How to Make Turkey Stuffing

For many people, stuffing is the best part of the Thanksgiving meal. With infinite variation in your choice of ingredients, you can make your stuffing sweet or garlicky, meaty or light. This recipe is great on its own, but makes a great base for your own ingredients as well.

Ingredients

serves 15

• 2 loaves of bread (see instructions for help choosing)
• 8 tbsp (1 stick / 115 g) butter
• 20 button mushrooms
• 20 oyster mushrooms
• 4 large stalks of celery
• 2 white onions
• 3 cloves garlic
• ¼ cup (60 mL) parsley leaves (or ⅛ cup (30 mL) dried)
• ¼ cup (60 mL) sage leaves (or ⅛ cup (30 mL) dried)
• 5 cups (1.2 L) chicken stock (may not use it all)
• salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: customize by adding sausage, nuts, goat cheese, or fruit.

Steps

Making the Stuffing

1. Preheat the oven. Set it to 275ºF (135ºC).
   
2. Cube the bread. Cut the bread into cubes roughly ¾ inches (1.9 centimeters) wide. If using unsliced bread, slice lengthwise down the loaf first, then cut through the stacked slices.^[1]
   
   • A typical stuffing uses high quality sliced white bread, challah, or bagels. For more unusual flavors and textures, try sourdough or cornbread.^[2] Avoid crusty, airy bread, which tends to become mush.^[3]
   • An electric bread knife makes this much easier.
3. Toast the bread. Once the oven has preheated, arrange the bread cubes on a baking tray. Bake until dry, about ten to fifteen minutes.
   
   • You can skip this step if the bread is already hard and stale, or if using cornbread.
   • Optionally, toast a couple handfuls of pine nuts or roughly chopped walnuts on a separate tray. If using pine nuts, remove after 5–7 minutes to prevent burning.^[4]
4. Chop the vegetables and herbs. Dice the celery, onions, and garlic, plus the parsley and sage if using fresh leaves. Chop the mushrooms roughly, for a texture similar to ground meat.
   
5. Sauté the mushrooms. Melt a third of the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pot until it stops foaming, but before it browns.^[5] Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 7 minutes. Wait until they start to sizzle and turn golden brown.
   
   • You can save time by cooking the mushrooms with the other ingredients, but this method adds a stronger mushroom flavor.
6. Add vegetables, herbs, and spices. Melt the remaining butter, leaving the mushrooms in the pan. Add all the vegetables and herbs you just chopped, plus thyme, salt, and pepper. Cover and let cook until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Some of the vegetables should still be crunchy, especially the celery.
   
   • Stuffing uses more butter than regular sautéed vegetables, as it needs to be moist to stick together.
7. Mix vegetables and bread, and hot chicken stock. Add the toasted bread cubes to the vegetable mixture in the same pan or a large bowl. Mix thoroughly.
   
8. Moisten with hot chicken stock. Heat chicken stock on the stove or in the microwave until steaming. Gradually add the stock while stirring, until all the bread is moist. If you plan to cook the stuffing inside the bird, just use ¾ of your stock, so it can still absorb turkey juices.
   
   • If the stuffing refuses to clump together, beat one or two large eggs, then stir it into the mixture. Wait until just before you stuff the turkey.
   • If you have the time, you can make your own turkey stock in advance. Place the turkey giblets in a small pot of water and let simmer one hour.^[6]

Cooking the Stuffing

1. Decide whether to cook inside or outside the bird. Cooking the stuffing inside the turkey adds more flavor, but carries a significant risk of bacterial infection. The FDA and other food safety experts highly recommend the use of a food thermometer that can reach the center of the stuffing.^[7] If you do not have one, cook the stuffing separately.
   
   • Never stuff a turkey that you plan to grill, smoke, fry, or microwave.
   • Cooking the stuffing separately also saves about 15–30 minutes of cooking time.
2. Cook separate stuffing in a greased casserole dish. Cover in foil and cook for 30 minutes in a 325ºF (160ºC) oven. Uncover and cook an additional 10 minutes for a brown, crispy top.
   
   • Optionally, sprinkle with chopped nuts, crumbled goat cheese, or parmesan when you remove the foil.
3. Stuff the bird with hot stuffing only. If you've decided to stuff your bird, do so while the stuffing is still hot. If you made the stuffing in advance, keep it in the refrigerator, then warm in a large pan.
   
4. Stuff the turkey loosely. If packed too tightly, the stuffing may become rubbery and fail to reach safe temperatures. Add about ¾ cup stuffing for every pound of turkey (360 mL per kg).^[8] If you can fit your entire hand in the turkey, the stuffing has enough room to expand as it absorbs juice.^[9]
   
   • If you have extra stuffing, cut open the skin at the thigh joints and over the breast and push the stuffing under. Additional leftovers can be baked separately, as described above.
5. Roast the turkey to a safe temperature. Immediately after stuffing, place the turkey in the oven and set it to 325ºF (160ºC). Before removing the turkey from the oven, check that its internal temperature has reached 165ºF (74ºC). Measure the temperature at the center of the stuffing, the thickest part of the breast, and the innermost part of the thigh and wing.^[10]
   
   • A stuffed, 8-pound (3.6 kg) turkey takes about 3 hours to roast, while a stuffed 22-pound (10 kg) turkey takes about 5 hours.^[11]
   • If the turkey is done cooking but the stuffing isn't, remove the stuffing and cook it in a greased casserole dish until finished.
   • An instant read thermometer takes about 15 seconds to read the temperature. A normal food thermometer must be left in for 5 minutes.^[12]
6. Let the turkey sit 20 minutes. Remove the turkey from the oven. Wait 20 minutes before carving or removing the stuffing. During this time, the turkey will finish cooking, and the juices will redistribute throughout the meat for a more tender meal.
   

Tips

• If you like meat in your stuffing, cook the meat completely before combining with other ingredients. Rich, strong-flavored meats such as sausage meat or turkey liver are good options.
• For a Christmas-y stuffing, add a pinch of nutmeg, a pinch of cloves, and two finely chopped green apples. Leave out the garlic and half the stock.
• You can substitute any combination of vegetables, as long as at least one is crunchy. Shallots, leek, carrots, fennel, and bell peppers are other common options.^[13]

Warnings

• Even if you plan to cook stuffing inside a juicy turkey, you still need to moisten it. Dry stuffing has a higher risk of bacterial infection.^[14]

Related wikiHows

• How to Make Chestnut Stuffing
• How to Make Pork Chops With Stuffing
• How to Stuff a Turkey for Thanksgiving
• How to Make Turkey and Stuffing Casserole (Dinner)

Sources and Citations

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