Our Ultimate Guide to Thanksgiving Stuffing

New York Times

27-03-2025

Leave everyone at the table totally impressed with these expert tips from Melissa Clark. Eric Kim's Thanksgiving stuffing. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Published March 27, 2025 Updated March 27, 2025
For lovers of stuffing and dressing, Thanksgiving may be the apex of the year, though they are welcome on the table anytime. We'll explain the difference between the two, with tips and recipes for how best to prepare them whether you're basing yours on bread, which is the traditional choice, or grains, an elegant alternative and one well-suited to guests who don't eat bread. And visit our Ultimate Guide to Thanksgiving guide for more ideas and advice.
Although the two terms may be used interchangeably, for the most part stuffing is cooked inside the cavity of the turkey, while dressing is baked alone in a casserole or other shallow dish. As a result, stuffing is tender and moist, suffused with the juices and any rendered fat from the bird. Dressing has a crisper top from being exposed more directly to the heat of the oven. Here are tips to get the best results whichever method you choose. Bobbi Lin for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.
If you love the brawny flavor of poultry juices mixed with your side dish, or if you're simply a traditionalist, stuffing the turkey is the way to go.
Here are some best practices for both flavor and safety:
Stuff the turkey just before it goes into the oven. We know you want to do as much ahead as possible, particularly on Thanksgiving, but stuffing ahead encourages the growth of bacteria, so don't do it. This said, you can make the stuffing mix up to four days ahead and keep it in the refrigerator before stuffing the bird just before roasting.
If your stuffing recipe calls for shellfish or turkey giblets, the Agriculture Department states that these need to be fully cooked and kept hot before they are stuffed inside the bird. So stir them into the mix immediately before stuffing the turkey.
Stuffing expands as it cooks, so fill the cavity loosely.
If you're going to stuff your bird, you should truss it, or at least tie the legs together to keep the stuffing from falling out.
Bear in mind that stuffed turkeys will take longer to cook than unstuffed ones: Stuffing insulates the turkey, thereby slowing down its cooking.
Both the turkey and the stuffing need to be cooked to 165 degrees before they are safe to eat. Usually the bird gets there before the stuffing does. To avoid overcooking the turkey, pull it from the oven once the flesh hits the desired temperature. Then spoon the stuffing out of the cavity and into a baking dish and return to the oven (or stick it in the microwave). Continue cooking until the stuffing reaches 165 degrees. Christopher Testani for The New York Times
Dressing is baked outside the turkey, which means it can achieve an appealingly crisp, browned top — a nice textural contrast to the softer layer underneath. Plus, with your dressing out of the way, you can add aromatics including lemons, garlic and bunches of herbs to the turkey's cavity for additional flavor. (Another bonus: an unstuffed bird will roast more quickly than a stuffed one.)
Here are tips for achieving outstanding dressing:
You can turn any stuffing recipe into a dressing by simply baking it outside the bird. Spread the mixture in a shallow pan and bake until the mixture reaches 165 degrees. Dressing is pretty forgiving, so feel free to bake it at whatever temperature you need for other dishes you're cooking.
Vegetarians take note: Because it doesn't touch the bird, dressing can be utterly meat-free. Try lemon-ginger bread stuffing, savory cornbread stuffing or wild rice, almond and mushroom stuffing.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, you can add turkey stock or chicken stock, crisped poultry skin, schmaltz and/or diced cooked gizzards, liver and shredded turkey neck to the dressing to give to it a meatier flavor.
If you've got enough extra turkey skin, drape it over the top of the dressing before baking. The skin will turn into poultry cracklings and render its luscious fat all over the dressing. Outstanding. If the skin isn't crisp when the stuffing is done, run it under the broiler for a few minutes to finish. (You can often special-order turkey skin from your butcher — chicken skin will work, too — or trim off the extra skin at the turkey's neck when you are getting it ready for the oven.)
If you like a deeply golden top, dot the top of the dressing with butter before baking. And if the dressing cooks through before the top is brown, run it under the broiler for a minute or two before serving.
Any bread, from soft white sandwich loaves to chewy bagels to crusty sourdough rye breads, can be turned into a stuffing or dressing. Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cybelle Tondu.
No matter what kind of bread you use in your stuffing, it will absorb more of the seasonings if it is stale and dry. You can either buy the bread several days to a week in advance and let it dry out at room temperature, or cube it and dry it out in a low oven (250 degrees) until thoroughly arid.
