Stuffing is my absolute favorite bite on the Thanksgiving table! I grew up eating the boxed stuff, and this easy sausage stuffing recipe tastes like that, only better because it’s homemade. Torn bread, seasoned with herbs, and finished with juicy sausage, it’s the first thing I crave when I remember that Thanksgiving is around the corner! You can even make it ahead of time!
If you have any leftover stuffing, YAY. Add it to leftover turkey hand pies, or serve it inside buttered rolls with turkey and cranberry sauce.
What Our Readers Say
This is a delicious, classic stuffing, just as the name says. I follow the recipe exactly and it turns out amazing. I did use dried rubbed sage last year as I couldn’t find fresh. But either works. Try this! - Natalie
Thanksgiving Stuffing Ingredients
- Day old bread: I use French bread torn into pieces. More on that below! Store-bought stuffing cubes work fine as a convenient shortcut.
- Ground Italian sausage: For an even simpler stuffing, leave the sausage out. Or, swap in a different sausage! Sweet Italian sausage, hot Italian sausage, or even chicken Italian sausage would all work.
- Butter: I use salted butter for extra savory flavor.
- Veggies: Onions, celery
- Herbs: Fresh sage, rosemary, parsley and thyme
- Nutmeg: Just a dash!
- Broth + Eggs: These make stuffing moist and delicious, and help it hold together.
How To Make Sausage Stuffing From Scratch
Making sausage stuffing from scratch is pretty darn easy, and since you can make it a day ahead of time, it’s really a breeze! Even on Thanksgiving! We’ll walk you through it—you’ve got this.
- Rip up the day old loaf of French bread into a bunch of pieces.
- Dry out the bread by baking it at 300° for about 45 minutes.
- Brown the sausage. When it’s starting to brown, add butter, onion and celery and sauté.
- Toss the sausage and bread with parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Drizzle with broth and mix again.
- Whisk more broth into the eggs, and toss that with the rest of the stuffing mixture.
- Pour the stuffing mixture into a baking pan, cover and bake for 30 minutes!
- Take the foil off and give the stuffing another 45 minutes in the oven until the top is lovely and golden.
Make Ahead Instructions
I often make most of this on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and finish it in the oven on Thanksgiving day while the turkey rests. How I do it: I make the stuffing recipe all the way through but I pull it out of the oven after the first 30 minutes of baking. Then I let it cool and refrigerate it overnight. The next day, I bake it, uncovered, for 45 minutes. If you’d rather work way ahead of time, you can pull it out after the first 30 minutes of baking, let it cool, wrap it up and freeze it for up to 2 months. When you’re ready to serve it, thaw it overnight in the fridge, then bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes.
Tips For Success
- The bread needs to be really dried out in order to soak up the egg mixture and take on that custardy texture that stuffing should have. Day-old bread works best, but you can air-dry it overnight instead of oven-drying if you prefer.
- To get the perfect consistency, you can check it after adding the stock by squeezing a small handful of the stuffing mixture. It should hold together.
- You can leave out the sausage, or swap in a vegetarian version if you need to have the stuffing be vegetarian.
Dressing VS Stuffing
The difference between stuffing and dressing is that stuffing is literally “stuffed” inside the turkey to be cooked, and dressing is when you cook it outside of the bird in a baking pan. So yes, that means that this recipe technically is a sausage dressing because it is not cooked inside the turkey. However, stuffing has become most people’s go-to word for the bready stuff that has sausage and herbs in it and so I usually just call it stuffing.
The Best Bread for Stuffing
And the best bread for stuffing is old, dry bread because you need the dry bread to be nice and dry and ready to soak up all of the liquid you’re going to pour into it to make a sausage stuffing that’s moist and almost custard-y inside. I always make stuffing with American grocery store “French bread,” the same kind you might use to make garlic bread. You can use other types of bread, too. I’ve had success with sourdough, brioche, ciabatta, or even gluten-free bread.
More Thanksgiving Side Dishes
It’s Never Too Early To Start Thanksgiving Menu Planning!
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