Side dishes · Stuffing & dressings

Classic bread stuffing

Name: Classic bread stuffing
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 65 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 1 large loaf white bread, cubed and dried overnight; 6 tbsp butter; 1 large yellow onions, diced; 4 stalks celery, diced; 2 cups chicken broth; 2 egg, beaten; a handful fresh parsley, chopped; 1 1/2 tsp dried sage; 1 tsp dried thyme; 3/4 tsp salt; 1 tsp black pepper

The side that quietly outsells the bird it is served with: dried bread, butter, onion and celery bound with stock and sage. Baked in a dish rather than in the cavity, which is both safer and crisper.

Time: 65 min (20 prep + 45 cook)
Servings: 8
Per serving: 259 kcal
Protein: 7 g

Ingredients

1 large loaf white bread, cubed and dried overnight400 g
6 tbsp butter85 g
1 large yellow onions, diced200 g
4 stalks celery, diced150 g
2 cups chicken broth500 g
2 egg, beaten100 g
a handful fresh parsley, chopped10 g
1 1/2 tsp dried sage3 g
1 tsp dried thyme2 g
3/4 tsp salt4 g
1 tsp black pepper2 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Heat the oven to 175°C (350°F). The bread must be properly stale — cubes left out overnight, or dried 15 minutes in the oven. Fresh bread turns to paste.
Melt the butter and cook the onion and celery gently for 8–10 minutes until soft but not coloured. Stir in the sage, thyme, salt and pepper.
Pour the vegetables and butter over the bread cubes and toss, then add the broth a ladle at a time until the bread is damp all through but not swimming.
Fold in the beaten egg and parsley — the egg is what holds the whole thing together as it bakes.
Bake covered 25 minutes, then uncovered 15–20 minutes until the top is crisp and browned.

Can I make it ahead?

Assemble it a day ahead and refrigerate unbaked, then add 10 minutes to the covered time. Do not bake it twice; reheated stuffing dries from the middle out.

Vegetarian?

Swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth one-for-one. Nothing else changes.

Why this score

easy to overeat

Dense calories with little protein, volume or fiber to fill you up.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

11% of kcal

67% water

10 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

10%

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2072 kcal goes into the pot, 1456 g of ingredients comes out as ~1250 g of food → 166 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 166
Protein: (11%); 4 g
Fat: (42%); 8 g
Carbohydrates: (48%); 20 g
of which sugar: 3 g
Fiber: 2 g
Sodium: 511 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.