We love this classic stuffing recipe, which uses bread, butter, onions, and sage. It’s perfect for turkey, chicken, and holidays like Thanksgiving!
The secret to the most flavorful, delicious stuffing is the type of bread you use. Our homemade garlic croutons guarantee the best flavor and texture for your stuffing. Our croutons can also be made up to two weeks in advance, making your life easier!
Of all the traditional side dishes, stuffing is at the top of my list! My Grandma always made the best onion and sage stuffing. It was from a box, but I swear she did something to make it her own. That’s why I’ve fallen so hard for this easy stuffing recipe. I love the butter-cooked onions and fresh sage. For a different flavor profile, see our incredible mushroom stuffing!
Key Ingredients
- Bread: Dry or stale bread is best for stuffing. Fresh bread will make your dish soggy. I go one step further and use homemade croutons to make this stuffing recipe. They pack in more flavor and have great texture since they are already baked and dried out. I recommend these homemade garlic croutons for making this stuffing recipe.
- Butter: I’m all for a buttery stuffing recipe, so I always reach for butter when making this recipe. I use salted butter, but you can substitute unsalted if you prefer. If you are making this into a vegan stuffing, use a plant-based butter so you still get some of that buttery flavor.
- Onion, Celery, and Garlic: This stuffing uses all the classic ingredients, so you’ll cook the onion, celery, and garlic in the butter before stirring in your broth and bread.
- Broth: Use what you love. I like a lighter flavored broth like chicken broth or veggie broth. The broth binds the mixture and keeps it moist. We do not use eggs. In other stuffing recipes, eggs act as a binder and help to make the mixture fluffy when baked. We use butter and broth in our recipe for our binder and don’t miss the eggs at all.
- Herbs: I love the fresh herbs in this recipe, and I use sage, thyme, and parsley. I especially love the sage, which reminds me of my Grandmother’s stuffing and always makes me smile! I use the same herbs when making our favorite roasted turkey recipe.
How to Make Herb Stuffing
Thanks to the onions and sage, this recipe makes the perfect stuffing for roasted turkey or roasted chicken. Sage is a fantastic herb for poultry!
I make my croutons first. Here’s the garlic croutons recipe with lots of tips. They are easy to make and make this stuffing taste so good. The other great thing about using croutons is that you can make them well in advance (they keep for 2 weeks!). If you want to use plain bread, you can! I’ve shared tips for this below the recipe.
When ready to make the stuffing, cook your onions, celery, and garlic. I cook them in a skillet with a lid. We are not trying to brown them, just soften them. Add your broth and the croutons. Toss in the fresh herbs and transfer the stuffing mix to a baking dish.
Bake your stuffing (uncovered) in a 350°F oven for about 40 minutes. I like to rotate the casserole dish halfway through baking. When baked, our stuffing is moist and set in the middle, and the top is golden brown and crispy.
Once your stuffing is perfectly golden and crispy, remove it from the oven and let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Allowing it to rest helps the stuffing firm up slightly.
What to Serve with Stuffing
You can make this stuffing recipe anytime, but it’s perfect for Thanksgiving. Here are a few more of our favorite side dishes:
- Our Best Roast Turkey
- Perfect Turkey Gravy
- Creamy Mashed Potatoes
- Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Sautéed Brussels Sprouts
- Roasted Carrots
- Green Bean Casserole
Perfect Herb Stuffing
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
We love this classic herb stuffing recipe made with bread! It is especially good served with chicken and turkey. This is an excellent Thanksgiving stuffing recipe. For the best stuffing, use our homemade garlic croutons. They are easy to make. If you do not wish to use croutons, tips are provided below the recipe for using plain bread.
You Will Need
8 ounces homemade garlic croutons (about 6 cups), see tips
4 tablespoons (57g) butter, plus more for baking dish
1 medium onion, finely chopped, 1 ½ cups
3 celery stalks, finely chopped, 1 ½ cups
2 garlic cloves, minced, 2 teaspoons
1 ¾ cups (415ml) chicken broth or veggie broth
1 teaspoon chopped thyme
1 teaspoon chopped sage
2 ½ tablespoons chopped parsley
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
Directions
1Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 1 ½ to 2-quart baking dish with butter.
2Melt the butter in a large skillet (with a lid) over medium heat.
3Stir in the onion, celery, and garlic. Cover with the lid and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
4Pour in the broth and bring to a simmer.
5Toss in the croutons, stirring around the pan to combine. Cook for 5 minutes.
6Stir in the thyme, sage, parsley, and pepper. Taste, and then season with salt. Depending on the broth you have used, you may need to add 1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon.
7Spread the stuffing in the buttered baking dish, and bake uncovered for 40 minutes, or until the middle sets and the top turns golden brown and crisp. Rotate the stuffing halfway through baking.
8Let stand on the counter for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Homemade croutons: I love the garlic croutons, and they truly make this stuffing better. You can make the croutons up to two weeks in advance.
- Plain bread cubes: If you prefer plain bread cubes instead of garlic croutons, cut 8 ounces of crusty white bread into 1/2-inch cubes. We recommend tossing them onto a baking sheet and bake for 10 to 20 minutes in a 350°F oven. This short time in the oven will dry the bread, making it stand up better in the stuffing mixture. Remember, you will lose a bit of herb flavor when not using the croutons.
- Can you stuff this stuffing into a turkey? Yes, but we prefer not to when preparing a turkey. Stuffing the turkey can affect the overall cooking process. The heat takes longer to penetrate the cavity, and stuffing your turkey pretty much guarantees overcooked turkey meat. By cooking the stuffing separately, we guarantee we cook the turkey and stuffing perfectly without compromise.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
This was delicious!! Making the croutons (not hard) made all the difference!!
Can I prepare this recipe in full, cover, refrigerate and bake next day. Looking for some time savers. Will it be too soggy? At room temp, how much time to bake?
Hi Arlene, we would recommend that you just finishing baking the stuffing and then save it in the fridge. It would probably get to soggy if you baked it the next day.
Other than using garlic, this is exacly the same recipe I’ve used for several decades and it’s perfect. The last 15 yrs I’ve also added mushrooms and some apple for moisture because we were forced to use gf bread.
Hi Conni, We love using mushrooms for stuffing, too. Here’s our mushroom packed stuffing if you are interested. I’ve never added apple, but its a great idea! I’ll have to try it next time.
I use day old cornbread and I also use green pepper with the onion and celery, sage poultry seasoning seasoning salt garlic salt and black pepper, the chicken stock, some of the pan drippings from the roasted Turkey and butter
All sounds lovely, Jeani.
I love this recipe! I recognize it from my childhood. On a more humorous note I could title this recipe as “Yet another one of Grandma’s recipes and why she died so young” (No, I’m just kidding.) Having this stuffing once a year won’t hurt anyone. It represents a celebration by semi-starving people who founded this country. I think it’s symbolism is far more important than any dietary or ethnic protocols. I will never miss out on eating this kind of stuffing as long as I can.
This stuffing is exactly the same as my mom’s, the one that I have made for 50 years. By far the best stuffing.
I am glad that we agree with your mom. Mom recipes are usually the best 🙂