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
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.
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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.
Excellent-as good as I’ve ever tried. A new favourite!
Thanks so much, Maureen! Glad to hear it’s your new best-of for stuffing!
Love this recipe and shared it with a friend who feels the same way I use home made sourdough and sautéd mushrooms
Thanks for the five star review Judy and I’m so glad to hear you and your friend loved this and I bet that the homemade sourdough just took it over the edge to the next level Delicious! I love the idea of using sautéed mushrooms too.
I love this recipe. All my friends love this recipe. It’s a total hit at our Thanksgiving. HOWEVER, the amount of ads on the webpage is horrible. It crashes my phone and my computer every time. I understand that money is made for the blogger by having the ads or for subscribers paying to go ad free, but I do not usually have issues with webpages crashing over and over again on other food blogging sites.
I’m glad that you love the recipe and I’m also glad that you understand how much work is involved in running a business like a Food blog. From hosting and staff and cameras and social media experts, there is so much behind-the-scenes and so much expense. Today is also the highest traffic day of the year for most food blogs and so everything is running a bit slower and unfortunately, sometimes things happen where you have to reload a page. My apologies.
I make this every Thanksgiving. Our favorite recipe!!
Thanks for the five star review Paula and I love hearing that this is your favorite at Thanksgiving!
3rd year making this recipe! My kids ask for it. We all love it so much. Thank you for posting!
I use rosemary Parmesan bread that I get from Costco, sooooo good in there!
Thanks for the 5 star review, Rina, and I’m glad to hear this is your 3rd year making this and that you all love it so much, that’s wonderful! Great tip on the Parm bread from Costco! Hopefully others will see this and it will help them in the future!
I have used this recipe for the last 2 years at Thanksgiving and my family loves it. I do add browned breakfast sausage. It is sooo good!
Thanks for the five star review Dave and I’m glad you’ve been making this for a couple of years and the ground breakfast sausage sounds like a great touch!
for future reference, I also have the sausage stuffing recipe that’s a slow cooker version.
https://www.averiecooks.com/slow-cooker-sausage-stuffing/
Do you measure herbs and then mince or do you mince the hearts and then measure?
Thanks.
You would mince until you can fill up a half teaspoon or a teaspoon or whatever it is you are measuring.
This has become my favorite Thanksgiving side dish. I’ve made it for 4 years in a row now, and it is the best recipe!
Thanks for the five star review Melanie and I love hearing this is your favorite Thanksgiving dish and you’ve made it for 4 years running now!
this is a staple for thanksgiving at our house for the last 5 years! Truly the best stuffing recipe I have ever had.
quick question though – can I sauté veggies up a day before and store to cut down on time for tmrw?
Hi maria, thanks for the five star review and I love hearing that this is a Thanksgiving staple for you and has been on your table for the last five years and truly the best of you’ve ever had! 🙏🏻
Yes, you can sauté and then store the veggies in the refrigerator until you need them tomorrow. Great way to get ahead!
This recipe is AMAZING!! Do you suppose this could be prepped a day or two in advance then cooked as directed on Thanksgiving?
I’m glad that you love this recipe, Kellie!
My issue with preparing it a couple days in advance or even a day, is that you then have to refrigerate it. And we know what refrigeration does to any type of bread. It makes it soggy and frankly unappetizing. Think about a hamburger with a bun that you refrigerate. Not that appetizing, at least for me. So I’m going to unfortunately say I personally wouldn’t do it. But I also haven’t tried. Maybe baking it off resolves a lot of issues, I don’t know.