This stuffing recipe (or, if you want to be technical, dressing — since it’s not actually stuffed in the bird) is extremely simple and classic, but so flavorful and delicious. The beauty of this recipe is that you can customize it to your own tastes. You can easily dial up or down the spices, add garlic, use vegetable broth instead of chicken to keep it vegetarian, the options are limitless. Every year while making this I wonder if 2 loaves of bread is too much, if I’m making way more than we need, and every year we have significantly less leftovers than I would expect. I hope you love this as much as my family does!
Thanksgiving Classic Bread Stuffing
Ingredients
- 2 loaves ciabatta bread cut into 1 inch cubes
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter
- 4-5 stalks celery diced
- 2 large sweet onions diced
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried crushed rosemary
- 1.5 tsps dried sage
- 1 cup chicken stock
- salt & pepper shakers to taste
Instructions
- A day or two before you plan to make the stuffing, cut the bread into pieces and set out in a pan to stale, stirring once or twice a day to rotate the pieces.
- If the bread pieces are not already staled, toast in the oven until at least half of the pieces are quite firm and crunchy.
- Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees.
- In a large pan, sauté the onions and celery in the butter until soft enough to cut easily with a spoon.
- Add the spices and stir well to combine.
- Place the bread pieces in a large, sided baking pan (such as a lasagna pan) and pour the butter and vegetable mixture over the bread. Stir to evenly coat.
- 1 hour before the turkey is expected to be done, put the stuffing pan into the oven on the bottom rack.
- Stir the mixture after 30 minutes, then place back in the oven for another 15 minutes.
- Pour a small amount of the chicken stock (enough to get the texture of stuffing you prefer) over the stuffing and stir to combine.
- Place back in the oven for the final 15 minutes.
