How to Make Stuffing for Your Thanksgiving Meal (2020)

Thanksgiving time is near, and since we're all celebrating in a socially distanced fashion, you may be cooking some new dishes this year. If you're new to stuffing this year, we're here to answer all your questions and help you create the perfect side dish for your Thanksgiving meal. It'll taste just like Mom makes it (or maybe just like you make it, but still delicious).

Before we begin of course we have to address the stuffing/dressing debate: technically stuffing does go inside the turkey, but in this recipe, we'll be cooking it outside the bird. But stuffing sounds more Thanksgiving like, so we will be calling it stuffing. Are you ready to start cooking? Let's make some food, and get you ready for Thanksgiving!

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Gather your ingredients

Our first step is pulling all our ingredients together. Here's what we're looking for:
  • 2 small onions diced
  • 4 stalks celery diced
  • ⅔ cup butter
  • 1 ½ teaspoons poultry seasoning or ½ teaspoon ground sage
  • black pepper
  • salt to taste
  • 3-4 cups chicken broth
  • 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
  • 1 tablespoon fresh herbs sage, thyme, rosemary
Feel free to adjust your herbs and seasonings as you please. And then the most important bit: bread cubes. Now you can buy your own, but the fun part is making them.

But how do you make your own bread cubes?

You'll start with 1 1/2 pounds of bread and cut it into cubes. But you need it to be a little toastier than that. You can either let it sit overnight, or you can pop them onto a baking tray and toast them at 350 for about 15 minutes. Get them nice and crispy. The best part of making your own is that you can choose what kind of bread you want, the size of the cubes, and tailor it to your specific tastes.

Now that your bread is ready, it's time to get started

Grab a good large skillet and heat up your butter over medium heat, then stir in your onion, celery, garlic, salt, and pepper. I personally love this sturdy skillet: it's great for anything I'm working on. You'll keep cooking until your onions and celery soften, which should be just about ten minutes. Then you can pop in your herbs and let it go for another minute.

Make sure you've got some good broth

The next piece is mixing it all together, and your binding agent is an important element. Chicken broth is the most commonly used liquid and I like to use a reduced sodium version so that I can tailor my spices and flavors exactly the way I want it.

Now it's time to mix it all together.

Find yourself a large mixing bowl and add the mixture from your skillet to your bread cubes along with 1 cup of chicken broth. Whisk up your remaining chicken stock and 2 eggs in another bowl then fold it all together in your mixing bowl. Oooh it's getting good now.

Bake it up!

Your stuffing is now ready to bake! Put it into a baking dish (I like this one because it has a cover so you can just pop it into the fridge if you've got leftovers). Preheat your oven to 350 and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The best part about stuffing is that you can cook it in advance and heat it up to serve the next day without any problems. You can also use this same recipe to stuff your bird.

Don't be afraid to tweak it!

This recipe serves just about 8 people. If you want to feed more or less, don't be afraid to double or halve the recipe. You can also add spices, herbs, or other flavorings as you choose.

Get it ready to serve

Stuffing can seem pretty homey, and if that's your aesthetic then pop that baby on the table in the baking dish. I like to glam it up just a touch with a nice serving spoon or dish, like this fancy pants one that has a really interesting shape.

Enjoy!

Now that you've got your Thanksgiving stuffing it's time to stuff your face! Sure the recipe is important, but even more important is remembering to appreciate the people you're with and the good food you're eating.

Nap it off

And once you're done enjoying, take a well-deserved Thanksgiving nap or enjoy some pie.