Brioche Bread Stuffing Recipe
This classic Bread Stuffing recipe tastes like the white bread stuffing grandma made! Calling for simple ingredients, including a loaf of stale brioche bread, this homemade stuffing recipe comes together quickly and pairs beautifully with a Thanksgiving spread. Makes 6-8 servings.
Love holiday classics? Don’t miss Fresh Green Bean Casserole from Scratch, Browned Butter Sage Turkey and Citrus Cranberry Sangria!
This recipe has been a long time coming, y’all.
Why?
It’s a riff on my family’s classic stuffing, traditionally made with French bread or baguettes.
My senior year of high school, I vividly remember sitting at my aunt’s kitchen table. My grandmother, Bugga, was instructing me on how to tear the bread properly for stuffing — because there is a proper way to do these things.
I made our traditional recipe with brioche bread because it’s a favorite of mine. Hopefully, Bug would approve.
That said—please know that you can make this stuffing with any kind of bread you’ve got on hand.
Why I love this recipe:
This bread stuffing recipe tastes like past holidays spent with my mom’s family, and it reminds me of home.
Homemade stuffing is like a giant hug, and it’s perfect for the year 2020 since this one’s been a weird one.
Another thing I like about this recipe is it’s actually pretty darn simple to make once you’ve got the ingredients.
Also, it can be done incrementally, so you don’t stress out too much about it on the day of your feast.
Other Thanksgiving recipes that remind me of family: Green Bean Bacon Bundles | Creamed Cornbread Casserole | Baked Sweet Potato Cubes with Butter and Bourbon | Bourbon Pecan Pie Bars
What you need to make this recipe:
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- A serrated knife (to cut the bread!) or your fingers
- Large bowl
- A sharp knife and a cutting board
- Nonstick skillet
- Wooden spoon or rubber spatula
- Deep casserole dish
Let’s talk ingredients!
In addition to the tools above, you’re going to need some ingredients to make this recipe, too! Chances are, you might already have some of them in your fridge or pantry. Scroll down to the recipe card for the full measurements and instructions.
Here’s what you need:
- Brioche bread — this is the base of our stuffing recipe, and it needs to be stale. If yours is not, it runs the risk of becoming soggy in the stuffing. I have instructions below in case your bread is still soft.
- Unsalted butter — you could also use unflavored oil if you want to make this a dairy free stuffing recipe.
- Onions — white and yellow onions are perfect here. I do not recommend red onions.
- Celery — these add some crunch and flavor.
- Garlic — if you’ve got the time, please chop your own because it adds such wonderful flavor!
- Fresh sage — while you can use the dried stuff, I suggest using fresh herbs because they are so wonderfully aromatic!
- Salt and pepper — I like to use a fine grain kosher salt and to grind my own black pepper.
- Vegetable stock — my family sometimes uses chicken broth or stock, but I recommend using vegetable stock so this becomes a vegetarian stuffing recipe.
Variations on this recipe:
Add some different veggies. Carrots would make a colorful and slightly sweet addition.
Lean into fresh herbs. Fresh parsley, fresh rosemary and fresh thyme would be aromatic and beautiful in this stuffing recipe. I decided to go with sage because that’s what my family always uses, but these would both be excellent additions.
How do you make bread stuffing from scratch?
Prep the bread
The bread is obviously the most important part of stuffing, and the key to an awesome, wonderful textured stuffing is the bread being stale.
Why? Stale bread soaks up the stock but retains its texture.
We’re using a brioche loaf for this recipe, a departure from my family’s original recipe. It’s a lot softer than the baguettes we normally use.
I suggest purchasing a loaf up to a week before your meal, cubing the bread and letting it sit on the countertop to get super stale.
Make the bread stuffing
Prep your ingredients. Chop the onions, celery and garlic. Chop up the sage, too, and measure out the stock.
Saute the veggies. Melt the butter in a large skillet or pan. Add the chopped veggies, and cook ‘em until soft.
Season the veggies with sage, stir until fragrant, then remove the vegetables from the heat. Set ‘em aside to cool slightly.
Preheat the oven, and spray a large baking dish with nonstick baking spray.
Combine the ingredients. Scoop the cooled veggies on top of the stale, dried brioche cubes. Use your hands or a large spoon to combine the ingredients. (If you’re using your hands, use a squishing motion to incorporate everything.)
Next, pour in the stock. Only use a little bit of it at first, and use your hands to mix everything with that same squishing motion.
Massage the stock into the bread and veggies — go slowly! — and when the bread is sticky and a little squishy, it’s ready.
If it still feels dry, add another drizzle or two of the stock until it feels right.
Pro tip!
Start slowly with the pours of the stock. I poured too much in my tester batch, and the stuffing was super wet because of it.
Once your ingredients are incorporated and the texture is correct, transfer it to the prepared baking dish, and cover with foil.
Bake in the oven, then remove the foil to bake for an additional 25 or so minutes until golden brown and delicious.
Enjoy warm!
Erin’s Easy Entertaining Tips
I called my mom and asked her about making the stuffing in advance, and she gave me the green light.
So, if you’re planning to prepare this traditional stuffing recipe to serve at Thanksgiving or Christmas, you can make it a day in advance, bake it, then reheat it in the oven just before it’s eating time.
However, I prefer to bake it the day of because it adds such a lovely aroma to your home, as well as tastes awesome coming straight out of the oven.
Here are a few other tips and tricks to make life easier on you as you prepare this recipe:
- Make sure the bread is stale. Like, super stale. In my family, we tear up the bread (or slice it) 2-3 days in advance and let it sit on the countertop the entire time. If your bread is still soft, place it on a baking sheet and bake in a 200°F oven for 30-45 minutes, or until the bread is nice and crisp.
