Classic Sausage Stuffing Recipe
This sausage stuffing recipe bakes up golden on top and soft in the middle, with Italian sausage, buttery onion and celery, fresh sage and parsley.
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A good sausage stuffing recipe is mostly about the bread, and the bread has to be dry before anything else happens. Once it is, the rest is simple: browned Italian sausage, onion and celery cooked soft in butter and sausage drippings, a handful of fresh sage and parsley, and enough broth to soak every cube through.
Eight cups of dried cubes to 2 3/4 cups of broth is the ratio worth writing inside a cabinet door. That much liquid reaches the center of every piece, so the middle bakes up soft and almost custardy while the top crisps. Go lighter and the corners come out dry. Go heavier and it sets like bread pudding.
Bake it uncovered the whole way. Foil traps steam and gives you a pan of uniformly soft stuffing, and that crackly browned top is half the reason people go back for a second scoop.
Why You’ll Love This Sausage Stuffing Recipe
- Sausage does the seasoning for you. A pound of Italian sausage brings fennel, garlic and salt to the pan, so the stuffing tastes seasoned all the way through instead of only on top.
- Two textures in every scoop. The top goes golden and crisp while the center stays soft, which is exactly the contrast a plain bread stuffing misses.
- A 9×13 covers the whole table. Nine by thirteen inches feeds ten people, and it’s the dish that always empties first at a holiday table.
- Assemble it a day early. Everything but the baking can happen the day before, which is worth a lot when the oven is booked solid.
Sausage Stuffing Ingredients
Dry bread is not optional. Use a bag of plain unseasoned stuffing cubes, or cube a day-old loaf and dry it on sheet pans at 300°F for 12-15 minutes. Fresh soft bread has no room left to absorb broth, so it collapses into paste instead of drinking it in.
- 1 lb bulk sweet Italian sausage
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups diced yellow onion
- 1 cup sliced celery
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 cups dried unseasoned bread cubes (one 12 oz bag)
- 2 3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Recipe Variations
- Use hot Italian sausage or plain sage breakfast sausage in place of the sweet Italian. If you swap in turkey sausage, cook it to 165°F rather than 160°F, since turkey is poultry and needs the higher temperature.
- Add 3/4 cup dried cranberries and 3/4 cup toasted chopped pecans with the herbs for a sweeter, crunchier version.
- Swap 4 of the 8 cups of bread for cubed cornbread. It soaks faster and breaks down more, so fold it in gently at the very end.
How to Make Sausage Stuffing
- Heat the oven and butter the dish: Heat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13 baking dish. Put the dried bread cubes in your largest mixing bowl.
- Brown the sausage: Cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, breaking it into small pieces, until no pink remains and it reaches 160°F. Lift it out with a slotted spoon into the bowl with the bread and leave the drippings behind in the skillet.
- Cook the onion and celery: Add the butter to the skillet with the drippings. Once it melts, add the onion and celery and cook for 7-8 minutes, until soft and translucent with no crunch left. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
- Combine: Scrape the vegetables and every bit of butter from the skillet into the bowl. Add the sage, rosemary, parsley, salt and pepper and toss until the sausage and vegetables are spread evenly through the bread.
- Add the broth and eggs: Whisk the chicken broth and beaten eggs together, pour the mixture over the bread, and fold gently until every cube looks damp. Let the bowl sit 5 minutes so the bread pulls the liquid all the way to its center, then fold once more.
- Bake uncovered: Spread the stuffing in the buttered dish without packing it down. Bake uncovered for 55-65 minutes, until the top is deeply golden and crisp and the center reads 165°F on a thermometer. Tent it loosely with foil if the top browns before the center is hot.
Recipe FAQs
Can I Make This Sausage Stuffing Recipe Ahead of Time?
Yes. Assemble it right through the broth step, cover the dish, and refrigerate up to 24 hours. Pull it out 30 minutes before baking and add about 10 minutes to the bake, and check that the center still reaches 165°F.
What Bread Works Best for Stuffing?
