These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (2024)

Opinion

Take your family's favorite holiday side to the next level this year.

By Christopher Michel
These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (1)

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If we had to pick a favorite from our Thanksgiving side dishes, it would be a tough call, but Thanksgiving stuffing (or dressing, depending on where you live) would come out on top.

The combo of bread, veggies, and various other ingredients soaked in stock and turkey drippings, then slowly roasted to perfection is just too hard to beat. And there are so many different ways to make stuffing! You can add fresh oysters and a rich bacon-cream sauce. You can use buttermilk cornbread and sweet sausage. You can go with apples and walnuts, or sourdough and cranberries. In fact, we tend to make at least two different stuffings every year, just because they're so good!

Scroll through our list and pick one to make this year. All have been tested in the Country Living test kitchen, so you know they're delicious and easy to make!

1

Pork-and-Sage Stuffing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (3)

Think of this as the quintessential stuffing recipe: Sourdough bread, sweet Italian sausage, and plenty of veggies and herbs.

Get the recipe for Pork-and-Sage Stuffing.

2

Oyster Stuffing with Bacon-Scallion Cream Sauce

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (4)

Oyster stuffing is a Southern coastal tradition. The cream sauce is a "why-didn't-we-think-of-this-before" innovation.

Get the recipe for Oyster Stuffing.

3

Best Easy Fresh Herb Stuffing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (5)

This recipe is sure to wow a crowd, and it even takes under an hour to prepare.

Get the recipe for Fresh Herb Stuffing.

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4

Turkey Roulades with Sourdough Pancetta Stuffing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (6)

This easy and tasty dish is a great way to get turkey and stuffing all together in a much simpler — and still beautiful — presentation.

Get the recipe for Turkey Roulades with Sourdough Pancetta Stuffing.

5

Classic Southern Cornbread Dressing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (7)

In the great debate between dressing and stuffing, we say have both!

Get the recipe for Classic Southern Cornbread Dressing.

6

Rosemary Monkey Bread Stuffing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (8)

Serving stuffing by the slice may be the smartest idea since the first Thanksgiving.

Get the recipe for Rosemary Monkey Bread Stuffing.

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7

Apricot-Wild Rice Stuffing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (9)

Wild rice and apricots give classic stuffing a sweet spin.

Get the recipe for Apricot-Wild Rice Stuffing.

8

Tamale Dressing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (10)

Yellow beets and green chile-chicken tamales add color and bold flavor to this classic stuffing—ahem, dressing—recipe.

Get the recipe for Tamale Dressing.

9

Buttermilk Cornbread Stuffing with Pecans and Sweet Sausage

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (11)

This recipe by the Beekman Boys calls for Super-moist Cornbread. If using cornbread for stuffing, make it two days prior: Cut cornbread into 1-inch chunks, place on a large baking sheet in a single layer, and let dry out at room temperature for two days.

Get the recipe for Buttermilk Cornbread Stuffing with Pecans and Sweet Sausage.

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10

Apple-Walnut Stuffing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (12)

An assortment of breads helps enhance the flavor and texture of your homemade stuffing.

Get the recipe for Apple-Walnut Stuffing.

11

Basic Herb Stuffing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (13)

You simply can't go wrong with this simple Thanksgiving stuffing, which requires only 20 minutes of prep.

Get the recipe for Basic Herb Stuffing.

12

Ina Garten's Herb and Apple Stuffing Recipe

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (14)

This French bread, rosemary, and apple stuffing comes straight from Ina Garten's kitchen. If it's good enough for the Barefoot Contessa, it's good enough for us!

Get the recipe for Ina Garten's Herb and Apple Stuffing Recipe.

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13

Sausage and Herb Stuffing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (15)

While you could opt for a stuffing without meat, this hearty sausage variety is just the thing to fill up your Thanksgiving guests.

Get the recipe for Sausage and Herb Stuffing.

14

Sourdough Stuffing with Sausage, Cranberries, and Apples

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (16)

Take advantage of autumn's harvest by adding sweet apples and cranberries to your Thanksgiving stuffing.

Get the recipe for Sourdough Stuffing with Sausage, Cranberries, and Apples.

15

Sourdough and Mushroom Stuffing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (17)

A lighter-than-expected stuffing. Serve this Thanksgiving favorite with The Perfect Roast Turkey.

Get the recipe for Sourdough and Mushroom Stuffing.

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16

Bagelshroom Stuffing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (18)

The everything bagel makes its dinnertime debut in this wild-mushroom stuffing flavored with fresh thyme and rosemary.

Get the recipe for Bagelshroom Stuffing.

17

Wild Rice and Basmati Dressing with Sausage and Sage

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (19)

For this take on Thanksgiving dressing, two types of rice are cooked in a fragrant medley of mushrooms and onions sautéed in butter, bay leaf, and fresh sage.

