How Do I Make Turkey Stuffing?

Your memories of turkey and stuffing from your childhood, as well as your views about what constitutes a proper stuffing, will be largely dependent on where you grew up and where your family's roots are. For some people, stuffing is made of cornbread, for other wheat bread. For some, stuffing must contain sausage; for others, the crucial ingredient is onion. If you grew up on the east coast of the U.S., your stuffing may have contained oysters. If you grew up in Hawaii, it might have held pineapple. A basic onion and sage dressing is, however, common everywhere.

Step 1

Boil 4 cups of salted water. Add the chopped onions and simmer for 10 minutes.

Step 2

Mix the boiled onions, breadcrumbs, eggs, butter, salt, paprika and sage in a large bowl.

Step 3

Moisten the mixture with the stock. Do not add the full quart all at once. Add about a cup, and test the stuffing. It should be moist enough to hold together lightly when you pack a little bit into a ball. It should not be soggy. Keep adding stock until the stuffing is the right consistency.

Step 4

Stuff the turkey immediately with the stuffing, lightly packing the front and back cavities. The cavities should be full but not densely packed. Roast the turkey immediately.

Tips and Warnings

Stuffing that is too dry will result in a dry turkey. The dry bread will naturally want to absorb moisture, and if you have not provided enough moisture, it will absorb some from the turkey. Make sure to add enough stock before stuffing the bird.
Cooking stuffing in a separate casserole dish is safer than cooking it in the bird. If you want to stuff the bird, you are committed to making the stuffing right before you stuff the bird, using precooked ingredients and pasteurized eggs instead of raw, and roasting the bird immediate after stuffing. Any fudging on the safety rules can result in food-borne illness.