Classic herb stuffing
Crusty bread cubes baked with butter, onion, celery, sage and thyme until crisp on top and soft underneath, holiday stuffing without the box.
- 80 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 10
- About $0.88 a serving
- 210 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Make the full amount. Whatever’s left keeps for tomorrow.
Ingredients
For 10 servings.
- 1 French bread, about 1 lb
- ½ cup butter, divided, plus a little for the dish
- 1 yellow onion, large
- 3 stalks celery
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme, leaves
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 3 cups vegetable broth
From your pantry
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 210 calories, 5 g protein, 24 g carbs and 10 g fat, and costs about $0.88 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No French bread? Sourdough bread works.
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the oven to 350°F and butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
Cut the bread into 1-inch and spread them on two .
Cube. Cubing means cutting food into chunky, even squares, usually three quarters of an inch to an inch. Same-size cubes cook at the same speed and brown on every side.
How you’ll know: Your pieces look like a handful of sugar cubes, a little bigger than diced, all close to the same size.
Sheet pan. A sheet pan is a flat metal baking tray with a low rim all the way around. The rim catches juices, and the wide surface lets food spread out and brown.
How you’ll know: Everything fits in one layer with a little space between the pieces.
the bread 15 to 20 minutes, once, until dry and lightly toasted.
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Timer: 17 min
Dolly’s tip: Dry bread soaks up broth without turning to mush. Day-old bread dries even faster.Meanwhile, the onion and celery, the garlic, and chop the sage, thyme and parsley.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
6 tablespoons butter in a large over medium heat, add the onion and celery, and cook 8 to 10 minutes, now and then, until soft and .
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Translucent. Translucent means onions have cooked until they turn from white to slightly see-through. It shows they’re soft and sweet but haven’t started to brown.
How you’ll know: The onion looks glossy and a little see-through, bends easily, and has barely any color.
Medium heatTimer: 9 min
in the garlic, sage, thyme, salt and pepper and cook 1 minute, .
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Tip the bread into your biggest bowl, add the vegetables, parsley and broth, and gently until the bread has soaked it all up.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Spread it in the dish, dot with the last 2 tablespoons butter, cover with foil, and 20 minutes.
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Timer: 20 min
Dolly’s tip: To make ahead, cover and chill it before baking for up to a day, then add 10 minutes to the covered bake.Uncover and 20 to 25 minutes more, until the top is and .
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Crispy. Crispy means the outside is dry, firm and crunchy. It comes from high heat, a little oil and room in the pan, because crowded food steams and goes soft.
How you’ll know: It sounds crunchy when you tap or bite it, and it doesn’t flop when you lift it.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 22 min
Food safety: Keep a make-ahead dish in the fridge until it goes in the oven, then reheat it until it’s steaming hot in the middle, 165°F. Check the center, not the edges; it’s the last part to heat.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
When you host a dinner, Dollop builds the menu around your guests’ allergies, works out a cooking timeline back from when everyone sits down, and puts it all on one grocery list.
