Sides / Stuffing, dressing & cranberry
Classic Bread Stuffing
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Sage, onion and celery soften in a whole stick of butter, then meet a pound of dried bread, stock and two eggs. Bake it covered, then bare, until the top is golden. Stuffing or dressing, the dish gets scraped clean.
The short version
Dry a pound of bread cubes in a low oven, cook onion and celery in a stick of butter with sage and thyme, toss with the bread, then stir in stock whisked with two eggs. Bake in a buttered 13×9 at 400°F, covered for 25 minutes and uncovered for 15 to 20 more, until the top is golden. Don't skip drying the bread.
What makes ours better
what we fixed so you don’t have to
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Dry the bread, don't just toast it. Cubes dried through in a 300°F oven soak up stock and butter without collapsing; fresh or barely toasted bread turns to paste in the middle. Stale bread left out overnight gets you there too.
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Two eggs and plenty of stock. Eggs bind the stuffing so a spoonful holds its shape, and with enough stock the inside bakes up like a savory bread pudding instead of a tray of dry croutons.
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Cover it first, then uncover it. Foil for the first 25 minutes steams the middle through and keeps it moist. The last 15 to 20 minutes bare give you the browned, crunchy top that's the whole reason to bake it in a dish.
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Fresh sage and thyme, plus a pinch of nutmeg. Fresh sage tastes green and peppery where dried tastes dusty, and a little nutmeg is the background note you remember from old-fashioned stuffing without being able to name it.
What you need
the usual suspects
- Sturdy white bread1 pound
- Unsalted butter10 tablespoons
- Yellow onion1 large
- Celery3 rib
- Fresh parsley½ cup
- Fresh sage1 tablespoon
- Fresh thyme leaves1 tablespoon
- Ground nutmeg¼ teaspoon
tap each one as it goes in. no double-salting.
Steps
deep breath. you’ve got this.
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Dry the bread
Heat the oven to 300°F. Spread the bread cubes on two rimmed sheet pans and bake, stirring once, until they feel dry and crisp all the way through but have barely colored, 20 to 25 minutes. Tip them into your largest bowl. Raise the oven to 400°F and butter a 13×9-inch baking dish.
Day-old bread cut into cubes and left out overnight gets to the same place with no oven time.
About 22 min. Cook mode has a timer for this step.
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Cook the onion and celery
Melt 8 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring now and then, until soft and translucent but not browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the parsley, sage, thyme, salt, pepper and nutmeg and cook 1 minute more, until the kitchen smells like Thanksgiving.
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Toss with the bread
Scrape the vegetables and all their butter over the bread cubes and toss with a big spoon or your hands until the bread is flecked with green and shiny with butter.
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Add the eggs and stock
Whisk the eggs with 2 cups of the stock in a measuring cup, pour it over the bread and fold gently until no dry cubes remain. Let it sit 5 minutes to soak in, then check. Every cube should look damp and the bottom of the bowl should be dry; if there are still crisp, pale cubes, add the remaining stock a splash at a time.
Err wet rather than dry. The oven takes moisture out and never puts it back.
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Fill the dish
Spoon the stuffing into the buttered dish and spread it level without pressing it down. Cut the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into small pieces and scatter them over the top.
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Bake covered
Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake at 400°F for 25 minutes, until it's steaming and the edges are set.
About 25 min. Cook mode has a timer for this step.
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Uncover and brown
Take off the foil and bake until the top is golden brown and crisp at the edges and the center reads 165°F on a thermometer, 15 to 20 minutes more.
About 15 min. Cook mode has a timer for this step.
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Rest 10 minutes
Let it stand 10 minutes before serving so the center firms up enough to spoon cleanly.
About 10 min. Cook mode has a timer for this step.
Good to know
the stuff I’d tell you over the phone
- Bake it while the turkey rests. The bird comes out, the oven goes up to 400°F, and 45 minutes later both are ready together.
- For sausage stuffing, brown 1 pound of bulk pork sausage, breaking it up, and use its rendered fat in place of up to half the butter for the onion and celery. Fold the sausage in with the bread.
- Dry the bread and cook the vegetables up to 2 days ahead (refrigerate the vegetables). Add the eggs and stock right before baking so the bread doesn't go soggy. Or bake it fully a day ahead, cool, refrigerate, and reheat covered at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes, uncovering for the last 10.
- Add-ins that work, tossed in with the herbs are 1 cup toasted chopped pecans or walnuts, 1 cup dried cranberries, or 2 cups diced tart apple.
- Storage. Refrigerated, covered, 3 to 4 days. Freezes for 1 month; thaw overnight in the fridge. Reheat covered at 350°F with a splash of stock, 20 to 25 minutes, then uncover for 5 to 10 minutes to re-crisp the top.
Questions, answered
the questions my cousins text me
What's the difference between stuffing and dressing?
Where it's cooked, and where you grew up. Stuffing goes inside the bird; dressing bakes in a dish. This recipe bakes in a dish, so technically it's dressing, and most of the country still calls it stuffing.
Can I cook it inside the turkey instead?
You can pack it loosely into the bird just before roasting, but the center must reach 165°F, and by then the breast is usually overcooked. We bake it in a dish, which also gives you the crisp top.
Can I make stuffing ahead?
Dry the bread and cook the vegetables up to 2 days ahead, then assemble and bake on the day. A fully baked dish reheats well too, covered at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes.
What bread is best for stuffing?
A sturdy white loaf such as French or Italian bread, or firm sandwich bread, crusts on. Soft, squishy bread collapses. Cornbread works too; keep the quantities and skip the nutmeg.
Why is my stuffing dry?
Not enough liquid, or it baked uncovered the whole time. Make sure every cube looks damp before it goes in, use the full 2½ cups of stock if the bread is very dry, and keep the foil on for the first 25 minutes.
Why is my stuffing mushy?
The bread wasn't dry enough, or the stuffing got packed into the dish. Dry the cubes until they're crisp through, spoon the mixture in loosely, and give it the full uncovered time at the end.
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Published October 26, 2026.