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.
Just wondering if this recipe would work for stuffing in the turkey as well?
I’ve never done that and would recommend cooking it separately first – then maybe after it’s cooked you can stuff it inside the turkey.
This looks like a great recipe! Thank your posting it. I am wondering though if it can be used to stuff a turkey?
I haven’t ever tried that and my gut says no. I would make as written.
I’d never made stuffing before and tried this for Thanksgiving 2016 for the first time. It turned out really well! I am making it again this year :) I used vegetarian broth, and also added chopped carrots because I admit I took a shortcut and bought a pre-chopped onions/celery/carrot mix. I also increased the amount of herbs because, why not? :)
Glad it worked out great last year and that you’re making it again this year!
Question – French baguette or French loaf? Not sure which to use. Looking at the Le Brea brand at my Harris Teeter. Thanks so much
I really think the actual bread is probably very similar, it’s just the shape and size of them that differ. Since you need a fair amount for this recipe, I’d get the bigger of the two.
Hi! I am so excited to try this stuffing recipe! I have been looking for a recipe like my mothers and when I saw yours I knew I found it! Thank you so much! Will be making this Thursday for Thanksgiving. Am following you now because so many of your recipes look wonderful! Thank you again! ☺
I am glad that you think my recipe will help you create stuffing like your mother’s! I hope it goes great!
Hi. This recipe looks so good . I will be trying it for the first time.. Question on the baking temperature . Would the be 350 for the 40 min?
Re-read step 8. about cooking times. You bake both covered and uncovered.
I made this for an early thanksgiving this year and I used packaged seasoned dried bread and it came out really great, everyone loved it. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad using the packaged seasoned dried bread was a winner! Glad that everyone really loved this!
Hi,
Need to make this vegetarian, do you think I should change any spices if I use vegetable stock instead of chicken?
No I would just use the veg stock and keep everything else the same.
Hello
Can I make with pre-dried bread … and was wondering if I can prep the day before and bake it on Thanksgiving day, will that work ??
I have only made the recipe as written so really can’t comment about how the changes you want to make will work out. Good luck!
How many does this recipe serve ? I can’t find it anywhere and I’m not sure if I have to double it or not.
It’s at the top of the recipe card, but I would say 8-10 however it really depends on the portion sizes are and how much stuffing your family eats. Mine love their stuffing!
Whoops! I read all of the above comments but somehow missed that last one that asked the same question as I did! Please disregard my question, haha.
Thanks again for sharing this recipe! I will definitely be checking out more on your website :)
Hi Averie, thanks for sharing this recipe. Your pictures came out gorgeous and I’m excited to try it out, it’ll be my first time making stuffing!
I was wondering if I could substitute some (or all) of the herbs with dried versions, or would it be best to just use them fresh? Thank you!
Can I use dried parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme? If so, do the quantities change? Thanks!
I’ve only used fresh so can’t really say. In general using about half the amount of dried herbs to fresh is a good ratio jumping off place but you should play around with it.
Wow, beautiful recipes! I’m definitely going to try out a couple this Thanksgiving. Thank you!
Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving!
What if I’ve already bought pre-dried bread, same procedure just skip step1?
Just skip the bread drying process and skip ahead, correct.
Reheat direction?
However you’d like…oven or micro.