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
No-Frills Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe
This post and recipe is a repost from 2014 and has been a huge hit with my readers ever since.
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 dressing recipe calls for simple, straightforward ingredients. Classic, but delicious!
Here’s what you’ll need to make the best stuffing recipe:
- Onions
- Celery
- Fresh herbs (parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme)
- Butter
- Broth
- Bread
- Eggs
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 Thanksgiving Stuffing From Scratch
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.
Tips for Making the BEST Stuffing
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 traditional stuffing.
Note that the saltiness level of low-sodium chicken broth varies, and so do personal preferences, so salt the dish to taste to create the best stuffing recipe.
If you need to keep the homemade stuffing warm before serving it, loosely cover it with foil and stick it in a 200F oven.
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.
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).
Recipe Variations to Try
If you love this traditional Thanksgiving dressing recipe, you’ll also love the following recipe variations! Here are some more stuffing recipes I’ve created over the years:
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Traditional Homemade 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.
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More Easy Thanksgiving Recipes:
All of my Thanksgiving recipes!
Easy Foolproof Roasted Turkey — Learn how to make juicy, flavorful herb-roasted turkey that’s not dry! This turkey has all the flavor that grandma’s used to have, minus the hassle.
The Best Mashed Potatoes — Buttery, creamy, PERFECT mashed potatoes that rival your favorite restaurant’s version but EASY and ready in 45 minutes!!
Sweet Potato Casserole with Butter Pecan Crumble Topping — The holiday classic just got even better because of the amazing topping! A buttery, brown sugary, crunch that’s irresistible! Easy and you can pre-assemble to save time!
The Best Green Bean Casserole — No processed soups nor canned ingredients and instead made with fresh green beans, mushrooms, red onions, and a cheesy crispy breadcrumb topping that will have the whole family going back for seconds!
Cabernet Cranberry and Blueberry Sauce — Make your own cranberry sauce with amazing depth of flavor in 30 minutes! The best cranberry sauce you will EVER have, guaranteed!
Cheesy Funeral Potatoes — This casserole is creamy, CHEESY, and topped with crunchy Corn Flakes! It’s an easy side dish that feeds a crowd, so it’s perfect for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
No-Knead Make Ahead Dinner Rolls with Honey Butter – An amazingly easy dinner roll recipe that you don’t even have to knead!
Honey-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Honey-Cinnamon Dip — The honey glaze and the creamy cinnamon dip make these potatoes irresistible!
Parmesan and Herb Roasted Potatoes — Easiest potatoes ever and packed with so much flavor! Olive oil, herbs, and everything is better with cheese! A family favorite that everyone loves!
Originally published November 5, 2018 and republished with updated text November 20, 2020.
I also made this recipe as written and it is delicious! Thank you! I have strayed over the years from the classic stuffing and was really wanting classic this year. This recipe did the trick and then some. Everyone loved it! I’ll be keeping this one ;)
Thanks for the 5 star review and great to hear this was delicious and a keeper for you!
Really enjoyed this. Made it for Thanksgiving yesterday, was delicious
Really enjoyed this. Made it for Thanksgiving yesterday, was delicious
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad it was delicious!
Thank you for the only stuffing recipe I will ever use from now on! I always loved my mom’s stuffing (don’t we all?!) and I was never confident making it, just wasn’t the same. Well this isn’t the same either, dare I say better! The difference is the fresh herbs, she used dried. I made this exactly as written and love it! Thank you again Averie.
Made this stuffing yesterday and it was fantastic!! Thank you!!
Thank you for the only stuffing recipe I will ever use from now on! I always loved my mom’s stuffing (don’t we all?!) and I was never confident making it, just wasn’t the same. Well this isn’t the same either, dare I say better! The difference is the fresh herbs, she used dried. I made this exactly as written and love it! Thank you again Averie.
I am glad to hear this will be the only stuffing recipe you use from now on (and that it even trumps your mom’s)!
I posted earlier today about what seemed like a cooking time discrepancy between written directions and the summary…I think I figured it out, the extra time is the time needed to toast the French bread! LOL!
SO…I made your recipe! I didn’t have thyme, and I used packaged stuffing mix instead of making my own, AND I added some sliced almonds…but it was awesome! This may become my go-to for stuffing! Thank you!!!
This is totally gross. Wasted my ingredients and ruined my Thanksgiving dinner. Nastiest crap I have ever eaten.
Hi, in the written directions it says cook time is 40 minutes covered plus 40-45 minutes uncovered, but in the summary at the beginning it says cook time is 2 hours 30 minutes, which is significantly more. I’ll probably go with the written directions, but thought you might like to know about this discrepancy.
Looks like a good recipe, thanks!
Follow the written directions but remember you’ve got bread to dry out, there’s 45 minutes there in the beginning of the recipe step 1. That is approximately I think what you’re talking about. You’ve got than 40 or 45 minutes covered, then another 40 or 45 minutes uncovered. Plus the other cooking times to sauté the vegetables etc. Cooking times are always approximate based on the exact ingredients used, climate, oven, always bake until done in your situation.
I’m curious what the fresh herbs would be converted to in dry ingredients.
Dry herb quantities are generally speaking about half of what the amount would be if using fresh.
This may be a silly question, for the herbs, do you measure before or after they are chopped? They lose lots of water once chopped.
Thank you!
I measure afterward, chop first then measure. However this recipe is pretty forgiving, so I wouldn’t get too hung up on it.
Did you use a conventional or a convection oven? I typically cook my turkey with convection on.
I use conventional. And unless otherwise stated almost all of my recipes use conventional because not everyone has convection so I try to make it as universal as possible for people.
great
Hi Averie,
I’ve made this recipe for the last few years and it’s always a hit. Of course I was requested to make it again this year! However looking at the recipe, I don’t ever recall there being parsley in it before…was this a recent change, or am I just misremembering? Just wanted to check before Thursday, thank you!
Hi Averie,
I’ve made this recipe for the last few years and it’s always a hit. Of course I was requested to make it again this year! However looking at the recipe, I don’t ever recall there being parsley in it before…was this a recent change, or am I just misremembering? Just wanted to check before Thursday, thank you!
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am glad this has been a big hit the last few years!
I have not changed a thing whatsoever so yes, there was always parsley in it. (I don’t change recipes ever once I publish them especially popular ones!)
I made this stuffing last year and can’t wait to make it again. Best stuffing I have ever had !! 😀