Sausage & Herb Stuffing (with Apples)

Some name it stuffing, some name it dressing, however all who’ve tried it agree that this sausage & herb stuffing is an important a part of a Thanksgiving meal. You’ll love the comforting medley of herbs, sausage, mushrooms, apples, and bread. So many textures and flavors in a single dish!

One reader, Carla, commented: “A staple Thanksgiving stuffing for our household! Completely excellent. No vacation can be full with out it. ★★★★★“

sausage herb Thanksgiving stuffing in a white baking dish with wooden spoon.

This sausage & herb stuffing is the exact same one I’ve loved yearly at each Thanksgiving vacation for so long as I can keep in mind. Mother prepped it the evening earlier than, stuffed some into the turkey, and served the remaining as dressing alongside candied candy potatoes and inexperienced bean casserole. This humble Thanksgiving aspect dish stole the present each 12 months, to the purpose the place we simply started making it often for dinner.

Whereas this sausage & herb stuffing is an absolute must-have aspect dish on my household’s Thanksgiving desk, who says you need to restrict this comforting casserole to Thanksgiving? And even to the aspect dish class, for that matter. With its mixture of sausage, greens, and bread, this stuffing recipe makes a terrific all-in-one meal, no turkey required!

One reader, Danielle, commented: “I made this tonight—it was AMAZING! I may eat an entire plate of simply this. ★★★★★”

wooden spoon serving a spoonful of sausage herb apple Thanksgiving stuffing.

Why You’ll Love This Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe

Smooth within the center with crisp toasted edges
So many flavors and textures multi functional dish
Customizable—swap mushrooms for butternut squash, or make it vegetarian
As scrumptious all by itself as it’s as a aspect dish
Simply double or halve to scale it up or down
Egg-free stuffing recipe—merely not wanted
You can also make it forward of time! And that’s gold in terms of vacation meals.

With its cozy herby flavors and contrasting textures, this can be a savory recipe you can also make any time you crave consolation meals with a aspect of nostalgia. It warms the soul, similar to rooster pot pie.

Use These Substances for Sausage & Herb Stuffing:

ingredients measured on marble counter including celery, bread cubes, chicken broth, herbs, onions, mushrooms, and butter.

Bread:I often use complete grain bread right here, however you possibly can actually use any sort of bread on this stuffing recipe. From commonplace sliced sandwich bread to crusty sourdough or artisan home made bread… complete grain or white… or strive cornbread stuffing!
Herbs: Thyme, sage, and parsley brighten up the stuffing and add heaps of aromatic taste. You need to use dried or contemporary or a mixture of each.
Sausage: This provides savory richness to the dish. I like to make use of candy Italian sausage—identical I often use for sausage stuffed peppers—however spicy Italian sausage works simply as properly. For a vegetarian choice, substitute the sausage with extra mushrooms or diced butternut squash. You can even use vegetable broth as a substitute of rooster broth.
Mushrooms: For hearty taste and texture.
Apples: The fruit’s sweetness provides a pleasant distinction to the wealthy sausage and much more texture. I often use 1 Granny Smith and 1 Honeycrisp apple, for a mixture of tart and candy, however you need to use whichever apples you have got readily available.

You additionally want some rooster (or turkey, or vegetable) broth, a bit butter, onion, celery, and salt & pepper. Dried cranberries are optionally available, however I really like the sweetness and shade they add.

Let Me Present You The right way to Make This Sausage & Herb Stuffing

For BEST texture, toast the bread cubes: Unfold bread cubes out on baking sheets, and bake for quarter-hour. Flippantly toasting the bread helps it soak up among the liquid components, which prevents your stuffing from tasting soggy. I do the identical factor once I overlook to depart the bread out to get stale for pumpkin French toast casserole.

Cook dinner the greens, herbs, & sausage: Now it’s time to get issues cooking on the range in a big skillet. Begin by softening the onion and celery in some butter. That is the flavorful base of the stuffing. Then add the mushrooms and herbs, adopted by the sausage and apples.

The sausage will flippantly brown, the apples will barely soften, and all of the unbelievable flavors will mix collectively in good concord:

celery mushroom apple mixture in cast iron skillet.

Mix every part: Combine the cooked components along with the flippantly toasted bread (every part can nonetheless be heat at this level), and pour over some rooster broth. The broth serves to bind the stuffing components collectively, and to maintain the stuffing from drying out.

sausage herb bread stuffing with celery and apples in white baking dish before baking.

Bake. Bake the stuffing in a big baking dish, or stuff it into an unbaked turkey. Should you’re stuffing the turkey, cool fully earlier than utilizing.

Can I miss the sausage, or make vegetarian?

Sure, completely. You possibly can flip this right into a vegetarian stuffing recipe by changing the sausage with extra mushrooms, or some diced butternut squash. The cooking directions stay the identical. You can even use vegetable broth as a substitute of rooster broth.

sausage herb Thanksgiving stuffing in a white baking dish.

The right way to Make Stuffing Forward of Time

It can save you time (and valuable oven area) the day of the massive meal by making this sausage & herb stuffing upfront.

Probably the most fantastic half about this Thanksgiving stuffing recipe is that, like a straightforward breakfast casserole, it’s truly BEST ready forward of time. All of the savory herbs, browned sausage, and candy apples soak collectively in a single day to maximise taste. Nonetheless, the bread loses lots of texture in the event you make the stuffing fully forward of time, so I like to recommend you wait to mix the bread, sausage combination, and broth and bake till the day you intend to serve it.

Right here’s what I do: Retailer the cooked sausage/apple combination within the fridge in a single day, and retailer the toasted bread cubes at room temperature. Mix and bake the next day.

herbed sausage and apple stuffing in a white baking dish with a serving spoon

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