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Our Sausage Dressing Recipe, or sausage stuffing if that’s what your family calls it, is the side dish of Thanksgiving. Seasoned bread cubes and bites of sausage all baked up into a crispy but creamy mixture of carby-goodness.
It’s The Thanksgiving Side You Just Really Need
I grew up eating Stove Top Stuffing from the canister and I’ll be honest – I’m not mad about it. I am embarrassingly in love with Stove Top and crave that nostalgic flavor even now.
But, then I met my husband, had Thanksgiving with his family, and got to enjoy his grandpa’s infamous sausage dressing recipe.
I don’t want to say that this is the best best thing to come out of marriage (we do have 2 children, after all), but I will say that it certainly makes the list.
Is this a traditional recipe? No, probably not. In fact, some of you are going to scoff and click away in disdain because – wait for it – the recipe calls for cream of chicken soup.
I’m sorry, please just trust me. It makes the most dense, crispy-edged, creamy-middle stuffing/dressing situation and I honestly can not get enough of it.
Not only do I fill my plate during Thanksgiving dinner, I also eat it cold straight from the fridge for breakfast on Black Friday.
It’s just really dang good, and that’s what I want out of a Thanksgiving side dish, you know?
3 Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe
- Simple ingredients. Everything you need is probably already in your pantry or fridge. No specialty store runs required or fancy ingredients.
- Make-ahead friendly. You can prep the bread the night before and even assemble the whole dish a day ahead. One less thing to worry about on Thanksgiving Day.
- Major crowd-pleaser. This is the kind of side dish that has people coming back for seconds. Savory, comforting, and packed with flavor.
Ingredient Notes:
Bread – You’ll need one loaf of white bread for this recipe. Stuffing cubes could also be used here but just try to get the same amount in weight so that the proportions all work out. My family does prefer this made with white bread.
Sausage – We’re using a sage flavored ground sausage. You’ll find this with the other breakfast sausage rolls.
Veggies – We use a classic combo of diced onion and celery.
Cream of Chicken Soup – I normally use my homemade cream of chicken soup for these types of recipes, but Grandpa used the canned stuff and that’s what I usually grab too in this instance. Cream of mushroom (or my homemade cream of mushroom soup) also works well in this dish.
Seasoning – Ground sage, poultry seasoning, and a nice sprinkle of salt round everything out.
How to Make Sausage Dressing:
Tear the bread into bite sized pieces and place in a 9×13 baking dish to toast until it is stale. Alternately do this the night before and leave it on the counter overnight.
Brown the sausage, onions, and celery until the sausage has cooked through. Do not drain the grease. Add the bread to a large bowl and pour the sausage and veggies over the top.
Add in the canned soup and seasonings and stir well to combine. You may need to add extra water or broth to get the mixture moist enough. Pour it into the 9×13 baking dish and smooth with a spoon. Top with more sage.
Sprerad into a 9×13 dish, cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and finish baking uncovered for 15 minutes or until it has browned on the top. Serve hot.
Serving Suggestions:
This sausage dressing recipe is an excellent Thanksgiving side dish but it can really be served any time of the year! I usually sneak it in a few times a year beyond Thanksgiving and it’s always met with happy surprise.
- Green Bean Casserole with Bacon
- Sweet Potato Casserole
- Roasted Sweet Potatoes
- Pumpkin Crunch Cake
- Cream Cheese Corn
- Chocolate Pecan Pie
Freezing & Storage Instructions
Refrigerator: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Freezer: This freezes beautifully. Let it cool completely, then wrap tightly in foil and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
Reheating: Warm in a 350°F oven covered with foil until heated through, about 20-25 minutes. You can also microwave individual portions and this method will keep your stuffing from drying out.
Recipe FAQs:
The ingredients for dressing and stuffing tend to be the same, but the method is different. Dressing is baked in a casserole dish and stuffing is stuffed inside a turkey.
We use regular white bread here that has been toasted or left out overnight to go stale. You can use stuffing cubes or other types of bread here too.
We like to use sage sausage for this recipe! If you’re not a big fan of the sage flavor you can definitely use a ground sausage that has different seasonings.
Sausage Dressing Recipe
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. Add in a 1/4-1/2 cup of water or broth, depending on how wet/dry the mixture is. It should be wet, but not soupy.
- Pour mixture into the 9×13 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.
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!
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!
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?
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! 😉
grace says
golly, this makes stovetop look like dryer lint. good work, karly. 🙂
Deborah says
Would you believe I just finished off some leftover dressing for lunch? Now I want some of yours!!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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!
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!