The Best Classic Homemade Stuffing

Classic homemade stuffing is easier to make than you think! Minimal ingredients and quick prep make for a homemade stuffing recipe that yields delicious results that will wow during Thanksgiving and deserves a spot on any holiday table.

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Warning.

Skip ahead if you hate when food bloggers wax poetic about cooking with their grandparents.

Because that’s exactly what I’m about to do.

You have officially been warned.

Homemade Stuffing for Thanksgiving

See, I can’t talk about making stuffing without first telling you that one of my earliest memories of being in the kitchen was being maybe 3 or 4 years old and helping my Nana make the Thanksgiving stuffing.

We would sit at the kitchen table a day or two before Thanksgiving and tear up loaves of bread together and put them in a big bowl.

I used to love it because it was something I could help with.

When I got older, I’d help cut the veggies and the parsley.

Now, my daughter, who is 5, likes to help me tear up the bread and season the ingredients.

And I love doing it with her.

It feels like I am passing on a family tradition.

That’s it, I’m done being *that* food blogger. You can stop rolling your eyes now.

To this day, I make my holiday stuffing recipe exactly the way my Nana did.

And just like my Nana’s homemade stuffing recipe, my classic homemade stuffing gets rave reviews.

Classic Homemade Stuffing Ingredients

My version of homemade stuffing has a few basic ingredients:

• Bread- a loaf of sliced, white or Italian sandwich bread
• Veggies- an equal amount each of onions, carrots, and celery all chopped
• Fats– Both butter and olive oil for extra richness
• Fresh herbs and seasonings- Fresh garlic cloves and fresh parsley cut the heaviness of this recipe
• Broth– Turkey or chicken broth. You can use store bought here, though if you are making this not during the holiday season you may have a tough time finding turkey stock.
• Dried spices– Poultry seasoning, marjoram and salt and pepper.

That’s it. Pretty basic. Each of these ingredients are very easy to find in the grocery store.

What seasoning do I use for homemade stuffing?

Marjoram and poultry seasoning are the go to dried herbs for my stuffing seasoning.

Marjoram isn’t an herb that is used as often as the poultry blend is so you might not be familiar with it.

It has a piney flavor sort of similar to rosemary with a hint of citrus and is lovely and fragrant. I call this my secret ingredient.

Poultry seasoning will vary some depending on the brand.

Most have thyme, sage, black pepper, marjoram, rosemary and nutmeg.

There’s marjoram in poultry seasoning. Do I really need extra for good stuffing seasoning?

Yes!

It’s not prominently featured in the poultry blend and you really want that lovely flavor to shine through in this stuffing.

It adds a little extra something something to this stuffing that will make everyone love it.

How to Make Homemade Stuffing from Scratch

Making homemade stuffing isn’t hard but it does take a bit more prep than most of the side dishes I make any night of the week. However, the prep involved in making homemade stuffing isn’t so much that it makes it worth it to use a box mix for me because homemade stuffing is just so much yummier.

Let’s break the prep down into these basic steps:

• prepping the veggies
• cubing the bread
• assembly

Prepping the Veggies for Stuffing

For your vegetables, you need to chop your onions, carrots, and celery.

For this smaller recipe that serves 4,  I’m using 2 onions, 2 carrots, and 2 celery stalks.

When I double the recipe to serve 8 or even triple it for 12, I just peel the carrots, cut everything into quarters and pulse them through the food processor to save time.

But for a smaller batch, it doesn’t take long to peel and chop the veggies.

Once you have the veggies cut, I heat up some butter and olive oil in a large oven safe skillet on the stove.

Then, when the butter melts, I add the veggies into the warm skillet and season them with the pressed garlic cloves, salt and pepper.

I let them cook for about 5 minutes, until they have started to soften.

Then I season them with the Poultry Seasoning and Marjoram. I pull them off the heat now.

Cubing the Bread

You could buy bread cubes, however I find them hard to find in stores even around the holidays.

