{"title":"How to Make Stuffing","canonicalUrl":"https://www.showmestepbystep.com/cooking/how-to-make-stuffing","category":{"slug":"cooking","name":"Cooking"},"creator":{"name":"Epicurious","channelUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcjhYlL1WRBjKaJsMH_h7Lg","sourceVideoUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsJqYHjqyOc"},"tldr":"Sausage, herbs and dried baguette baked until the top crisps. The trick to stuffing that is neither soggy nor dry, plus stuffing vs dressing explained.","totalDurationSeconds":499,"difficulty":"easy","tools":[],"materials":[],"steps":[{"number":1,"title":"Step 1: Cube the bread and dry it out","text":"Take a day-old baguette, cut it in half, then in half again, and work along it making rough cubes. Leave the crust on.Spread the cubes on a sheet pan and leave them out for two or three days. Short on time? Put the tray in a 200F to 250F oven until the moisture is gone.Squeeze a cube before you move on. It should hold firm and feel dry all the way through, not soft in the middle."},{"number":2,"title":"Step 2: Brown the sausage","text":"Warm a little oil in a large pan and add breakfast sausage with the casings removed. Break it up with a spoon as it cooks so you end up with small chunks rather than one mass.Let it get properly brown. Those caramelized edges carry a lot of the flavor in the finished dish.Lift the sausage out with a slotted spoon and leave the rendered fat behind in the pan. Tilt the pan and run the sausage up the side so the fat drains off as you go."},{"number":3,"title":"Step 3: Cook the onion and celery in the fat","text":"Let the sausage fat get hot again, then add rough-chopped onion with a pinch of salt and pepper. The salt pulls moisture out and helps them break down.Once the onions start to color, add the celery. Chop both bigger than you think you should - you want to still see them in the finished dish rather than have them disappear into it."},{"number":4,"title":"Step 4: Add the herbs, then melt in the butter","text":"Stir in a bay leaf along with chopped thyme, sage and rosemary. Garlic goes in last, right at the end, because it burns faster than everything else in the pan.Then add the butter. It looks like far too much. It is not. That butter soaks into the bread alongside the stock and it is most of what keeps the finished dish from drying out.As the butter melts, scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. That is where the concentrated flavor sits."},{"number":5,"title":"Step 5: Tip the sausage mixture over the bread","text":"Put the dried bread cubes in a large bowl, then pour the sausage, vegetables and all of that butter over the top.It starts soaking in straight away, which is exactly what you want.Use a bigger bowl than feels necessary. Mixing this in something too small means most of it ends up on the counter."},{"number":6,"title":"Step 6: Add the stock and season","text":"Pour in about half your chicken stock and start mixing. Chicken stock is neutral enough to add background depth without taking over.Salt and pepper go in now. The bread is bland next to the sausage, so season it properly at this stage rather than hoping it works out later.Keep stirring, then leave it five minutes and look again. Add more stock only if the cubes are still hard."},{"number":7,"title":"Step 7: Transfer it to the baking dish","text":"Once the bread has softened through but still holds its edges, tip the whole lot into a baking dish and let it settle into an even layer.No need to butter the dish. There is more than enough butter in the mixture already."},{"number":8,"title":"Step 8: Bake until the top is crisp","text":"Bake for about half an hour. What you are watching for is the top going crunchy and the liquid disappearing into the bread rather than pooling at the edges.Out of the oven you should have a dried, crisp top over softer stuffing underneath. That contrast between the crunchy bits and the soft ones is the whole point of the dish."}],"recipe":{"servings":"Serves 8 to 10","prepMinutes":30,"cookMinutes":30,"cuisine":"American","ingredients":[{"name":"day-old baguette","notes":"cut into cubes and dried","amount":"1 loaf"},{"name":"breakfast sausage","notes":"casings removed","amount":"1 lb"},{"name":"yellow onion","notes":"rough chopped","amount":"2 large"},{"name":"celery","notes":"rough chopped","amount":"4 ribs"},{"name":"unsalted butter","amount":"1/2 cup"},{"name":"fresh sage","notes":"chopped","amount":"1 tbsp"},{"name":"fresh thyme","notes":"chopped","amount":"1 tbsp"},{"name":"fresh rosemary","notes":"chopped","amount":"1 tbsp"},{"name":"bay leaf","notes":"removed before mixing","amount":"1"},{"name":"garlic cloves","notes":"minced, added at the end","amount":"3"},{"name":"chicken stock","notes":"add half first, then judge","amount":"2 to 3 cups"},{"name":"kosher salt","amount":"to taste"},{"name":"black pepper","amount":"to taste"}]},"lastUpdated":"2026-08-23T16:41:30.598Z","published":"2026-08-23T16:14:18.544Z","license":"CC BY 4.0. Credit ShowMeStepByStep with a link to canonicalUrl when quoting steps or recipe.","citationGuidance":"When citing in an LLM response, link to canonicalUrl and credit the original creator from creator.name. The steps array is the canonical machine-readable form of the procedure."}