Make your own Bread Stuffing

An easy to make Bread Stuffing

A savory bread side dish

Most of us think of stuffing as something we have on special occasions. Often times if a weekday version of stuffing shows up on the dinner table, it has been made from a box of dried bread with seasoning. A good number of people use a dried bread stuffing mix for their holiday stuffing too. That boxed or bagged version of stuffing is nothing like a real homemade stuffing made from a loaf of bread. If you have never made your own bread stuffing, you may be amazed to see how easy it is.

To stuff or not to stuff

I’m coming right out with it. I don’t stuff. I know from the reaction of my own friends that not cooking my stuffing in the bird is not a popular choice. There seems to be an underlying idea that warnings from various sources has scared cautious cooks unnecessarily from cooking stuffing in the bird. I often hear people say something like “I grew up eating stuffing cooked in the bird and it never hurt me”. And I can say the same thing! That actually has nothing to do with why I bake my stuffing in a baking dish instead of stuffing it in the bird.

I am not willing to say that guidance against cooking stuffing in the bird is not valid. There are some very reasonable concerns. I am not going over them here. There’s plenty of information about that elsewhere. For me, the warnings about cooking stuffing in the bird would be most relevant if there are eggs in the stuffing. A medium sized chicken is not going to be in the oven long enough for me to be sure the egg in the stuffing has fully cooked.

PS: Just for the record, I think technically when stuffing is cooked outside the bird it is called a dressing, but it’s all stuffing to me.

Why I don’t stuff

I find that the meat of my roasted chicken or turkey is more moist and evenly cooked when I don’t have stuffing in the cavity.

When cooked in the bird, stuffing is not cooked evenly. At least not when I am roasting. When the stuffing expands out of the cavity, that part of the stuffing becomes hardened and dry. At the same time, the stuffing on the bottom of the bird has sucked up moisture and can be actually mushy. That is too much stuffing lost for me! I love stuffing. When I cook it outside the bird, it’s all cooked uniformly and I can enjoy every bite.

I have always made more stuffing than I could fit in the bird, so I was baking that extra stuffing anyway. I must admit, for years my baked stuffing was not as good as the stuffing in the bird. But after years of experimenting, I have found some techniques to make my baked bread stuffing taste as good as when it is cooked in the bird. I’m going to show you how I do it.

A loaf of bread becomes your blank canvas

We are going to be making a bread poultry stuffing, using a loaf of plain white sliced bread. We live in New England and this is a very typical Thanksgiving stuffing in our neck of the woods. And it is delicious. Your family is sure to love it! We hope that once you find out how easy it is, you won’t mind making it for them for a weekday meal and not just on special occasions.

You can easily break free of tradition when you make your own stuffing though. That’s the real advantage in making your own. I have added dried cranberries, walnuts and apples to stuffing, sometimes all together, sometimes alone with another pairing. I have often made stuffing with Italian sausage meat, onion, green pepper, garlic, grated parmesan cheese and Italian herbs which is a family favorite at my table.

Your loaf of plain sliced white bread is there for you to dress up any way you want to. And it comes through for you every time!

But stuffing is just the beginning

Have you ever had bread pudding? Bread pudding is nothing more than a bread stuffing with sweet ingredients added instead of savory. The most common bread pudding has an autumn flavor profile of warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. But just like our savory stuffing, when making bread pudding your loaf of white bread is ready to showcase any sweet flavor profile you come up with.

Once you get the basics of making a bread stuffing or pudding, you can mix and match fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. The liquid you use is also a major component in your flavor profile. I often use cider as a liquid in both my savory stuffing and my bread pudding. Especially when I am using apple and want to play up that flavor.

Let’s get started

Start with

Chop the celery and yellow onion in small pieces.

Melt 1/2 stick of butter in a skillet on medium high heat. When melted, add the chopped celery and onion and sauté until tender. If they start to brown before they get tender, turn the heat down.

You also need:

Cut the whole loaf of bread into cubes with a bread knife. The serrated knife in the picture is a bread knife. As the name implies it is perfect for cutting bread. Gently saw through the bread so it isn’t tearing apart. I usually stack up 3 or 4 pieces and cut them all at once. The cubes shown above were made from cutting twice down the middle and 3 cuts across. What size cubes you make is not as important as making the cubes fairly uniform in size.

