Sausage stuffing is one of the best and easiest holiday side dishes you can make for Thanksgiving and Christmas! Made with apples, dried cranberries, and pecans, this flavorful stuffing has a moist texture on the inside and a crunchy layer on the outside. This recipe uses store-bought bread cubes which makes the recipe really easy!
Prep Time 20 minutes | Cook Time 1 hour | Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 oz Italian sausage crumbled
- 1 onion small, chopped
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning or Herbs from Provence
- 2 apples medium, chopped, I used Gala red apples
- 1.5 cups chicken broth divided
- 9 oz dried bread cubes about 3 or 4 cups (see notes below the recipe instructions!)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- fresh thyme
How To Make Sausage Stuffing with Herbs
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Heat olive oil on medium heat in a large skillet. Add crumbled sausage, chopped onion, Italian seasoning (or Herbs from Provence), and cook for about 6 minutes until the sausage is cooked through.
- Add chopped apples (set some chopped apples aside for later – to put on top of the stuffing) and cook on medium heat, stirring, for about 2 more minutes. Remove from heat.
- Add 1 cup of chicken broth to the skillet and stir (this warms up the broth).
- Transfer the skillet contents onto a large heatproof mixing bowl.
- Add dried bread cubes. Stir everything well and let it rest for about 3 minutes. Then stir again and let it rest, until the liquid is completely absorbed and there is no liquid on the bottom of the mixing bowl. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
- In a small bowl (or a mason jar), whisk 1 egg. Add the remaining ½ cup of chicken broth. Mix well. Add to the mixing bowl, and stir everything well until the liquid is absorbed (you might have to let the mixture rest for 2 or 3 minutes). The bread cubes should be moist but not soggy. There should be no liquid on the bottom of the mixing bowl.
- Add chopped pecans, dried cranberries, and fresh thyme to the mixing bowl. Mix well. Note: set aside about ¼ cup of chopped pecans, some cranberries, and some fresh thyme to use for later (to put on top of the stuffing).
- Use the baking dish of the appropriate size, such as 9 x 9 inches baking dish – enough to hold about 2 or 3 quarts. Or, you can also use 2 smaller baking dishes. I used 2 baking dishes 1 quart each. Grease a baking dish with butter.
- Pour the stuffing into the baking dish (or dishes). Top with the reserved chopped apples (red skin sides up, for presentation), chopped pecans, and dried cranberries that you set aside. Top with fresh thyme.
- Bake, uncovered, for about 30 or 45 minutes. If the stuffing gets too brown, you can tent it with foil.
Notes
- Sausage. I recommend using crumbled spicy Italian sausage. You can also use Italian sausage links in casings, remove the casings and crumble the sausage.
- Herbs from Provence are used in generous amounts to add flavor to this easy stuffing recipe. The mix that I used contained dried rosemary, thyme, parsley, tarragon, marjoram, basil, and sage.
- Use store-bought bread cubes. You can use store-bought toasted bread cubes (stuffing mix). It works well, and I don’t see why you have to toast your own bread cubes!
- Want to make your own bread cubes? Use yesterday’s bread and slice it into cubes. Then place bread cubes on a baking sheet and toast them in the preheated oven at 350 F for about 20 minutes or longer until the bread cubes become like croutons.
- How to make this sausage stuffing gluten-free? There are many great gluten-free stuffing mixes on the market. My favorite one is Olivia’s gluten-free stuffing (rosemary and sage flavor).
- What size baking dish to use? Use the baking dish of the appropriate size, such as 9 x 9 inches – enough to hold about 2 or 3 quarts. Or, you can use 2 smaller baking dishes, which is what I did. I used 2 baking dishes 1-quart each.
- You can double the recipe. In this case, you can use a 9×13 inch pan.
Nutrition
Calories: 527kcal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 15g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 56mg | Sodium: 1101mg | Potassium: 438mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 99IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 91mg | Iron: 3mg
enjoy with Sausage Stuffing with Herbs