- Prep your ingredients (chop, measure, etc.) before. This’ll make it easier for you to make the stuffing.
- Not into prepping? Purchase pre-chopped vegetables to make prepwork easier.
- Saute the veggies (and season them) 1-2 days in advance. This is a way to get a leg up to where all you have to do the day of your meal is throw together the sautéed veggies and bread, then add the stock and bake ‘em until golden brown.
- Let it be vegetarian! This recipe, unlike my family’s, calls for vegetable stock. You can obviously use chicken stock in its place if you’re not feeding vegetarians, but I like to keep mine vegetarian-friendly. 🙂
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe calls for stale brioche bread. My family traditionally uses stale French bread or stale baguettes.
If your bread isn’t stale, I suggest throwing it on a baking sheet in a 200°F oven for 30-45 minutes, or until it’s sufficiently toasted (but not browned.) Stale bread is important for stuffing, and since we’re using brioche—a notably soft, enriched bread—it’s even more important to dry out bread and let it harden because the brioche will fall apart otherwise.
Our stuffing recipe doesn’t call for an egg, though I’m sure there are some stuffing recipes out there that do. (I’d venture to say an egg used in stuffing is to bind the ingredients and hold ’em together while it bakes.)
No. If you’re stuffing this into a chicken or a turkey, you can put it into the bird raw. Keep in mind that the addition of stuffing to a bird will necessitate a longer bake time.
You can… but I prefer to make this the day of. If you’re looking to make something in advance for your stuffing, I suggest sautéing the vegetables 1-2 days in advance. Store them in the refrigerator, then the day of your feast, remove them from the fridge, toss with the stale bread, add the stock and bake to perfection.
There was probably too much liquid added. To fix soggy stuffing, you can turn it out onto a baking sheet and bake until it firms up a bit, then transfer back to the original casserole dish.
Cover your stuffing with foil and reheat in the oven for 20-30 minutes. You can remove the foil and let it bake for an additional few minutes to crisp up the top again, but this isn’t necessary.
Our stuffing never lasts super long because we all love it for leftovers, but 4-5 days in a food storage container is the max I’d let stuffing go in the fridge.
Quick tips and tricks for the best bread stuffing
- Pour the stock in small batches into the bread mixture. Start with a small amount so you don’t overpour and make your stuffing mushy. (How do I know this? Because I’ve done it myself.)
- Prep the veggies 1-2 days in advance. You can chop and sauté them, then store in the fridge until it’s time to put together the stuffing. This cuts down on your hands-on time the day you’re serving a holiday dinner, and it makes the bread stuffing recipe a breeze!
- Substitutions: You can use chicken or turkey stock in place of vegetable stock if you’re not feeding vegetarians. Use French or baguette if you’d rather that as opposed to brioche bread. No fresh sage? Use 1 tablespoon of dried sage in place of the fresh sage.
Here’s how you make it…
Brioche Bread Stuffing
Ingredients
- 1 lb. brioche bread cut into 1” cubes and stale
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter or unflavored oil
- 2 onions finely chopped (3 ½ cups chopped)
- 4 celery stalks finely chopped (1 ½ cups chopped)
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
- Salt and pepper to taste
- ¾ – 1 ½ cups vegetable stock
Equipment
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Instructions
- Two-three days before: Chop the bread into 1” cubes. Place in a large bowl, and set aside. Let sit until super stale.
- The day of: Melt the butter in a large skillet.
- Add the chopped onions, celery and garlic to the melted butter. Cook until the vegetables have softened, about 5-8 minutes.
- Season with the chopped sage, stirring until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Remove the vegetables from the heat, and set aside to cool slightly.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a large baking dish with nonstick baking spray, and set aside.
- Scoop the cooled vegetable mixture on top of the cubed bread.
- Using your hands or a large spoon, combine the ingredients.
- Slowly pour in a cup of the stock, using your hands to mix everything together.
- Massage the stock into the bread and vegetables, and slowly continue to do this until the mixture is combined. If it feels a little dry, add more stock. If it feels sticky and a little squishy, you’re good to go! Go by feel—you want the ingredients to be soft and soaking in the stock, but you don’t want them to be sopping wet.
- When the stuffing has been assembled, transfer it to the prepared baking dish and cover with aluminum foil.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove the cover, and bake for an additional 25 minutes.
- When browned on top, remove from the oven, and enjoy warm!
Notes
Acceptable substitutions for this bread stuffing recipe
- Instead of unsalted butter, feel free to use unflavored (or lightly flavored) oil.
- You can use chicken or turkey stock in place of vegetable stock if you’re not feeding vegetarians.
- Use French bread or baguette instead of the brioche bread if that’s your jam. (My family always uses French bread. I like this brioche bread because of its texture and slight sweetness.)
- No fresh sage? Use 1 tablespoon of dried sage in place of the fresh sage.
Quick tips and tricks for awesome stuffing:
- Make sure the bread is stale. Like, super stale. In my family, we tear up the bread (or slice it) 2-3 days in advance and let it sit on the countertop the entire time. If your bread is still soft, place it on a baking sheet and bake in a 200°F oven for 30-45 minutes, or until the bread is nice and crisp.
- Prep all of your ingredients (chop, measure, etc.) before you get to work. This’ll make it easier for you to make the brioche stuffing.
- Not into prepping? Purchase pre-chopped vegetables from the store to make prepwork easier.
Nutrition
About the Author:
Erin Parker is a Southern gal living in Texas with her husband and two daughters. She started The Speckled Palate to share what she was cooking as a newlywed… and over the years, it’s evolved to capture her love for hosting. Specifically, the EASIEST, lowest key entertaining because everyone deserves to see their people and connect over good food. Learn more about her…
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