Thanksgiving Sausage & Herb Stuffing

This Thanksgiving (or any holiday!!) make sure you have this Sausage and Herb Stuffing on your table! Everyone will rave about the super flavorful, soft and buttery stuffing with the crispy golden top. It is the perfect savory blend of fresh herbs, buttery bread cubes, salty sausage and sweet cranberries. It will be your favorite dish of the whole holiday meal!

If you like to enjoy more than one type of stuffing on your holiday table, also check out these Stuffing Recipes on Mom’s Dinner: Traditional Bread Stuffing, Bacon and Apple Stuffing or Savory Cornbread Stuffing.

Why It’s The Best

• This Sausage Stuffing recipe uses quality bread that is cut into hearty cubes and dried.
• Fresh herbs make all the difference!
• ALL the butter in this recipe makes it so completely flavorful, decadent and delicious.
• The bread soaks up the yummy sausage flavor.
• Tart dried cranberries balance the savory-salty flavors without adding an overpowering sweet flavor.
• Baking the Sausage Stuffing covered with foil at the beginning makes for a soft and buttery inside, and then the last 20 minutes without foil makes a nice crispy top!

Ingredients

To get the best Sausage Stuffing make sure you are using quality ingredients, like Pepperidge Farm Hearty White bread and fresh herbs:

Celery – use both the stalks and leaves. The inside stalks with leaves have great flavor!

Herbs – make sure you use fresh sage, parsley and rosemary. Dried will not give you the same flavor.

Bread

If your grocery store has large dried bread cubes in the bakery you can definitely purchase those. However, a lot of the commercial packaged stuffing mixes are TINY little cubes. For this soft and buttery stuffing you want larger bread cubes.

Purchase a quality hearty bread, like Pepperidge Farms Hearty White or Sara Lee Artesano Bakery Bread, cut it in 1 inch cubes and then dry it out overnight or in the oven.

Making Stale Bread

You have 2 options to make your bread nice and stale for this sausage stuffing recipe:

1. Overnight– Cut the bread into 1 inch cubes and let it sit on a sheet pan, on the counter overnight.
2. Quick Method– Cut the bread into 1 inch cubes and spread on a large sheet pan. Dry in a 250 degree oven for 30 minutes, tossing every 5-10 minutes so it doesn’t brown. (You will have time for this while the onions and celery soften!)

Sausage

Use the sausage that you like. You can use Italian, sweet, hot or mild, turkey or pork. Bulk breakfast sausage will work too. We have found that Jimmy Dean Sage pork sausage is our favorite.

Step by Step Picture Instructions

Follow these steps to make the best Sausage Herb Stuffing for your holiday feast:

• Sauté the onions and celery in the stick of butter over medium heat.
• Add the sausage and crumble while it cooks through. Drain excess grease
• Remove from the heat and add the garlic, herbs, seasonings, cranberries.
• Stir together the sausage mixture and bread crumbs.

• Whisk together the eggs and chicken broth.
• Pour over bread & sausage mixture stir to coat.
• Butter a 9×9 inch baking dish and pour in the sausage stuffing. Dot the top with butter.
• Bake covered with foil for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake additional 20 mins.

Make Ahead

You can absolutely make your stuffing ahead. Prep it completely and place covered in the fridge for up to 24 hours.

Then bake as directed.

Doubling

If you are hosting a large crowd, you can absolutely double this recipe. Just double the ingredients and make it in a larger 9×13 dish. The baking time will be the same.

Tips to Make The BEST Sausage Stuffing

1. Use quality bread that is cut into 1 inch cubes.
2. Properly dry/stale the bread cubes so they soak up the butter, sausage, and broth without getting soggy.
3. Definitely use fresh herbs (parsley, sage and rosemary). It adds such a great flavor to your stuffing.
4. Don’t skimp on the butter!
5. Use the sausage that you like. A sage flavored sausage makes a great choice for stuffing.

More Holiday Recipes

To make your holiday meal complete, check out these other Thanksgiving and Christmas Recipes from Mom’s Dinner:

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