Enjoy a healthier, savory dressing by making the bread cubes yourself using your favorite home-baked GF bread or healthier brand GF bread.
This recipe is always a huge hit no matter what the time of year! In fact, I often pair this dressing with some quick and easy Grilled Herb Turkey Breasts when we’re in the mood for the classic flavors of Thanksgiving without all of the fuss.
Ready to Go in the Oven: Perfect stuffing (a.k.a dressing) should be moist, but not soggy. If it’s not quite moist enough add a bit more milk, toss and let is sit for a minute. Then mix and check again. Once you have the right moisture, be sure to cover the dish and bake as directed in the recipe below.
Sharing delicious family recipes like this one, always reminds me that Thanksgiving is a holiday to be celebrated every day of the year!
Time-Saving Tips: Make the GF croutons ahead of time and freeze them until you’re ready to use. You can also prepare the veggie-broth mixture for the stuffing/dressing the day before, see recipe instructions for prep-ahead details.
Many blessings to you and your family for a Happy Thanksgiving!
Joyfully (and thankfully) serving HIM, Kelly
Ingredients
- 10 cups gluten-free or grain-free bread croutons, cut 3/4x3/4-inch in size
- (approximately 1 to 1 1/2 loaves of your favorite GF bread; the better the bread, the better the stuffing)
- 3/4 cup finely diced organic celery
- 3/4 cup finely diced organic carrot
- 3/4 cup finely diced yellow onion
- 5 tbsp butter (if DF, omit butter & increase olive oil to 1/3 cup)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 1/2 tsp dried poultry seasoning
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 2 heaping tbsp minced fresh sage
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 2 cups homemade chicken stock
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup milk of your choice (I use unsweetened almond milk)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Using large chef knife, stack the bread two to three slices high and cut into 3/4-inch cubes. (You want at least 10 heaping cups of bread cubes.)
- Arrange the bread cubes evenly on an ungreased baking sheet so they are not overlapping. Repeat process with remaining bread cubes. (You may not be able to fit all the bread cubes onto one baking sheet. So if you don’t have a second baking sheet, you will need to bake in batches.)
- Bake bread cubes for approximately 1-2 hours (or more), making sure to check them every 20-30 minutes, until they are dried out and firm (like a salad crouton).
- Once they are dry, remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Then proceed with making the stuffing. (See time and money saving tips below in the notes.)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Finely dice the celery, carrot and onion and set aside in medium bowl.
- Pluck leaves only from fresh sage and mince, set aside two heaping tablespoons (freeze the rest for future use).
- Preheat large skillet to medium-high; add butter and olive oil. Immediately add celery, carrot and onion. Sauté until onion is translucent and carrot begins to soften (about 5 minutes).
- Add poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, sage, cranberries and broth; bring to a slight simmer. Cook about 3-5 minutes, just until cranberries begin to plump. Turn off heat and remove skillet to a cool area of stovetop.
- In a small bowl, add milk and eggs and whisk to combine. Slowly pour a half cup of the hot veggie-broth mixture into the milk-egg mixture while rapidly whisking (this is done to temper the milk-egg mixture, so you don’t get scrambled egg pieces). Then, slowly add the milk-egg mixture to the veggie-broth mixture while rapidly stirring.
- In a large bowl, add your homemade croutons (dried bread cubes) and slowly pour the veggie mixture over them. Using a rubber spatula or your hands, gently combine until bread cubes are moistened. If still dry, you can add a bit more milk or chicken stock to moisten.
- Add mixture to a well-oiled 9x13-inch baking dish, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until completely heated through.
- Remove foil and bake another 8-10 minutes, until stuffing begins to turn slightly brown on edges. Enjoy!
Notes
Time-Saving Tip - Make the bread cubes for the stuffing ahead of time and freeze them until ready to use. You can also make the veggie-broth mixture a day ahead of time. Just follow steps 5-8 (no need to preheat oven) and place the veggie-broth mixture into the fridge up to one day ahead of time. Then, when you're ready to make the stuffing, remove the croutons from the freezer and the veggie-broth from the fridge and allow them to come to room temp. Then follow the remaining steps to incorporate the eggs and milk, and bake as directed.
Money-Saving Tip - Here's a frugal way to make croutons, simply save all of the heels from your favorite bread, making sure to place them in a big airtight bag in your freezer. Once the bag contains about 20 or so heels, let them defrost completely and then follow the baking instructions above to make croutons.
This looks wonderful! Thanks, Kelly!!!
Thanks for the sweet note! Hope you and your family are doing great, sweet friend! 🙂 Blessings, Kelly
This sounds so so delicious!!!! Loved it loads. 😀
Thanks, Minnie! Appreciate your kind words! 🙂 Kelly
This looks so good…. and sounds a lot easier to make than the traditional family dressing.
Thank you for such great ideas for Thankgiving. I have a friend that needs GF alternatives at her family dinner, and she loves stuffing. She could also add some leftover GF cornbread to the bread cubes. Thanks for such a great place to learn about alternatives for those with celiac challenges.
Hi, Maureen. You are so welcome. I appreciate you taking the time to leave a kind note. What a blessing you are. And yes, GF cornbread would make an excellent stuffing! Yum! Many blessings to you and your family for a Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂 Kelly
Can I dry the bread in my dehydrator instead of the oven?
Hi, Kate. I haven’t tried it myself so I cannot comment on how long it would take, but yes, you can certainly dry bread cubes in a food dehydrator. Blessings, Kelly 🙂
I think it would depend on the heat capacity and type of trays. I would hesitate using slotted trays because the crumbs may drop through, making a mess. It may take less time to dry cubes because there would less water in bread than in veggies, fruit and meats, so you may have to check more frequently to see if it has dried thoroughly.
Is it possible to use a dehydrator to dry the bread cubes instead of the oven?
Thanks!
Hi, Kate. I haven’t tried it myself so I cannot comment on how long it would take, but yes, you can certainly dry bread cubes in a food dehydrator. Blessings, Kelly 🙂
Would using vegetable stock alter the taste too much? My brother-in-law is coming for Thanksgiving and he is vegetarian and won’t eat anything made with meat or meat products. Thanks so much for all your wonderful recipes!!
Absolutely not – it should be just as delicious with veggie stock. That is very thoughtful of you to think of your brother. Blessings to you for a Happy Thanksgiving with your family! 🙂
Hi Kelly
When you say “You can also prepare the stuffing/dressing the day before – don’t cook it, just refrigerate.” What exactly do you mean? Prepare up to the egg mixing part? Or after? Wouldn’t the croutons get extremely soggy and mushy if refrigerated overnight?
Thanks so much
All my love
Alana
Oh, Alana. Looks like I wasn’t very clear. So sorry! Yes, you are correct. I should have been very specific in saying what to do. So I am going to make a note in the recipe, so hopefully people will see that. What you can do ahead is everything through step 8. Then refrigerate the veggie-broth mixture until the day you plan to serve. Then remove from fridge to allow to come to room temp, same with the bread croutons, if you froze those, put them out so they can come to room temp. Then, when ready to bake, go to step 9 and whisk together the eggs and milk and add to the veggie-broth mixture, toss with the veggies and follow instructions as directed for baking. Thanks so much for taking the time to point out that I wasn’t clear about this so I can make a note in the recipe. Big eHugs to you! Wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving! 🙂