does all the hard work for you! There’s no sauteing or browning required at all and you can FREE UP YOUR OVEN!!
Homemade Stovetop Stuffing — With this easy homemade stuffing recipe, you’ll never need a box of the store-bought stuff again!
Cornbread Stuffing — 🧡💛🙌 Fast and easy homemade cornbread is transformed into a family favorite cornbread stuffing side dish with the addition of celery, onions, garlic, broth, and a bouquet of fresh herbs!
Pull-Apart Stuffing Ring — You’ll never guess the secret ingredient that not only makes this stuffing ring FAST and EASY, but also creates PERFECT texture! The stuffing is soft and tender, buttery and moist, not at all soggy, and seasoned to perfection with sage, thyme, rosemary, and parsley!
Originally published November 5, 2018 and republished with updated text November 20, 2020.
it turned out great! had to use gluten free bread and adjusted herbs to our taste but it was extremely flavorful and delicious!
Thanks for the 5 star review, Ashley, and I’m glad to hear this was a success and that it worked great using GF bread!
best ever!!
Thanks for the five star review, Diana, and I’m glad it’s the best ever!
Been making this every year for Thanksgiving since 2017. It never fails. Love it so much and always gets compliments!
Thanks for the five star review and for making this since 2017! I’m so glad to hear it always gets rave reviews and you keep on making it!
This is my fourth year making this stuffing. It’s ALWAYS a huge hit! It really is the best recipe.
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad this is your fourth year making it and that you have amazing results!
I love this recipe! For years, I tried a new stuffing recipe and tested it at Thanksgiving. Once we tried this recipe, we decided this would be the stuffing we would make every year in the future!
Prepping the herbs, celery, and onion take quite a bit of time, but they truly make a difference!
I would be interested to know how much store bought bread cubes to use in this recipe if we’re using those as opposed to making cubes from scratch.
Hi Angela, thanks for letting me know that this is your family‘s favorite stuffing recipe and that this is the one! In terms of bread cubes and giving a cup measurement, it’s a little bit tricky because depending on how big or small somebody dices the bread, and depending on how you exactly measure a cup of it, meaning there’s going to be some cubes that are sticking above the measuring cups slightly, it’s hard to say precisely.
I would guess around 12 cups, but I do go by weight of bread rather than cups. Although you can always see what the weight on the package of dried bread cubes that you’re using says. You’d want a bit less than a pound since dried bread is going to weigh less than fresh bread.
This year will be the 3rd year I make this stuffing recipe. I love it so much and so does my family! Highly recommend.
Thanks for the 5 star review, Julissa, and I’m glad to hear this is your third year making this and it’s well loved!
Julissa,
This is my 3rd year using this recipe as well! :)
I love it! 👍🏻
I’ve made this stuffing before and it was hit. Bigger crowd this year- can the recipe be doubled?
Thanks for the 5 star review, Dara, and I’m glad it has been a big hit! Yes you can double it. I would bake it in separate pans though to make sure it cooks evenly.
This is the only stuffing recipe I use during the holidays since I found it a couple of years ago. I sub chicken broth for veggie broth cause I’m a vegetarian and I use challah bread instead of french baguette. 100% recommend that you give it a try! I also have been known to use dry herbs when I’m feeling lazy but this year I’m going to use fresh! Another thing I’m trying is making the stuffing in advance, just in the morning and refrigerating it before sticking it in the oven in the evening. Wish me luck!
Thanks for the 5 star review, Katie, and I’m glad it’s a favorite for you and that you’re making it again this year!
Overall this turned out really well but I had some questions about the recipe.
1. I’ve never used eggs in a stuffing before. What role do they play? Could they be replaced with more broth? I thought the result was a little wetter than I am used to, although the surface was crisp.
2. What is 1 pound of bread? I do not live in the US but I can convert that to grams. But do you mean 1 pound of day-old bread which is then dried, or 1 pound of dried out cubes? Possibly give a volume estimate on the dried cubes?
3. A little advice on how much dried herbs to use if fresh are not available would have been helpful.
1. They bind the bread and make it moist in a different way than eggs.
2. 1 pound is 1 pound of fresh bread. You can convert that amount to grams. Slice it, dry it.
3. Half the amount of dried herbs vs fresh is a standard conversion. 1 tsp fresh = 1/2 tsp dried.
My go to recipe every year. Classic and delicious.!
Thanks for the 5 star review, Marie, and I love hearing this is your go-to recipe every year!
How many. Cups of bread would be correct for this stuffing? The recipe doesn’t give that information.
You want to use 1 pound of bread. When you dice it into cups, depending on the size of your cubes, you’ll probably get 10 to 12 cups, but it depends. Go by weight and buy a 1 pound loaf as indicated in the recipe card.
can you make this ahead of time and throw in the oven the next day? looking to prep as much as I can day before. thanks!
I have not ever made it in advance, but you probably could do exactly as you said And be fine, but I personally have not tested this. I believe if you read through the comments that other people have discussed this who have done this.
I have made in past and very good. Do you think I can cut in half and still get same great flavor.
I’m glad that it’s been great for you in the past. When you mean, cut things in half, do you mean halve the recipe? If so, yes, it will turn out fine. Just halve all the ingredients and bake in a much smaller baking dish. Baking time will probably reduce, but not dramatically.
We LOVE this recipe and have used it for the past several years. I always receive compliments when I serve this at Thanksgiving. Delicious! I am curious if I could use sourdough instead of French bread only for the fact that I am now regularly making my own sourdough?
Thanks for the 5 star review, Jena, and I am glad you love it! I think you definitely could use sourdough. And since you have it since you’re making it, awesome. Just make sure it’s nice and dry like you would do with French bread cubes. Or you could do half sourdough cubes and half French bread cubes, too.
The flavour was really good. But cooking time was too long. The bottom got burnt.
I’m glad the flavor was good but I am sorry to hear that about the bottom. I have never in all the 1000+ comments heard this.
My guesses are: that your oven runs a bit hot, you used a metal pan rather than a casserole dish which cooks things hotter/faster, and/or your bread and the stuffing was just drier overall going into the oven so it required less time. Thank you for trying the recipe!
Amazing recipe. I did add bacon and cut the butter but it’s now my go to. I also used keto bread as I live a low carb lifestyle instead of French and it still turned out amazing. Thank-you
Thanks for the 5 star review and that’s great you were able to tweak this to suit your lifestyle needs!
Wow keto bread, I would have never guessed that would have worked. Then again, I have never actually bought it :) That’s wonderful to hear and thanks for leaving this comment because someone who also follows a lowcarb/keto diet will no doubt see this and it will be helpful for them!
just want follow- up! I did freeze and decided to use less broth so it wouldn’t be soggy. I was told it was the best stuffing they’ve evere had by multiple family members ! thanks again!