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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, sweet potato casserole, or roasted sweet potatoes. For dessert, you have to try my pumpkin crunch cake!
Sausage Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 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 teaspoon ground sage
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- water or broth as needed
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 the grease.
- Add the torn bread to a very large bowl and pour the sausage and vegetables over the top. Add the canned soup, sage, salt, and poultry seasoning and stir well to combine.
- The mixture should be very moist. We'll sometimes add in a 1/4-1/2 cup of water or broth, depending on how wet/dry the mixture is. If you like your stuffing extra moist, add liquid. If you like it more firm, leave it out.
- 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 on top.
- Serve hot.
BARBARA L STEIBER says
This sounds delicious. I have plain “country” sausage available-any suggestions on how much sage seasoning to add? Thanks
Karly Campbell says
I’d add around a teaspoon of dried sage and then taste and add more if you think it needs it. 🙂
sheila doiron says
where can you buy a 26 0z can of soup
,or, is it an error
Karly says
The generic store brand is often 26 ounces. You can also buy 3 smaller cans and just use 2 1/2 of them. 🙂
Linda Phillips says
What size loaf of bread are you using? They seem to all be different .
Karly says
Around 20 ounces. 🙂
joy says
my Grandmas recipe is similar. we use apples ? as well and turkey stock in place of chicken soup. love it!
Teresa says
My family uses a similar recipe but we include seasoned pork sausage (sold in a roll), mashed potatoes and chicken broth plus an egg or two (depends on how much stuffing You are making) plus onions and seasoning -we stuff it in the cavity at both ends and roast for the appropriate time based on the weight of the bird which gives it more flavor and baste the bird while it cooks – covered with lid or foil & remove for the last hour so the skin browns.
Karly says
Sounds delicious!
Teresa says
It is very good – my grandfather developed the recipe when he worked as a cook in a mining camp, we don’t have a specific recipe and I forgot to include chicken broth to moisten the dressing as it shouldn’t be dry, you can use low sodium broth and additional spices – sage, etc.
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.
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!
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. 🙂
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.
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.