Name: Sausage Stuffing with Fresh Herbs
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 70 min
Total time: 85 min
Ingredients: 1 pound Italian bread (or French or sourdough); 1 pound bulk italian sausage; 8 tablespoons unsalted butter; 1 cup diced onion; 1 cup diced celery; 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic; 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage leaves; 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme; 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt; 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley; 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth (plus more as needed)

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The holidays just aren’t the same without sausage stuffing! Assemble this easy stuffing (aka dressing) a day ahead to save time.

A rectangular baking dish filled with baked bread stuffing containing sausage, herbs, and vegetables.

My favorite Thanksgiving dish when I was a kid was always the stuffing. I’m fairly certain I would have eaten a plate of just stuffing, if I had been allowed to skip the turkey and vegetables.

One thing I didn’t realize until I was much, much older is that stuffing (or dressing, technically more accurate since we don’t cook this in the turkey) is actually fairly easy to make, even from scratch.

With the holidays fast approaching I wanted to share my favorite stuffing recipe. It has flavorful sausage, tender sautéed vegetables, and plenty of fresh herbs. I still love my chorizo cornbread stuffing, but this classic recipe is what reminds me of Thanksgivings gone by.

Ready to make stuffing from scratch this year? Read on!

Ingredients for sausage stuffing

Full list of ingredients including quantities is located in the recipe card.

Top-down view of ingredients for stuffing: broth, Italian sausage, chopped onion, parsley, sage, thyme, celery, garlic, salt, pepper, butter, and a loaf of bread, all labeled.

You’ll need:

Loaf of bread, such as Italian, French, or sourdough
Italian sausage
Unsalted butter
Onion
Celery
Garlic
Fresh sage
Fresh thyme
Fresh flat-leaf parsley
Chicken broth
Salt and pepper

I recommend using low-sodium broth. The sausage and the bread also add more salt to the dish, so using the low-sodium broth will make it easier to add any extra salt to taste.

The best bread for this recipe is bread that is a little stale! Yep, dry bread works better for soaking up the broth and fats, which is why stuffing mixes from the store contain dried bread cubes. I buy or make a fresh loaf a couple of days in advance and let it sit out on the counter to dry. You can dry it further in the oven after cutting or tearing it into pieces.

A baking dish filled with bread stuffing mixed with herbs and sausage, with a wooden spoon lifting a portion from the dish.

How to make this recipe

Preheat the oven to 350°F. If you are making the stuffing ahead and don’t need to bake it just yet, and don’t need to dry out your bread, you can skip turning on the oven for now.

Cut or tear your bread into small pieces. If it is more stale, you’ll probably need to use a knife, at least on the dry ends. I usually cut the ends but tear the rest.

A baking sheet covered with unevenly torn pieces of white bread, spread out in a single layer on a light-colored surface.

Spread the bread cubes onto a rimmed baking sheet. Pop it into the oven for about 10 minutes to dry the bread, if needed.

Cook the sausage in a wide sauté pan or skillet set over medium heat, breaking it into smaller pieces as it cooks.

If you’re using sausage links instead of bulk sausage, simply cut it out of the casing to cook.

Once the sausage is browned, remove to a bowl. Do not drain the fat. Instead, add the butter and let it melt. Add the onion and celery and sauté for about 8 minutes, until softened. It’s going to seem like a lot of butter, but go with it!

A stainless steel skillet filled with cooked and crumbled ground meat sits on a white tiled surface.

Chopped onions and celery sautéing in a stainless steel pan on a white tiled surface.

Add the garlic and cook another 1-2 minutes, until nicely fragrant. Remove from the heat and stir in the sage, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Using your largest mixing bowl (mine is 6 quarts), combine the bread cubes, cooked sausage, vegetables, and parsley. Pour in the broth and mix well to evenly moisten the bread.

The stuffing should clump together, but it should not be mushy. If you need to add more broth, pour in just a little at a time to your driest spots.

A mixing bowl containing ground meat, chopped cooked vegetables, bread pieces, and fresh herbs, ready to be combined for a recipe.

A large metal mixing bowl filled with a stuffing mixture of bread cubes, ground sausage, chopped herbs, and vegetables, being stirred with a spatula.

Grease a 9×13-inch casserole dish and scoop the stuffing into it, making an even layer.

Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes, then remove the foil and continue baking another 15 minutes, until the top has crisped and is golden.

A rectangular baking dish filled with baked bread stuffing mixed with herbs and browned sausage pieces.

Make-ahead tips

You can cook and assemble this stuffing up to the baking step 1-2 days ahead of time. If you’re going to be short on time Thanksgiving day, I recommend doing so!

As the stuffing sits in the fridge, the bread will absorb more of the liquid, so make sure you don’t add too much broth when mixing. If the stuffing seems dry and crumbly when you take it out of the fridge, drizzle some extra broth over the top to moisten. You can also add a few small pieces of butter on top; these will melt into the stuffing as it bakes.

Take the stuffing out of the fridge to warm up slightly as you preheat the oven. This will help prevent the casserole dish from cracking when you transfer it to the oven and will heat the stuffing more evenly.

Bake the stuffing for an additional 5-10 minutes, for a total of 55-65 minutes, uncovering in the last 15 minutes.

A close-up of baked bread stuffing with herbs and browned sausage pieces in a white casserole dish.

Recipe substitutions

If you like, you can swap the pork sausage for another meat. I recommend other ground meats like chicken, turkey, or Mexican-style chorizo.

You can also use turkey giblets, which are what my family used for stuffing when I was a kid. The giblets consist of turkey heart, liver, and gizzard. You’ll find them in a bag inside the cavity of your turkey, along with the turkey neck. Sauté the giblets in oil for 15-20 minutes, season, and chop into small pieces to add to the stuffing. (You can use the neck to make turkey neck gravy so nothing goes to waste!)

You can also skip the meat entirely to make the stuffing vegetarian. Mushrooms would be a good swap as well!

Fresh herbs are definitely recommended here, but if your store has run out due to the holiday rush, you can swap in dried sage and/or dried thyme. Parsley tends to be easier to get fresh, so I recommend sticking with that unless you truly can’t find any!

Don’t like celery? Swap in an equal amount of diced fennel, which will add a savory anise flavor to the stuffing.

A wooden spoon holds a serving of baked stuffing with bread cubes, vegetables, and herbs above a casserole dish filled with more stuffing.

Round out your holiday plate with spatchcock turkey, green bean casserole, and of course, cranberry sauce spooned on top of everything.

This classic sausage stuffing recipe is one I know you’re going to crave, even after the holidays are over!

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