A Thanksgiving Classic
Stuffing is by far my favorite food to eat on Thanksgiving. It’s a savory dish that has been the star of my holiday plate for as long as I can remember. The butter-soaked bread and flavor packed sausage is a mouthwatering combination that’s hard to pass up. For this Thanksgiving, I’ve made a delicious sausage stuffing from homemade bread and flavor packed spices. It’s a delicious recipe that you’re going to want to have on your plate this year!
Background Behind this Sausage Stuffing
I’ve spent the past two Thanksgivings pretty sick from sulfites, so this recipe is really important to me. Not only does it mean I’ll enjoy my favorite plate safely, it also happens to be one of my favorite recipes yet! The year before my allergy diagnosis, I drank wine the night before Thanksgiving. It made me incredibly sick for 3-4 days and my holiday was very hard to enjoy. At the time, I didn’t realize sulfites were the problem and eating a lot of Thanksgiving food was only making my sicker. It’s not fun to spend your favorite holiday sick on the couch even when you’re surrounded by family!
The following year, my first Thanksgiving sulfite free was only 1 month after being diagnosed. I had not yet learned about preservatives in breads, meats, or spices. I used an organic stuffing off of the supermarket shelf to make what I thought was a sulfite-free dish. Unfortunately, my lack of knowledge about sulfites meant I spent the day very sick. It was one of the few times I thought I might seriously need a trip to the hospital.
After two scary holidays, I am looking forward to having a sulfite free, healthy Thanksgiving this year! Thinking of and preparing preservative free dishes and desserts for the day has been one of the most exciting parts of being sulfite free.
Ingredients
- Homemade organic white bread: If you’re making the stuffing sulfite free, homemade breads are the safest option. I use my bread machine and this recipe to make my white bread, but instead of using bread flour, I use all purpose flour!
- Organic chicken sausage: You can substitute for any meat you’d like to have in your stuffing. If you would like to make the recipe meat free, the sausage can be left out.
- Unsalted organic butter
- Spices: Organic onion powder, garlic salt, poultry seasoning, and sea salt. This recipe can be made without onion powder and garlic if you cannot have either. Instead, add in Italian seasoning and parsley! You could also use cayenne pepper and Italian to made it a bit spicy. The most important spice in this recipe is the poultry seasoning.
Making the Sausage Stuffing
The key to this sausage stuffing is making it with amazing homemade bread or your favorite safe bread option! Since bread is the main ingredient in stuffing, you want to have a fluffy, tasty option that can soak up the bread and spices.
You want to start by cutting your bread into squares; they can be any sized you prefer, but I love mine a bit bigger. Place the bread into a large bowl then preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prepare a large dish with parchment paper.
On the stove, use a large pan to melt two sticks of butter. Mix in the onion powder, garlic salt, poultry seasoning and chopped sausage and mix together well. When simmering, pour the melted butter and sausage mix over the bread. Mix the stuffing well and then spread onto the dish.
Next, melt the remaining butter in the pan and mix in the sea salt. Pour the butter evenly over the stuffing in the dish. Finally, cook the stuffing for 30-35 minutes or until the top layer of bread begins to crisp.
Notes & Comments
This stuffing is very easy to make once you have the sulfite free bread prepared. I make my bread and cut it ahead of time then store it in the freezer. This makes it very easy to defrost and throw together closer to when I’m ready to prepare the dish!
Stuffing is highly customizable and can be made with a variety of bread, meats, and seasonings. If you have any questions about substitutes or how to prepare stuffing with different ingredients, feel free to contact me on this page or on my Instagram!
Homemade Sulfite Free Sausage Stuffing
Ingredients
- 12 cups Diced homemade white bread
- 3 cups Chopped chicken sausage
- 3 sticks Unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp Onion powder
- 2 tbsp Poultry seasoning
- 1 tbsp Garlic salt
- 2 tsp Sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 and line a dish with parchment paper.
- In a large pan on the stove, melt two sticks of butter and mix in the chopped chicken sausage.
- Add the onion, poultry seasoning, and garlic salt into the melted butter and sausage and mix together. Cook for 5 minutes or until simmering.
- In a large bowl, mix together the bread and butter & sausage mix. Then pour the stuffing into the dish and spread evenly.
- Melt the remaining butter in a pan and mix in sea salt. Pour it evenly over the top of the stuffing dish and mix once more.
- Bake the stuffing for 30-35 minutes or until the top layer of bread begins to brown and crisp.