Or consider making your own bread for stuffing. Cornbread comes together especially quickly, and you can control the amount of sugar in the recipe, depending upon whether you like it sweet or savory.
Easy breads like biscuits, soda bread, no-knead bread and white sandwich bread all make great stuffing, too. Bake them several days ahead so they have a chance to get stale. Or bake them months ahead and freeze, then thaw them and let them dry out before making stuffing.
Bread stuffing is the classic choice at Thanksgiving, but you could use rice or other grains like quinoa, farro, barley. Not only are grain stuffings elegant and refined, most are also gluten-free.
Grain stuffings don't need to adhere like bread stuffings do, so you don't need to bind them with egg. Basically, your aim is to make a tasty rice pilaf or grain salad, but then cook it again inside your bird, which will give it an even more complex flavor rich with drippings. Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.
You can use classic bread stuffing aromatics (sage, celery, onion), or improvise another flavor combination. Chances are that as long as it tastes good on its own, it will taste even better after taking a turn inside the bird.
Wild rice goes particularly well with the earthy autumnal flavors of a Thanksgiving meal. Or try sticky rice for something unexpectedly terrific.
Everything is better when you add bacon, including stuffing and dressing — and the same can be said for stirring in shrimp, oysters, sausage, nuts, cheese and the like. Most simple stuffing recipes can be embellished to suit your tastes and mood. Here are some guidelines and ideas.
Oyster stuffing, which is actually a variation on bread stuffing, is a traditional 19th-century recipe that deserves a revival today. While oysters are present, they aren't usually the dominant flavor, instead adding a complex saline character that deepens the usual bread-and-onion mix. Fresh oysters will have the brightest flavor, but canned smoked oysters are reminiscent of bacon, and even regular canned oysters will work in a pinch. You can also consider other sea creatures for stuffing, including clams, shrimp and anchovy.
Fresh oysters, clams, shrimp and scallops and other seafood should be lightly sautéed in butter or oil, or gently poached, before being added to the stuffing. Do this right before stuffing the turkey or baking the dressing, even if you've made the rest of the stuffing mixture ahead of time. The seafood needs to be hot when stuffed. Anchovies, which have been cured, can be chopped and stirred directly into a stuffing recipe, or sauté them with any onion or aromatics in the recipe.
Cured meats and fresh sausages add depth and complexity to stuffing; use them by themselves or add them in combination. Cured hams, salamis and other hard sausages can simply be chopped up and stirred into the stuffing mix. Bacon and fresh sausages need to be sautéed beforehand. These work best when cooked and added to the stuffing mixture just before it goes into the bird or casserole dish for baking.
Sautéed mushrooms, onions, peppers and other vegetables, and fruit both fresh (slivered pineapple, sautéed apples or pears) or dried (dates, raisins, figs), make a plain bread or rice stuffing a lot more interesting. Be sure to plump dried fruit in liquid before adding it to the stuffing mixture. Boiling water, hot wine or other spirits, or broth will work. Make sure to season any vegetables aggressively with salt and pepper and any desired herbs and spices so they hold their own against everything else going on in the stuffing mix.
Nuts add crunchy texture to soft stuffings while cheese adds richness and flavor. Always toast nuts before adding to the stuffing mix, it gives them the deepest flavor. Cheese should be grated or cubed so it distributes easily. Use assertive aromatics sparingly so they don't overpower the stuffing.
Chopped fresh herbs, garlic, ginger, chiles and even sun-dried tomatoes can make a plain stuffing a lot more interesting.
Some possible combinations include: cornbread stuffing with chiles, smoked mozzarella and cilantro; challah with blue cheese and pecans; rye or whole grain bread with feta, dill and currants; and sourdough bread with pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes and olives. Learn how to truss a turkey. By SAMUEL SIFTON
If you don't stuff your turkey, you really don't need to truss it. But if you do stuff your bird, trussing helps keep the stuffing in its proper place, especially when you are moving the turkey from the roasting pan to the cutting board. Here's the simplest way to do it.
1. Place the turkey breast side up on the rack in the roasting pan.
2. Criss-cross the legs and use a piece of butcher's twine to tie them together at the ends, just above the joint. Wrap the twine twice around the legs to make sure they are secure.
3. Take a long piece to twine and loop it around the body of the bird, so that the wings are pressed against the breast. Tightly tie the twine in a knot or bow at the top of the breast. The trussed turkey is now ready to roast.