A sturdy white loaf like French, Italian or sourdough. Soft sandwich bread turns to mush, and anything with a lot of seeds or sugar fights the sage. Whatever you choose, it has to be dried out first.
What’s the Difference Between Stuffing and Dressing?
Where it cooks. Stuffing goes inside the bird and dressing bakes in its own dish. Almost everyone still calls the pan version stuffing, and this recipe is written for the pan.
Can I Cook This Inside the Turkey?
You can, but pack it loosely and know that stuffing cooked in the cavity has to reach 165°F on a thermometer before the bird is safe to serve. That usually means overcooking the turkey to get there, which is why baking it separately is the easier call.
Why Did My Stuffing Come out Dry?
Usually not enough broth for the amount of bread, or it went in the oven right after the liquid without a chance to soak. Give the bowl its 5 minutes, and if the cubes still look chalky, drizzle in another 1/4 cup of broth before it goes in the pan.
Cooking Tips
- Don’t drain the sausage fat. Those drippings are where the fennel and garlic flavor lives, and cooking the onion and celery in them carries it into every bite.
- Taste the bread mixture before the eggs go in. Sausage and broth vary a lot in salt, and that’s the last moment you can safely adjust it.
- Fold, don’t stir. Bread cubes break down fast once they’re wet, and a heavy hand at this stage is the difference between distinct pieces and a solid loaf.
Storage and Freezing
To store: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 4 days. The top loses its crunch overnight, which no amount of covering prevents.
To freeze: Baked stuffing freezes for up to 2 months. Cool it completely, wrap in plastic and then foil, and thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
To reheat: Warm it covered at 350°F for 20-25 minutes, then uncover for the last 5-10 minutes to bring the top back. Heat until the center reaches 165°F, and drizzle on a few tablespoons of broth first if it looks dry.
How to Serve Sausage Stuffing
Sausage Stuffing is built for a roast turkey and a boat of gravy, but it’s just as good next to a weeknight roast chicken or a baked ham. Put it on the table with mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and cranberry sauce and it holds its own against all three. Leftovers are excellent under a fried egg the next morning.
Loved This Recipe?
Sausage Stuffing takes under two hours from a bag of bread cubes to a golden pan, and it’s the dish people scrape the corners of.
Leave a star rating in the comments below, it helps other people find this recipe. Made it? Tag @allwellfed on Instagram, I love seeing this one in other people’s kitchens.
Classic Sausage Stuffing
Ingredients
- 1 lb bulk sweet Italian sausage
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups diced yellow onion
- 1 cup sliced celery
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 8 cups dried unseasoned bread cubes one 12 oz bag
- 2 3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 1 tbsp fresh sage chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh rosemary chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the oven and butter the dish: Heat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13 baking dish. Put the dried bread cubes in your largest mixing bowl.
- Brown the sausage: Cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, breaking it into small pieces, until no pink remains and it reaches 160°F. Lift it out with a slotted spoon into the bowl with the bread and leave the drippings behind in the skillet.
- Cook the onion and celery: Add the butter to the skillet with the drippings. Once it melts, add the onion and celery and cook for 7-8 minutes, until soft and translucent with no crunch left. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
- Combine: Scrape the vegetables and every bit of butter from the skillet into the bowl. Add the sage, rosemary, parsley, salt and pepper and toss until the sausage and vegetables are spread evenly through the bread.
- Add the broth and eggs: Whisk the chicken broth and beaten eggs together, pour the mixture over the bread, and fold gently until every cube looks damp. Let the bowl sit 5 minutes so the bread pulls the liquid all the way to its center, then fold once more.
- Bake uncovered: Spread the stuffing in the buttered dish without packing it down. Bake uncovered for 55-65 minutes, until the top is deeply golden and crisp and the center reads 165°F on a thermometer. Tent it loosely with foil if the top browns before the center is hot.
Notes
If you made this, leave a star rating down in the comments. It takes about ten seconds, and it’s how other cooks decide whether a recipe is worth trying.
