Stovetop Stuffing — 🧡💛 With this easy homemade stuffing recipe, you’ll never need a box of the store-bought stuff again! Onions, carrots, and celery are sautéed in butter, seasoned with an aromatic bouquet of herbs, and cubed bread is stirred in to create the most perfect stuffing that’s moist and tender! FAST, EASY, and guaranteed to become a Thanksgiving and Christmas family favorite!
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Homemade Stovetop Stuffing Recipe
I’ll let you in on a little secret. Although I have a reader favorite recipe for Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing that has 600+ glowing reader reviews spanning back 6 years at this point, my family still begs me to make a box (or three) of Stove Top.
Yes, the cheap stuff. Not even the “fancy” boxed stuffings that look a bit more gourmet. Nope, they want the one in the red box!
I didn’t set out to create this homemade stovetop stuffing recipe to be a copycat for the brand Stovetop Stuffing, per se.
However, in reality, not only is it made on your stovetop rather than being baked, but it’s a better-than-stovetop homemade stovetop stuffing recipe.
And that’s because it’s got perfectly plump bread cubes that are just soft, tender, and moist enough without being mushy.
Best part ever? It’s not a side dish that hogs oven space for an hour. Nope!
Because if there’s one thing I can get flustered with during the holiday season, it’s how highly trafficked my oven is. So many baked goods, casseroles, hams, and turkeys — so little time!
Ingredients in Homemade Stovetop Stuffing
To make stovetop stuffing from scratch, you’ll need the following basic ingredients:
- Bread
- Unsalted butter
- White or yellow onion
- Celery
- Carrots
- Minced garlic
- Dried sage, thyme, and rosemary – you can mix and match with fresh herbs if you have those on hand (use twice the amount of fresh herbs as dried)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Dried marjoram
- Chicken broth – use vegetable broth to keep this recipe vegetarian
- Dried parsley
- Fresh herbs such as thyme, sage, rosemary, optional for garnishing
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 Stuffing on the Stovetop
It’s time to make your new favorite stovetop stuffing for Thanksgiving! Once you read through these easy steps and follow them yourself, you’ll see what I mean when I call this recipe fast and easy.
Here’s a quick overview of how to make stovetop stuffing:
- Cube the bread and bake it in the oven until dry and lightly browned.
- In a large skillet, sauté the veggies in butter over medium heat.
- Add the garlic, herbs, salt, and pepper into the buttery veggies.
- Stir in the broth and once it reaches a boil, turn off the heat.
- Stir in the bread cubes very gently, cover the pan with a lid, and let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Fluff the stuffing with a fork and sprinkle with parsley and any other favorite herbs to optionally garnish, and add salt and pepper if desired.
Recipe FAQs
For the best flavor and consistency, I use white bread and never wheat. With that being said, if you greatly prefer wheat bread, it’ll work fine in this flexible recipe.
Honestly, I usually just use Wonder Bread! I’m all about convenience and I use what I know works, especially on those crazy busy holidays spent in the kitchen. Plus, let’s face it, it’s very low cost!
If you do feel like elevating this dish a little bit, you can feel free to use a more artisanal bakery bread, challah, or another white bread that piques your interest noting that your results will vary. No matter what bread you use, just remember to cube it in similarly sized pieces and bake it to dry it out prior to tossing it on to your stovetop.
One reason may be because you skipped the baking/drying out part of this recipe. If your bread is soft and fresh, it won’t hold its shape very well (or at all) when mixed with the butter, veggies, and chicken broth.
Let’s say you baked it to perfection and it’s still mushy. What happened? You likely used just a bit too much force when stirring the bread cubes into the broth mixture. When you’re incorporating the bread cubes into the skillet, do so as gently as possible.
Yes, you can definitely swap the dried herbs in this recipe for fresh ones if you’d prefer. However, you’ll need to alter the measurements by doubling everything. For example, this recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of dried sage so you will need 1 teaspoon of fresh sage. Dried herbs are more potent than fresh which is why you don’t need as much.
While you probably could make this homemade stovetop stuffing recipe in advance, in my opinion it’s best to make the stuffing shortly before you plan to serve it. However, you can dry the bread cubes in advance! Keep the bread loosely covered on your counter on a baking sheet so it has time to dry out and become stale.
I have never tried this so can’t say for sure. I always make or bake my stuffing separately from the bird to avoid any potential undercooking of either one.
What to Serve with Stovetop Stuffing
Storage and Reheating
In the fridge: Let leftovers cool before storing in an airtight container. Refrigerate for up to 5 days.
In the freezer: I don’t recommend freezing this stovetop stuffing because I think it could become soggy during the thawing process. However, it’ll technically keep airtight in the freezer for up to 3 months.
To reheat: Simply reheat it in 30 second intervals, fluffing every so often until it’s warmed all the way through.
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Stovetop Stuffing
Ingredients
- 8 slices white bread, cubed small about 1/2-inch or the size of a store bought crouton
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 medium white or yellow onion, finely diced
- 1 cup celery, finely diced
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and finely diced
- 3 to 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
- ½ teaspoon dried sage
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon dried marjoram
- 1 ½ cups reduced sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley, optional for garnishing
- Fresh sage, optional for garnishing (may also use fresh thyme, rosemary, etc.)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- To a large baking sheet, add the cubed bread and bake for 10 minutes.*
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven, flip the bread, and bake for about 5 more minutes, or until very dry; set aside. Tip – You can bake the bread to dry it out up to 24 hours in advance. Simply let it sit loosely covered on the baking tray until you're ready to use it. Don't put it in a ziplock, just let it sit out and continue getting more stale and dry until you're ready to use it.
- To a large high sided skillet, braising dish, or similar, add the butter, onions, celery, carrots, and heat over medium heat to melt the butter; stir nearly constantly until it's melted and continue to cook over medium-high heat for about 8 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened; stir frequently.
- In the final minute of sautéing, add the garlic, all the spices, salt, pepper, and stir constantly for 1 minute to combine.
- Add the broth and when it boils, turn off the heat.
- Add the bread, very gently stir it in making sure not to overdo it at all (your stuffing will have a mushier looking appearance and taste if you overmix), and cover your skillet with a lid.
- Allow it to stand covered for 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid and very gently fluff the stuffing with a fork. Again, make sure you are fluffing lightly not stirring or you it will look mutilated.
- Optionally garnish with the dried or fresh herbs of your choice, and in the quantity of your choice. Serve immediately. Extra stuffing will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days and will keep airtight in the freezer for up to 3 months noting that it will likely become mushier in texture after freezing and thawing it but the taste should remain fairly constant.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Homemade Stuffing Recipes:
ALL OF MY THANKSGIVING RECIPES!
Classic Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe — Nothing frilly or trendy. Classic, amazing, easy, homemade stuffing that everyone loves!! Simple ingredients with stellar results! It’ll be your new go-to recipe!!
The Best Ever 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!!
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! Soft, tender, EASY, and sure to become a hit at your Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday celebrations!
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!
Hi, I appreciate the recipes (although not all work out). But it is annoying to scroll through all the blah blah blah and questions/answers to actually get to the recipe. Why not have the recipe first and then all the commentary?
If you don’t like to scroll, there is a Jump to Recipe button that will take you directly where you want to be.
The commentary is for those interested in learning more and is important for those readers and for Google to identify the recipe.
If you’re annoyed, you can always buy a cookbook rather than go to free food blogs.