Thanksgiving Herb Stuffing

One serving of this thanksgiving herb stuffing won't be enough. Made with french bread, onion, celery, butter and fresh herbs, it will be a family favorite year after year. You will love how soft and fluffy this stuffing is, it's bursting with flavor!

Looking for more Thanksgiving recipes? Try my baked mashed potatoes, easy pumpkin cake, au gratin potatoes or green bean casserole.

This recipe was first published on 11/16/2020.

Stuffing is my favorite Thanksgiving side dish (besides dessert, ahem, cranberry cheesecake bars and pumpkin pie bars). I could eat serving after serving of this herb stuffing, actually I could forgo the entire Thanksgiving dinner and just eat this stuffing.

It's a simple recipe, with just a handful of ingredients. Onions, celery and garlic are the main vegetables. For the herbs I like to use a fresh thyme, sage and rosemary. Since you'll have fresh herbs on hand you can make these cloverleaf dinner rolls (hint - it's frozen rolls!).

Check your local grocery store for something called a poultry bundle. It's a bundle of fresh herbs you use for a turkey and everything you need for this stuffing, if they don't have it you can buy everything sepparate.

Stuffing can be tricky, it can turn out too soggy or too dry. Using just the right amount of broth is what can make or break it. I think this recipe turns out perfect every time.

This stuffing is made without eggs. And cooked outside of your turkey. If you need a good turkey recipe, I love this spatchcock turkey because it saves on time and oven space. And I always serve this stuffing with mashed potatoes (loaded mashed potatoes if you want decadence).

For dessert, serve this pumpkin swirl cheesecake.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• The Bread
• Tips
• How To Make Stuffing
• Thanksgiving Herb Stuffing

Ingredients

As I mentioned, this stuffing recipe has minimal ingredients, here's what you'll need. Make sure to view the recipe card for the full list of ingredients, amounts and the directions.

• bread - one loaf of bread, french bread works really well
• butter - salted butter
• onion - a whole onion, chopped up, if you want larger pieces chop them larger but I prefer more of a dice
• celery - chopped, you can cut your celery stalks in half lengthwise then chop them
• garlic - only one large garlic clove
• salt - for taste
• rosemary, sage, thyme - you can buy them separately but around the holidays you may be able to find them bundled together, you'll want to use fresh herbs for this recipe
• parsley - make sure to pack the parsley when you measure it

The Bread

If you don't have stale bread you can use a loaf of regular bread and dry it out, which is what I always do.

To do this you'll need to cut the bread into cubes, place it on a baking sheet then put it in the oven for an hour at 200 degrees, just to make sure it's really dry.

Think close to a crouton texture but not totally there.

French bread works really well for this recipe, I like the ones that already have a thick crust, when you bake it the texture of the crust is nice with the softness of the bread.

Cutting large 1 inch to 1 ½ inch cubes works best, in my opinion. Sometimes if your pieces of bread are too small they tend to disintegrate.

Tips

Butter: A whole stick of butter. It sounds like a lot but a whole stick is standard when making stuffing from scratch. You'll be happy you did.

Broth: When it's time to add the chicken broth to the bread cubes, you will want to use your hands. This way you can feel the texture of the bread and know whether or not you have added enough.

Too little or too much liquid can make or break the entire recipe.

Too little broth, the stuffing will be dry. Too much and it will be soggy. This is by far the hardest part of making stuffing.

Even for boxed stuffing, getting the broth part right can be tricky.

Add a cup of the instructed broth, start tossing it around for a minute or two. Add another half cup, toss it around. Then add the last half cup. You want the pieces to feel like a wet sponge.

Herbs: Definitely use fresh herbs, the flavor of fresh herbs is unmatched!

How To Make Stuffing

Preheat the oven to 200.

Prepare the Bread: Cut the bread into 1 - 1 ½ inch cubes, place them on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour to dry out the bread. Pull the bread from the oven.

Turn the oven up to 350.

Saute the Vegetables: Melt the butter in a sauté pan over low heat. Add the onion, garlic, celery and salt,  sauté 3-5 minutes until soft and translucent.

Add Herbs: Chop an equal amount of fresh herbs to equal a total of 1 heaping tablespoon. To the pan add in the herbs, parsley and pepper. Cook an additional minute. Turn the heat off and let cool.

Make the Stuffing: Put the bread in a large bowl along with the vegetable mixture. Add 1 cup of the chicken broth, toss with your hands. Add another ½ cup of chicken broth. Keep using your hands to mix the stuffing, the pieces of bread should feel like a wet sponge, not falling apart but not dry. Add another half cup if it’s still not a wet sponge texture.

Pour the stuffing into a greased baking dish. Cover with foil.

Bake: Bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 30 minutes uncovered.

Remove from the oven and serve.