About the ingredients

Bread

There are many places in the world where freshly baked bread from a bakery or made at home is still a daily staple. Finding a use for leftover bread is how stuffing, bread pudding and bread crumbs came to be.

For this recipe are using a loaf of everyday sliced white bread and cutting it into rough cut cubes.

You can use stale/dried bread also. Some would say you should always use dried bread. When I decide to make a stuffing I don’t always plan ahead, or want to take the extra step of drying the bread in the oven. So I use fresh bread and I find it to work great. Dried or stale bread will soak up more liquid, so if you are using it, plan on using more liquid to get your desired texture.

It’s doesn’t need to be white bread

Stuffing is not for white bread alone. In fact, there are breads made with eggs in the dough that are often recommended for stuffing or bread pudding due to their rich flavor and texture. One such bread is challah bread. Cornbread is also a popular choice.

I often use whole wheat bread because that is what I have on hand. Whole wheat bread makes the stuffing a lot denser and it has a lot more flavor of it’s own than white bread does. I use stronger flavors when I am using any whole grain bread.

You can even use rye bread for a stuffing when you are having a ham or a brined meat like corned beef. Look to the flavors typically paired with the meat you are serving to give you some idea of what you can add to your stuffing to bring new flavors to your bread side dish.

Liquid

I am using my own homemade chicken stock in this batch of stuffing. When I have poultry bones left from a roasted chicken or turkey, I make stock. If I am not going to use it in a soup or stew right away, I freeze it so I have it on hand for recipes like this one. In a simple bread stuffing made with white bread, the liquid you add has a lot of value as a flavor. Using my own stock is going to add to the traditional flavor I am going for.

Assuming you don’t have any stock of your own sitting around, just buy regular sized can of store bought chicken broth or chicken stock. There’s a little more in the can than what you need.

If you are interested in finding out more on making and freezing your own stock check out MAKING STOCK. If you like making soups, stews and gravies you can save a fortune by making your own stock. And your own is far better than you can buy.

Eggs

Eggs are a necessary component in stuffing or bread pudding. They add lightness, volume and texture. Lightly beat the eggs in a small bowl or cup before adding them to the other ingredients.

Bell’s seasoning

In our neck of the woods, Thanksgiving stuffing tastes like Bell’s seasoning. It’s made in New England, and the company is still owned by the family of the man who first made it. The seasoning mix has never changed. It’s been around for 150 years, so there are generations of people who have grown up with Bell’s seasoning stuffing. I have tried to make a similar tasting seasoning from my own herbs, but it is never as good. I have often used my own herbs in stuffing, but when I am looking for that traditional Thanksgiving flavor, there is no substitute for Bell’s. You can check out the story of Bell’s on their website bellsfoods.com.

Get your stuffing ready for the oven

Put your cut bread cubes in a large bowl

Mix the other ingredients together

When you get all the ingredients in the bowl with the bread, mix it together gently, don’t mush it together. You should still be able to see cubes of bread.

Put the stuffing in a baking dish with a cover

You can also use an oven safe skillet with a tightly fitting cover. If you don’t have a cover for the baking dish you have, you can cover it tightly with aluminum foil before putting it in the oven. I am using a 10 inch by 10 inch shallow baking dish. A 10 inch skillet would work too. An 8 or 9 inch baking dish is fine, but you may want to leave the stuffing in the oven for an additional 5 minutes.

Cut the remaining 1/2 stick of butter into slices and put them on top of the stuffing before covering and baking.

Bake

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. If your baking dish or skillet is smaller than 10 inches allow another 5 minutes to cook. Because we are using a covered dish, we are actually steaming the stuffing so it is not going to get a hardened crust on top. All of your stuffing is going to be moist.

To check to see if it is done, put a fork in the middle and look at the bread. The bread cubes should be swollen up. It should be moist on the inside, but not wet.

Serve

To serve, you can cut pieces in the baking dish like you would a cake or brownies, or you can scoop it out with a spoon and put it in a bowl to serve family style.

Stuffing is ALWAYS better with gravy. If you don’t already know how to make your own gravy and you want to, we have a post for you Making your own Gravy.