Sausage dressing, or sausage stuffing if that’s what your family calls it, is my favorite side dish at Thanksgiving each year. My family makes the perfect recipe and I’m happy to share it with you!
If you are anything like I was before I learned about sausage dressing, you might be asking if I’m about to share a salad dressing loaded with sausage here. I am not. Stick with me for a minute, please.
I am talking about bread, sausage, onions, and celery coming together to create the most perfect Thanksgiving side dish out there. Even better than mashed potatoes. Oh yes, I did just say that. Meant it, too.
My husband’s grandpa introduced sausage dressing (or sausage stuffing, if that’s what you call it) into my life 20 years ago and I don’t want to say it’s THE best thing to come out of our marriage, but I will say that it makes the list. And our marriage is amazing. We have children. We are happy. Life is good. I’m just saying that this sausage dressing is a major win.
This is pretty unlike most dressing and stuffing recipes that I see floating around the internet. There is no broth. There are no eggs. In fact, the recipe calls for cream of chicken or mushroom soup and I know that’s sort of scary for you, but please trust me. You don’t have to use cream of whatever soups all year long, but when it comes to Thanksgiving and this recipe, please just go with it. Good things happen.
My husband’s grandpa always made this with cream of mushroom, but I’m pretty anti-mushroom, so I make it with cream of chicken. You can do whichever you prefer.
And, don’t be alarmed, but it makes a great breakfast straight from the fridge on Black Friday. 😉
Serve this alongside my green bean casserole with bacon, slow cooker sweet potato casserole, or roasted sweet potatoes. For dessert, you have to try my pumpkin crunch cake!
Sausage Dressing
Ingredients
- 3/4 loaf white bread
- 1 pound sage flavored ground sausage
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced onion
- 26 ounce can cream of chicken soup
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Tear bread into bite sized pieces, place in 9×13 dish and put bread in oven to toast. Or, if you like to think ahead, just lay the bread out on a baking dish and leave it on the counter overnight. It'll be perfectly stale the next day and ready to use, no toasting required.
- Brown sausage, onions and celery until sausage has cooked through. Do not drain.
- Transfer sausage and vegetables to a large bowl and add soup. Mix well.
- Remove bread from oven and add bread pieces to the sausage mixture. Mix together well, making sure to get all of the bread coated in the soup mixture.
- Pour mixture into the 9x13 baking dish and smooth with the back of a spoon and sprinkle with sage.
- Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes or until browned.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition Information:
Becky says
I think it looks fantastic!! I LOVE dressing, it is my favorite side dish too. I will have to try this out before Thanksgiving…I can’t wait that long! I’ll bet it would be good with half cornbread cubes too. Though cornbread vs. regular bread is a personal decision to be sure. Thanks for sharing!
Patricia Herman says
Thanks for this recipe. I am going to try it out on my husband in the next week or two to see if he likes it. He has been searching high and low for a good sausage dressing recipe!
BTW love your site!
Simone (junglefrog) says
Certain foods are definitely better to eat then to look at! But still the picture does make me want to try it out so I guess mission accomplished!
Allison says
I am just now becoming a lover of ‘dressing’ 🙂 I am going to have to try this one. My mother-in-laws in hard to beat, according to my husband *sigh* so I am keeping my fingers crossed I can do it!
Joanne says
I admit that my first Thanksgiving as a food blogger, I was quite confused about what all this talk of dressing was about. But once I realized it was STUFFING. I fell quite in love. And was slightly less weirded out. (But I mean, food bloggers are a general rule are kind of weird. So only slightly.) I think this dressing looks marvelous! I might make it for lunch tomorrow. Not kidding.
Michelle says
I think it looks great. I make a Martha recipe for sausage and cornbread stuffing every Thanksgiving that we just love, with a capital L. 🙂 All those flavors are perfect together.
keri says
YUMMMMM! Dressing is way better than mashed potatoes…… um, unless they are Garlic mashed and then it’s close……
try this with Extra Sour Sourdough bread. Oh my!
CrustaBakes says
I guess this is one of those food thats hard to photograph yeah? But u did well, the picture is very well taken!
Barbara says
Yummy stuffing recipe, Karly!
You gotta forget the photos of some foods…..no matter what, they’re difficult. You did a good job. I go by the recipe….and this one sounds great.
Deborah says
Would you believe I just finished off some leftover dressing for lunch? Now I want some of yours!!
grace says
golly, this makes stovetop look like dryer lint. good work, karly. 🙂
nikki (Pennies on a Platter) says
Better than mashed potatoes!? Whaaa?? This must be REALLY good then! 🙂 Looks wonderful! I think you’re pic is great, even if you don’t! 😉
sharon says
My father’s semi-famous dressing is similar to this… I’ve been struggling with how to handle the cream of celery soup since I’ve acquired dairy issues. I can handle butter but no other dairy. What do you think the cream soup adds to the recipe? Creaminess? Saltiness? Or to bind things together? Would a roux added to the gizzard juice (gizzard’s boiled in a pressure cooker) be an acceptable subsitute? Anyone have ideas?
Carrie says
Hi,
Questions…. do you really mean 1 – 2 bunches of celery? or do you just mean stalks?
Would I just bake this in a bowl?? I’m a newbie!! 🙂
Thanks!
Carrie says
Well, we tried this – it wasn’t great at all! It was pretty greasy – and the flavor wasn’t wonderful!
Can’t win em all, I guess!
Lee says
Skip the soup- use chicken broth instead.
Use stale cornbread, not white bread.
Use more sage.
Add a box of Stovetop Mix- Cornbread Style- made according to directions. Makes the dish more familiar to American palates.
DO NOT STUFF IN BIRD, cook in separate pan.
Pam says
Karly,
My mother-in-law passed away this year, and with her, she took her recipe for a dressing almost exactly like this. It was my husband’s favorite, and I so desperately wanted to make it for him. My father-in-law sent me an email with the ingredients (and a guess at the amounts) that he knew were in it from 50+ years of seeing her make it, but his perceived proportions seemed a little off to me. So I googled “sausage cream of mushroom bread stuffing” and found your site. I prepared it for Christmas & my husband said it was perfect. I just wanted to let you know how much it meant to him & to me. I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!
Blessings,
Pam
Karly says
Hi Pam,
Thank you so much for sharing. <3 I'm so glad that you were able to make this for your husband. Hope you had a wonderful holiday.
Maggie Martin says
NOT a dressing/stuffing fan at all but my daughter-in-law’s mom made a sausage stuffing for her Pork Crown Roast that was amazing. Unfortunately we lost her 18 months ago, miss her always.
Will give this a try and see how far we can take it. Thanks Karly
Maggie
Karly says
Oh, I’m sorry to hear of your loss. I hope this sausage dressing brings a smile to your daughter in law. 🙂
Julia Carter says
Oh darlin’ you’re close. Try adding some apple cubes to it. I don’t quite make this grandpas way but it has the celery, onions and bread. The cubed apples put a special twist to it, especially if you get bold and use Granny Smith apples. This year I’m using Honey Crisp. You’re right though, sausage dressing is da’ bomb!
Liz says
I made the sausage stuffing and slightly salty to taste…any suggestions?
Karly says
Hi Liz! Sorry you found this too salty. You could use reduced-sodium cream of chicken next time. That and the sausage are the only things with salt, so it’ll be coming from one of these. We use Campbell’s and Jimmy Dean and never find it too salty.