Also, the pre cubed bread tends to be a bit more on the stale side and doesn’t absorb the flavors as well.

To cube the bread, you could cut it into neat little squares or you could go for the rustic, old fashioned approach and just tear it into more or less bite sized pieces, which is what I do.

As I rip the bread up, I normally just toss it into a big bowl.

Assembling the Stuffing

Now we’ve got the bread ready to go and the veggies are soft and seasoned.

Normally I just pour the veggies over the bread cubes, add some chopped parsley and mix it until it’s evenly incorporated.

During this part of the process, I will add about 1/2 cup of poultry stock. If I have made a turkey or a roast chicken at the same time, I will use the pan juices.

Then I pour everything back into the oven safe skillet I cooked the vegetables in and add slices of butter across the top.

Then I cover it and bake it until everything is warm.

To let it brown, I will pull the foil off the pan and let it cook an additional 10 minutes to toast up the bread.

Stuffing vs Dressing

There’s the technical answer and the well it depends on where you live answer.

Technically, stuffing is any filling that gets stuffed inside the bird and cooked like that.

Dressing is not cooked inside the bird. On that technicality, this recipe is actually a dressing recipe.

HOWEVER, what you call this dish largely depends on where you live.

In the Northeast, it’s mainly called stuffing no matter how it is cooked, while in the South it’s almost always dressing.

Is stuffing better with or without eggs?

Again, it depends on who you ask.

People use eggs to bind the stuffing together and add a little moisture.

This recipe does not use eggs since it uses stock for the moisture instead.

However, you could add eggs to the mix. You will get a slightly crunchier stuffing.

What is traditional poultry stuffing made of?

Traditional poultry stuffing consists of bread, onion, celery, spices, and herbs.

Sometimes you’ll see stock, other veggies, fruit, or meat in the mix too.

It depends on where you are from. For example, in England, you’ll often see dried fruits and chestnuts in the mix.

In parts of the northern Midwest and Canada, you’ll see rice instead of bread.

Stuffing Variations- Make this Classic Stuffing Recipe Your Own!

This recipe is a classic homemade stuffing recipe with the basic seasonings.

It’s like the little black dress of stuffings.

You could change it up to suit your personal preferences.

There are tons of variations on stuffings just like there are so many mashed potato variations.

Just take a walk down the stuffing aisle in the grocery store and you’ll see so many different varieties.

Sometimes, I will add sliced mushrooms to this for an extra bit of earthiness.

I’ve also used cornbread in place of sliced bread. I particularly like this cornbread in it.

Other delicious additions for this classic stuffing include:

• ground sausage
• bacon
• tart apple pieces
• sage
• chestnuts or walnuts

If you are looking for a fancier variation, try my Apple Sage Stuffing instead.

Tips and Tricks

• Make your Thanksgiving prep easier by making this ahead of time. We almost always put it together the day before.
• To save yourself some time but not skimp on flavors, buy precut veggies or pulse them in the food processor instead of chopping them all.
• The moisture level is highly subjective so add broth based on how moist you like your stuffing.
• This recipe is super easy to double or even triple depending on the size of your crowd.
• Have leftovers? Make this Stuffed Chicken Breast with Stuffing!

Other Holiday Recipes

Looking to host the holidays this year? I got you covered!

Check out these recipes for your holiday table:

• Baste for a Turkey
• Garlic Butter Basted Turkey
• Best Ever Apple Cider Turkey Breast for the Holidays
• Brown Sugar Butternut Squash (with Cinnamon)
• Garlic Roasted Turkey Breast
• Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
• Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes with Rosemary Butter
• Parmesan Garlic Twice Baked Potato Casserole
• Roasted Garlic Parmesan Brussel Sprouts
• Instant Pot Cranberry Sauce
• Garlic Herb Ciabatta Stuffing (Vegetarian Stuffing Recipe)
• Apple Sage Stuffing (Stuffing with Apples)
• The Best Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• The Best Easy Fried Apples