Homemade Stuffing Recipe
Nov 11, 2025, Updated Nov 18, 2025
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Let’s be real. Stuffing is the best part of any holiday meal, and making it from scratch is one recipe where it’s more than worth it. It’s cozy, flavorful, and your kitchen will smell amazing while it bakes.
Plus, you can tweak easily—more herbs, extra butter, whatever makes you happy.
My family has been enjoying this homemade stuffing recipe for years! It’s always that one recipe everyone looks forward to on our Thanksgiving and Christmas table.
Related: Stuffing Muffin Recipe
Ingredients Needed to Make Homemade Stuffing
- French Bread
- Yellow Onions
- Celery
- Fresh herbs: sage, parsley, thyme and basil
- Evaporated Milk
- Eggs
- Olive Oil
- Butter
- Salt and Pepper, to taste
The Difference Between Stuffing and Dressing
Technically speaking, dressing and stuffing simply have the same ingredients or base for ingredients. Stuffing is referred to when you are filling the cavity of your Thanksgiving Turkey, so the juices of the turkey simply soak into the bread mixture, making it more flavorful.
Dressing is cooked on it’s own and needs extra liquid to make it flavorful and not dry out the bread during the baking process.
Cook Time For Stuffed Turkey in The Oven
If you are stuffing a turkey, you’ll want to ensure the bird is cooked through.
Assume you are using a 325°F oven, here’s a rough per pound guide from the pros at foodsafety.gov:
- For 10- to 12-pound turkey, roast 3¼ hours to 3½ hours.
- For 12- to 14-pound turkey, roast 3½ to 4 hours.
- For 14- to 18-pound turkey, roast 4 to 4¼ hours.
- For 18- to 20-pound turkey, roast 4¼ to 4¾ hours.
- For 20- to 24-pound turkey, roast 4¾ to 5¼ hours.
The best and safest way to determine your exact roasting time is by checking every 15 minutes or so after the 3-hour mark using a meat thermometer. When cooking a stuffed turkey, the temperature should read 165°F in the stuffing, 170°F in the breast, and 175°F in the thigh. Be sure to note that after removing the turkey from the oven, the temperature of the meat will rise about 5°F.
Why Is Stuffing Dry?
The short answer is, there’s not enough liquid in the stuffing.
Prior to baking the dressing recipe, check to make sure there’s enough liquid in the baking dish. If there are pieces of bread that aren’t moist, you can add milk, water, chicken or vegetable broth until everything is nicely coated.
If you have already baked the dressing, add a little bit of chicken broth or water until it’s moist again. Pop it back into the oven for 10-15 minutes to heat everything back up prior to serving.
How To Make Stuffing
Grease your casserole dish. In a large bowl or baking dish, mixed cubed bread, veggies, oil, and seasonings.
In a small bowl, beat the eggs and mix with evaporated milk. Pour over the dry mixture.
Mix with your hands until all the ingredients are moist and sticky. You can add more milk if necessary.
Refrigerate the mixture overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350º F. If you mixed it in a bowl, pour the mixture into a casserole dish. Add butter on top of the stuffing mixture.
Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Serve immediately.
Check Out More Thanksgiving Inspired Recipes
- Thanksgiving Fruit Tray – super fun for the kids to put together for their friends and family.
- 16 Thanksgiving Side Dishes – of course we have you covered on a lot of side dish recipes that are delicious!
- Thanksgiving Table Idea: Turkey Animal Pears – another fun one to get the kids involved with! While you’re making dinner, let them make centerpieces!
- Chocolate Covered Strawberry Turkeys – A super fun dessert for Thanksgiving that can be made ahead of time.
Related: How to Use Celery and Stretch Your Grocery Budget
Homemade Stuffing Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 loaves of French Bread cut into 1/2″ cubes and dried
- 2 large yellow onions chopped
- 2 1/2 cups Dandy Celery chopped
- 2 tbsp thyme
- 1 tbsp basil
- 16 oz. evaporated milk
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 c butter melted
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mixed cubed bread, veggies, oil, and seasonings
- In a small bowl, beat the eggs and mix with evaporated milk. Pour over mixture.
- Mix with hands until all the ingredients are moist and sticky. You can add more milk if necessary.
- Refrigerate the mixture overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350º F, and grease a large casserole dish.
- Pour mixture into casserole dish and add butter on top of the stuffing mixture.
- Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes, or until top is as lightly golden browned as desired.
- Serve immediately.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