Get the recipe for Wild Rice and Basmati Dressing with Sausage and Sage.

18

Matzo Stuffing

These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (20)

Matzo meal and chicken broth are added together slowly to ensure this stuffing is deliciously moist. Apples and cinnamon impart a surprising hint of sweetness.

Get the recipe for Matzo Stuffing.

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These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (21)

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These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (2024)

FAQs

What is another word for stuffing on Thanksgiving? ›

What is dressing? In the context of Thanksgiving, the word dressing is commonly used to mean the same exact thing as stuffing—including when it's cooked inside the bird.

Why stuffing is the best Thanksgiving food? ›

By bringing so much together into one dish, stuffing offers a preview of the leftovers, the best part of the Thanksgiving meal, when you Frankenstein's-monster up a plate of whatever happens to have made it into the fridge the next day.

In what did recipes did people originally use stuffing? ›

The earliest documentary evidence is the Roman cookbook, Apicius De Re Coquinaria, which contains recipes for stuffed chicken, dormouse, hare, and pig. Most of the stuffings described consist of vegetables, herbs and spices, nuts, and spelt (a cereal), and frequently contain chopped liver, brains, and other organ meat.

How did stuffing become a Thanksgiving tradition? ›

However, as Thanksgiving meals became more common over the years, stuffing began to take a much more prominent place at the holiday table. Early Thanksgiving menus from the 19th century list stuffed turkeys and hams as main courses, indicating that by the 1800s, stuffing had come to the forefront of most holiday meals.

What do Southerners call stuffing? ›

But for the Thanksgiving side dish in the South, the term dressing was adopted in place of stuffing, which was viewed as a crude term, during the Victorian era. Although dressing and stuffing are interchangeable terms, the signature ingredient of this Thanksgiving side dish in the South is cornbread.

What do the French call stuffing? ›

The word “stuffing” dates back to 14th Century English, when it was used synonymously with the more uncomfortable sounding forcemeat. Soon after, Anglos borrowed the slicker French word, farce (from the Latin verb facire or “to stuff”).

Should I put an egg in my stuffing? ›

Broth: Chicken broth keeps the stuffing moist without making it soggy. Eggs: Two lightly beaten eggs help hold the dressing together and add moisture.

Why not eat stuffing from turkey? ›

At temperatures below 165°F you risk exposure to salmonella or E. coli, two very scary and gross bacteria. The problem with stuffing your roast turkey is that when the turkey's meat is safely cooked, the stuffing inside still is not.

What is Christmas stuffing made of? ›

Easy stuffing

Starting with dried sourdough bread, celery, onion, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, chicken broth and eggs. A whole stick of butter goes in the pan adding onions, herbs and garlic (sausage is optional). Eggs combine everything together before going in the oven on a baking dish.

Do you eat stuffing at Christmas? ›

There is no particular reason why stuffing is eaten at Christmas, other than it is a traditional accompaniment to turkey, the most popular Christmas meat.

Why do we only eat stuffing on Thanksgiving? ›

The stuffing that most of us associate with Thanksgiving, with sage and onions and celery, comes from New England, where Thanksgiving was celebrated long before it became a national holiday, and where those flavors were in season in November.

Why do they call it stuffing? ›

It would be hard to think of a more straightforward name for a foodstuff than "stuffing." Though we don't recommend actually cooking it inside your Thanksgiving turkey, that's how it was done until fairly recently: like the padding in a couch, stuffing is stuffing because you stuff it in something.

Why does stuffing taste so good? ›

When made from scratch and seasoned right, it is rich, moist and savory, shot through with different textures and flavors that give cooks plenty of room to play. That basic amalgamation of starch, fat and aromatics is indisputably delicious.

What culture made Thanksgiving? ›

Thanksgiving Day, annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people.

What else do you call stuffing? ›

The differences between stuffings and dressings seem to straddle geographic regions and, in some instances, racial lines.

What is a better word for stuff? ›

equipment, gear, goods, junk, substance, things. Strong matches. being, effects, impedimenta, individual, kit, luggage, objects, paraphernalia, possessions, tackle, trappings.

What do you call package stuffing? ›

Voil fill, packaging filler, shipping padding, box cushioning. It goes by many names, but it all serves the same purpose. Void filler has the primary role of keeping the contents of your mailer box safe and secure. Packaging fillers also play an aesthetic role.

What can you use instead of stuffing? ›

Here are a few suggestions.
  • Old tights or socks. Nylons work great, but woolly ones will do too. ...
  • Worn out t-shirts or jumpers. Again, these should be clean. ...
  • Tissues or tissue paper. ...
  • Newspaper. ...
  • Plastic bags. ...
  • Packing materials. ...
  • Toy stuffing from another toy. ...
  • The filling from a pillow.
Jan 22, 2019

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