Best Sourdough Stuffing Recipe (Video)

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The best sourdough stuffing recipe starts with great sourdough bread combined with home canned chicken broth, and ends with garlic, onions and herbs fresh from the garden.  Sourdough stuffing is the perfect homestead recipe, because you can easily produce all of the ingredients yourself.  It’s very inexpensive and easy to make, and makes a great side dish for lots of meals all year long.  The reason for making stuffing with homemade sourdough bread is not only for the great taste, but for the health benefits!  Anything made with long fermented sourdough has a very low glycemic index and also very little gluten, making it easy for your body to digest.  No holiday table is complete without stuffing, especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and there’s no better way to make it than with sourdough bread.

The Lost Art Of Making Sourdough Bread

When you make artisan sourdough, you’re following in the footsteps of our ancestors as they made artisan sourdough bread around the fire with just the simple ingredients they had available.  Flour, water and salt is all that is needed to make this incredible gut healthy and life giving bread.  In the old days and during simpler times, bread was considered the staff of life, and was a part of every meal.  This was before commercial yeast was available, so the only way to make a risen loaf of bread was with sourdough. 

As I follow this traditional method of bread baking, I like to think of all the mothers and grandmothers during the homesteading days of this country who mixed up the daily loaf of bread before climbing aboard their covered wagon on their way to the homestead of their dreams.  They may have given it a quick stretch and fold when they stopped for lunch, and by the time they pitched camp for the night, the bread was ready for baking.  

This hands off, and flexible approach to bread making worked well for those women trying to keep their families fed while traveling to and building their homesteads.  Homesteading was a lot of work, unpredictable and challenging in those days just the same as it can be today.  Finding a simple and easy approach to making beautiful bread is what suits my busy homestead life today, and I think you’ll find that it’s flexibility suits your life as well.

Learn how to make your own sourdough starter.

How to make artisan sourdough bread.

My favorite soft sourdough sandwich bread recipe.

Why I Like Sourdough Stuffing

Flexibility

This recipe for sourdough bread stuffing is very flexible and can be made with whatever leftover bread you have on hand.  If you have a loaf of sourdough that doesn’t turn out very well, just cut it up and make it into stuffing and it’ll be wonderful!  If you don’t have chicken stock, use vegetable broth or whatever broth you have on hand.  Mix and match the herbs to find which flavors you like best.  Change it up and keep it simple, and your family will enjoy this nourishing food all year long.

Nutritious

Long fermented sourdough bread, nourishing homemade bone broth, and things from the garden make stuffing a gut healthy, and nutritious food to fill the hungry tummies around my table.

Easy

I can make this stuffing ahead of time and then bake when needed, or I can easily mix it up and bake it for any weeknight meal.  I typically have all of the ingredients on hand, and after you’ve made it a few times, you won’t even need to look at a recipe.  It’s also quick and easy to make on Thanksgiving morning and it just bakes in the oven right along everything else.

Homestead Approved

If I can easily make or grow all of the ingredients for a recipe on my own homestead, then I call it homestead approved!  This makes it a staple that I can add to our diet year round, and something I can make for pennies without going to the grocery store.  

The ingredients in sourdough stuffing are quite traditional and were available in the old-fashioned homestead days as well.  Back in those days before refrigeration, making stuffing was a good way to use up stale bread.  I’m sure there were a lot of times when stuffing graced the table at dinner time in days gone by.  It would always have been sourdough stuffing as well, because sourdough bread is the only kind of bread they made before commercial yeast became available in the 20th century.  It’s great not only for a Thanksgiving meal, but for lots of other meals as well.

Simple Ingredients

Sourdough Bread

My favorite sourdough bread for this stuffing recipe is my artisan sourdough bread.  It’s just a basic round boule of sourdough bread, and the tangy taste and chewy texture make perfect stuffing.  You can use whatever kind of bread you have on hand, or even save the heels of all your bread in the freezer and use them to make stuffing later on.

Butter 

We make all of our own raw butter from our Jersey cows, and it’s so delicious!  But use whatever butter or fat that you have.  Beef tallow, olive oil or coconut oil works well also.

Onions

We grow a lot of onions in our garden so we always have plenty for cooking.  Onions are super nutritious especially those that are organically grown in rich soil.

Garlic

We also grow a lot of garlic and we try to use it in as many recipes as we can.

Celery

Celery is really easy to grow, and I typically grow it for use in stuffing and fresh eating.  It’s also easy to dry and store for use in soups in the winter.  One less thing you’ll need to buy from the store.

Eggs

Farm fresh eggs are best, but use what you have. This will help the stuffing to stick together.

Herbs

My favorite herbs for sourdough stuffing are sage, thyme and rosemary, but feel free to add any herbs you like.  I like to use fresh herbs when available, but dried herbs work just as well.  You can purchase dried herbs in bulk from Azure Standard, and buy purchasing them this way you’ll save a lot of money at the grocery store.

Broth

I keep a lot of home canned chicken, turkey and beef broth in my homestead pantry for making soups and any other recipes that call for broth.  Chicken or turkey broth both work well in this recipe.

Salt

Redmond real salt from Azure Standard is my favorite, but any salt will work.

Black Pepper

I also purchase my black pepper in bulk from Azure Standard

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Tools You May Need

Cast iron skillet or other large skillet

Large Bowl

Cutting Board

Serrated kitchen knife

Wooden spoon

How To Make The Best Sourdough Stuffing

Make a loaf of sourdough bread.  I prefer the round artisan sourdough bread, and I usually make at least two loaves when I make a batch.  I keep an extra one in the freezer to pull out for a quick batch of garlic bread, bread crumbs or this homemade stuffing.  You can also save all of your ends and leftover pieces of bread in a bag in the freezer, and making stuffing is a great way to use them up.

Mix The Stuffing

Cut loaf of bread in half, and then slice into 1-inch cubes or tear into small pieces.

Place sourdough bread cubes in a 12” cast iron skillet or on a cookie sheet and toast in a 350 degree oven. I like to use my cast iron skillet for the entire stuffing making process, and then I only have to wash one pan.  If you’re in a hurry, you can toast the bread cubes in the oven on a rimmed baking sheet lined with a piece of parchment paper and use the cast iron skillet to cook the vegetable mixture at the same time, it’s up to you.

Place dried bread cubes in a large mixing bowl.

On a large cutting board, chop the onions, celery and garlic.

In a cast iron skillet over medium heat, saute onions and celery in fat until soft.  Towards the end of the cooking time, add in the garlic as it doesn’t take as long to cook.

Once the onions, celery and garlic are done cooking, add to the bread mixture in the bowl.  

Add herbs, salt and pepper and mix well.

Then add the broth to the stuffing mixture in the bowl and stir gently with a wooden spoon.  I suggest you start with 4 cups of broth. After it sits for a few minutes at room temperature, check to see how wet or dry the mixture is and if you think it needs more broth.  I like mine with just 4 cups of broth, but if you like a super soft stuffing, you may want to add a little more if your bread still seems really dry.

Bake

Place bread cube mixture into the same cast iron skillet you used for the onions and garlic (it should already be greased from cooking the veggies).  You could also bake this in a 9″ x 13″ casserole dish.  Be sure to grease it with a little butter first.

Bake uncovered in a 350 degree preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until it’s golden brown with a crispy top.  For a super moist stuffing, you can bake it covered with aluminum foil, but I prefer to bake it without.

Serve warm with sourdough gravy and mashed potatoes, or as the perfect addition for Thanksgiving dinner or almost any weeknight meal.

Leftover stuffing can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week in the refrigerator.

If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21 

Video

Scroll to minute 11:00 to see the stuffing being made

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