Sausage Stuffing

5 from 15 votes

This sausage stuffing recipe is filled with Italian sausage, apple, fresh herbs, and it has a lovely soft inside and crisp outside. Perfect for your Thanksgiving table!

Prep Time20

Cook Time1 30

Total Time1 50

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: sausage dressing recipe, sausage stuffing recipe, Thanksgiving stuffing recipe

Servings:

Author: Natasha Bull

Ingredients

1 pound day old bread cut/torn into pieces to make 10 cups (see note)
1 pound Italian sausage crumbled
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1.5 sticks)
1 medium onion chopped
4 sticks celery chopped
1 medium apple (I used Honeycrisp) chopped
1-2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped finely
1-2 tablespoons fresh sage chopped finely
1-2 tablespoons fresh thyme chopped finely
1-2 tablespoons fresh rosemary chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste
2.5 cups chicken broth divided
2 eggs

Instructions

Prep the bread: Either cut the bread into cubes or tear it into pieces (about 1" or so). You can do this a few days ahead of time and spread it out on a baking sheet, put it somewhere out of the way, and let it dry out naturally, or I'll explain next how to bake it if you're doing this with day-old bread. For the oven method, preheat your oven to 250F and bake the bread for about an hour (toss once or twice). You want to dry it out vs. it becoming really crunchy and browned like croutons. Let the bread cool.
Add the bread to a large bowl.
Heat oven to 350F (position the rack in the middle).
Crumble the sausage into a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat until well browned (about 8 minutes). Add the sausage to the bowl with the bread in it, then drain the fat from the skillet (but leave the browned bits in for extra flavor).
To the skillet, add the butter (let it melt), then add in the onion, celery, and apple. Cook for 10-12 minutes or until it's nicely softened and just starting to brown.
Stir the herbs into the skillet mixture, then add it to the bowl with the sausage and bread.
Add the salt and pepper to the bowl. You will also be adding half the broth during this step (1 1/4 cups). Add the broth gradually and toss it once you pour in some broth so you don't end up soaking only one section of the bread (so it gets evenly moistened vs. soggy in one place). It can take a little while for the broth to soak in since the bread is quite dry. Don't let a puddle of broth collect at the bottom of the bowl... slow and steady is good.
To another bowl, add the egg and remaining 1 1/4 cups broth. Whisk together, then add it gradually it to the stuffing as you did in the previous step.
Transfer the stuffing to a greased 9x13 baking dish. Spread it out in an even layer.
Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
Take the foil off and bake for another 45 minutes or until the top is nicely browned.
Let the stuffing rest for 5 minutes or so prior to serving.

Notes

You can use pretty much any kind of bread for this recipe... use one that you like the taste of. I used a brioche style loaf of bread that was already sliced. It weighed just over a pound. Anything around the 1 lb. mark should work. You can use the dried bread cubes that some grocery stores sell around the holidays as a shortcut if you wish. You don't have to be spot on 10 cups of bread, but try getting as close as you can.
Either use ground sausage meat or take the sausage meat out of the casings. I used Johnsonville mild Italian. Hot will work too.
You can make this stuffing one day ahead of time by doing all the steps except for the final part of baking (the browning step 11) the day before serving it. The day before you plan on serving it, you would complete the first 45 minutes of baking (step 10), uncover it, and let it cool. Then cover it again and refrigerate overnight. Uncover it and bake until it's hot and browned on top (you may need more than the 45 minutes suggested since it's coming out of a cold fridge, so I'd keep an eye on it, check it after 45 minutes or so, and go up to an hour if needed).
This recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit.

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